 |
| Maurice Elvey: Hindle Wakes (GB 1927). John Stuart (Allan Jeffcote), Humberston Wright (Chris Hawthorn), Peggy Carlisle (Mary Hollins), Estelle Brody (Fanny Hawthorn). Photo: BFI, London. |
Evento del mercoledì / Mid-Week Event
HINDLE WAKES (GB 1927) regia/dir: Maurice Elvey. scen: Victor Saville, dall’omonima pièce di/based on the play by Stanley Houghton (17.6.1912, Aldwych Theatre, London, the Stage Society; 16.7.1912, Playhouse, London). photog: William Shenton, Jack Cox, [Basil Emmott]. supv. mont./ed: V. Gareth Gundrey. scg/des: Andrew L. Mazzei.
cast: Estelle Brody (Fanny Hawthorn), John Stuart (Allan Jeffcote), Norman McKinnel (Nathaniel Jeffcote), Humberstone Wright (Chris Hawthorn), Marie Ault (Mrs. Hawthorn), Irene Rooke (Mrs. Jeffcote), Peggy Carlisle (Mary Hollins), B. Graham Soutten (Mr. Hollins), Arthur Chesney (Sir Timothy Farrar), Gladys Jennings (Beatrice / Betty Farrar), Jack Rowal (George Ramsbottom), Alf Goddard (Nobby), Cyril McLaglen (Alf).
trade show: 4.2.1927. première: 3.3.1927 (New Gallery Kinema, London). prod: Gaumont-British Picture Corporation.
Unreleased in Finland. All four film adaptations seem unreleased in Finland. Neither has Stanley Houghton's play been produced in Finland.
copia/copy: 35 mm, 8,682 ft, 116' (20 fps); did./titles: ENG. fonte/source: BFI National Archive, London.
Score composed and conducted by Maud Nelissen; performed by Daphne Balvers (sax), Lucio Degani (violino/violin), Francesco Ferrarini (violoncello), Maud Nelissen (piano), Rombout Stoffers (percussioni/percussions).
The composition was commissioned in 2019 on the occasion of Remake. Frankfurter Frauen Film Tage by Kinothek Asta Nielsen and made possible by the generous support of the Bareva Foundation.
Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM): Special Events, Wednesday, 11 Oct 2023
Bryony Dixon (GCM 2023): " For one week every year the workers from the Lancashire town of Hindle leave the daily grind of the cotton mills and give themselves up to hectic holidaymaking, known locally as the “Wakes”. Breathtaking scenes at Blackpool’s seaside resort take us on a literal and emotional rollercoaster. Adapted from Stanley Houghton’s trailblazing social play – a classic of the “Manchester School” – about the tensions between generation and class, it creates a role model in Fanny Hawthorn, who refuses to comply with the hypocrisies of her parents and employers concerning her holiday romance with the mill owner’s son. "
" In Maurice Elvey’s film version of Houghton’s play, released in 1927, our “thoroughly-modern” mill girl might chime with our preconceptions about the “New Woman” post-WWI and the shift in attitudes after women got the vote (although working mill girls wouldn’t have qualified to vote at that time). But we’d be completely wrong. Houghton’s play was written in 1910 before any of these things happened. Elvey made the first film adaptation for Samuelson’s in 1918. This is long lost, but Elvey liked it enough to want to remake it. He told historian Denis Gifford he thought it was “a really great play; it is really about something” and demonstrated that cinema could be a force for social progress. He and Victor Saville added the holiday scenes, only referred to in the past tense in the play. With healthier post-war budgets he made it his masterpiece, with exterior scenes shot at Monton Mill near Salford, on Blackpool Pleasure Beach, in the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool, and on the Welsh coast at Llandudno. C. A. Lejeune thought that for the first time in his career Elvey showed “a bit of kinematic genius”. "
" Viewers today will appreciate the fabulous whirlwind of the Blackpool trip. Uncredited cameraman Basil Emmott tied himself on to the carriage of the scenic railway to get fabulous point-of-view shots and 6,000 people turned up at the Tower Ballroom to be f ilmed as a dancing throng. The second half of the drama is more staid and claustrophobic, but this is integral to the atmosphere of the story, as the young people have to own up to the life-changing consequences of their all-too-brief taste of freedom. We see them full of life and fun and love, then in the dreary and oppressive setting of home as the moralistic parents and paternalistic employers conspire to sweep the potential scandal under a carpet of respectability. We’ve seen this story a thousand times before, but the denouement when it comes is almost as shocking as it must have been for playgoers in 1912. Despite the controversy it caused then, it became a classic feminist work of the mainstream, adapted repeatedly as film and television drama in 1918, 1927, 1932, 1950, 1952, and 1976. "
" Various incomplete prints of Hindle Wakes have been deposited with BFI National Archive over the decades; the longest is a print acquired in 1973. Although this is not a restoration – it has plenty of wear and tear – it is a new print from the preservation dupe negative, very near to the complete advertised release length. One day we hope to add back its original tints and tones. " – Bryony Dixon
The music
