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Documentary, public information film, morale booster; propaganda film - these
are descriptions that could be applied to many of the 10 to 20 minute shorts
that flourished and reached a peak of expression in the 1930s and '40s. Humphrey
Jennings' films covered the whole of the Second World War in Britain. His quiet,
emotive style produced some of the most memorable film images of the War; those
from London Can Take It (1940), Listen To Britain (1942) and Fires Were Started
(1943) being of particular note. Those titles, for the GPO and Crown Film Unit,
were American funded and were equally for American and British release.
Listen To Britain's title might suggest a strong sound element. There are the
very recognisable sounds that one might expect in a wartime film: the evocative
thunder of the 1000 horse power Rolls Royce Merlin engines of Spitfires and
Lancasters, the cacophony of wartime heavy industry - tank factories, steel
works, steam trains - but also the sounds of music; the egalitarian free
classical music concerts, and radio; Workers' Play Time, Flanagan and Allen
performing live at a lunchtime factory concert.
But it is the images, particularly the studies of people, that are the real
star. The gaunt, tired faces in this most desperate part of the war seem only
slightly aware that Jennings' camera is there. In a factory, a young woman
handles heavy precision metal drilling/cutting machinery, almost in a trance,
her body and hands skilfully heaving the heavy equipment into precise position.
At a concert, another young woman, standing against the wall alone, stares
through or past the camera. She is defiant, self assured, independent. We know
with hindsight that in the comparative austerity and repression of the immediate
postwar period, women would not enjoy the same limited equalities, liberty and
sexual freedom that they did in the war (see, for example, Brief Encounter, d.
David Lean, 1945).
The editing in Listen To Britain is trademark Jennings: simple comparisons
between scenes from everyday life and the manic, unreal struggle of the war
effort.
Ewan Davidson *This film is included in the BFI DVD compilation 'Land of Promise: The British Documentary Movement 1930-1950'.
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1. Ballroom (1:23)
