Skip to main content

A Visit to The New BFI

I am just back from paying a visit to the reopened British Film Institute. The space neighbouring the National Film Theatre under Waterloo Bridge which used to house the Museum of the Moving Image which closed in 1999. Ever since the space had remained unusued. Until last week that is, when it reopened, having been revamped. The space now houses the Foyer of the NFT together with a bookshop, a cafe (with free wifi), a gallery and a Mediatheque.

The last area is where I wandered not really sure what I would find there. I booked 15 minutes with a screen, a mouse and a keyboard in one of the small booths dotting the space. A nice assistant gave me a number and I logged in and started trawling around the list of films on offer.

I watched a few seconds of an episode of Little Brittain and a short silent film shot arround Old Street in the 1920's and showing a pub called the London Apprentice which apparently became one of the most famous gay pubs of the capital. However, I quickly found and switched to The London Nobody Knows. A 1967 wander around uncongruous parts of London, guided by James Mason. We go from the derilict Bedford Theatre in Camden Town to several markets or a cottage (public toilet) in Holborn. We stop for a bit at one of the Manze's restaurants before heading for some unknown cemetery before having tea with destitute people in a Salvation Army hostel. There is also an interview with two buskers and a scene in riverside egg cracking factory. People seem to think this scene rather wierd but I actually found it really funny if rather out of tone with the rest of the film which is based on a book of the same title by Geoffrey Fletcher. I have spotted a similar "programme" with Kenneth Williams, which should be interesting.

By then I had had to go and ask the assistant for another session. You can book between 15min to 2 hours at a time. This time I asked for 2 hours.

THe nest short film, I viewed was Finisterre; a 2003 film inspired by The London Nobody Knows and produced as a substitute to video clips for St Etienne's latest album: Finisterre. This is a more arty love letter to London but I found myself well up at several point (particularly during the segment on rain in the city).

I then watched a 10 min film called The Elephant Will Never Forget and shot during the last week in which Tram were in circulation between Westminster and New Cross via the Elephant and Castle. The last tram was retired (and presumably burnt, like the others!) on 5 July 1953.

Finally, after watching a 1935 short, called Colours on the Thames (yes, it was in colour), I watched Borderline, a 4 min 2005 film collage of bits of London buildings, creating a new but recognisable landscape, and a few seconds of the rush hour on Blackfriars' Bridge in the 1890's...

Reading this, one may think that only short films are available but they also have feature films at hand.

I have to say that I am not particularly impressed by the interface used to view the films. It is rather slow to respond (particularly when you ask it to pause or move forward or backward) and it doesn't tell you how far you have gone in whatever you are viewing. The search engine could also be better. The space of the mediatheque itself is ok but could have been designed better, I think. More isolation between each booths and certainly more confortable seating would be an improvement. It would also be good to be able to find online or some sort of catalogue what material is available, before a visit.

The experience however is free and the wealth of information and films available (presumably to be extended as time goes by) means that I will certainly be back.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Short History of the Elephant and Castle and Its Name

Last night I attended a lecture by local historian Stephen Humphrey who discussed the general history of the Elephant & Castle, focussing more particularly on what he called its heyday (between 1850 and 1940). This is part of a week-long art project ( The Elephant Project ) hosted in an empty unit on the first floor of the infamous shopping centre, aiming to chart some of the changes currently happening to the area. When an historian starts talking about the Elephant and Castle, there is one subject he can not possibly avoid, even if he wanted to. Indeed my unsuspecting announcement on Facebook that I was attending such talk prompted a few people to ask the dreaded question: Where does the name of the area come from, for realz? Panoramic view of the Elephant and Castle around 1960/61. Those of us less badly informed than the rest have long discarded the theory that the name comes from the linguistic deformation of "Infanta de Castille", a name which would have become at

Rev. Peter Mullen's Blog

Rev. Peter Mullen is the chaplain to the London Stock Exchange and the rector of St Michael's Cornhill and St Sepulchre without Newgate in the City. Rev. Peter Mullen was also until recently a blogger. Sadly the result of his cyber labour seem to have been deleted but Google has thankfully cached some of it and I have saved a copy for posterity, just in case. The deletion of Rev. Mullen's writings might just have something to do with the fact that last week, the Evening Standard and then the Daily Mail published an article (the same article actually) about some of those very writings (even though the elements of said writings being quoted had been published in June this year, at the time of the blessing ceremony which took place between two members of the Church of England in St Bartholomew the Great - picture ). In the article, we learned what the Rev. thinks about gay people and what should be done to them: We ["Religious believers"] disapprove of homosexuality

Liam Messam and Tamati Ellison Swap Jerseys

I am having a bit of a vacuous evening looking at images of pretty rugby players. Addidas, with its latest viral campaign, Jersey Swap , seems to be squarely aiming at the gay market with a selection of five antipodean rugby players, visitor to the website can select and see take their tops off and... well... swap jersey (those interested can create posters too). My favorites of the bunch are Liam Messam and Tamati Ellison . The pictures of their pretty faces and bulging naked torsos (excuse me while I sit down for a second!) included to this post should tell you why. A job well done for Addidas. This will go round the Internet for a while, I think.