Maud Nelissen (GCM 2023): " In the spring of 2019 I received an inspiring invitation from the Kinothek Asta Nielsen to compose a new music score for Maurice Elvey’s Hindle Wakes. This film is truly remarkable, not only for the humanity and sensitivity of all the performances, but also for Elvey’s spectacular location shooting in a Northern textile factory and the fun-fair ambience of Blackpool. "
" The challenge has been for me to compose music which not only enhances the vibrancy of the exuberant first part of the film, but is also able to support the deeper psychological layers of the second part. To get closer to the essence of the story, I went to Blackpool where the film was shot. I visited the cotton mills in Burnley, went by train (as in the film) to Blackpool, slept, like Fanny, in a former boarding house, went to the Pleasure Beach to have an absolutely horrifying ride on the still existing “Big Dipper” rollercoaster, and spent quality time watching people dance at the impressive Blackpool Tower Ballroom. I also interviewed several Lancashire men and women to try to understand the virtues and values of the “working class”. The working class in Great Britain is something totally different from the Dutch equivalent, so therefore I needed to learn more. For the musical line-up I opted for a classical “Piano trio setting”: Violin, Cello, and Piano, combined with Soprano / Alto Saxophone and Percussion and Accordion. This variety of instruments enables me to change quickly between the more worldly (modern) scenes and the intimate scenes with dramatic depth. " – Maud Nelissen
AA: According to my informal poll, the film concert Hindle Wakes was the greatest favourite at this year's Giornate. Both the immediate reception and the reverberation on the following days were exceptionally warm.
There was also an element of bemused surprise. Hindle Wakes is not an unknown or forgotten film, but for decades it seems to have been hiding in plain sight. Even British colleagues seemed amazed to discover the true distinction of Hindle Wakes here.
The last time Hindle Wakes was screened in Pordenone (in the Maurice Elvey retrospective of 1997), I missed it, instead visiting a simultaneous screening of Kevin McDonald's Howard Hawks documentary.
In 1997, the 35 mm print was 8658 ft / 2637 m, 96 minutes at 24 fps. Today, the print was 8682 ft / 2645 m, practically the same, but the projection speed was slowed down to 20 fps. It looked fine. At times it could have run faster.
The Hindle Wakes discovery reminds me of the screening of State Fair (1933) in Bologna's Henry King retrospective four years ago, another movie that everybody was aware of but few had seen. Both take place at an exciting annual event, life-changing for the young protagonists. Both are often filmed subjects based on popular properties, but only one adaptation is exceptional.
Hindle Wakes is a tender and realistic saga of the éducation sentimentale of Fanny Hawthorn (Estelle Brody). It is an ensemble piece focusing on two families (upper class, working class) and a portrait of life in Greater Manchester, Lancashire, dominated by textile industry.
The subject could be handled as melodrama, but Hindle Wakes is anti-melodrama. It could be a story of "seduced and abandoned", but the greatest surprise and the most gratifying reward is how beautifully and consistently it defies stereotypes.
The play is subtle and sophisticated, and in Maurice Elvey's direction, the performances do justice to nuance and complexity. From the beginning to the end, the film is full of life. It starts with a journey, the extroverted part, and ends as a chamber play, in interiority. But it keeps growing in intensity, and it keeps growing in the viewer's mind long after the screening.
There is no seduction, nor abandonment. What Fanny and Allan experience, both want. It is neither Liebe nor Liebelei. But it is beautiful, a mutual pleasure. The parents are scandalized. Fanny and Allan refuse to participate in scandal. They separate as friends.
Allan is set for a marriage of convenience with Beatrice (Betty), for their parents, "the marriage of the two biggest mills of Lancashire". But Allan and Betty also love each other.
Fanny's father is a classic example of the deferential worker, but Fanny belongs to a new generation of modern women. She leaves home and the oppressive rule of mother.
Hindle Wakes has been impressively shot on location in Lancashire (Monton Mills, Blackpool) and Wales (the love paradise of Fanny and Allan in Llandudno). The dance sequence at the legendary Tower Ballroom is epic.
Personally, there is something fondly familiar to me here. In two periods, I grew up in the city of Tampere, also known as "the Manchester of Finland" or "Manse", and I wrote my master's thesis on the history of Tampere. Fanny Hawthorn as played by Estelle Brody evokes the formidable women of the Tampere textile mills. In Finland's Civil War in 1918 they were the most fearless fighters for freedom, equality and justice.
The score by Maud Nelissen is tender and lyrical, with pastoral passages and train ride music. The orchestra played it with full and resonant love.
No comments:
Post a Comment