Title - Arcadia
Director -
Paul Wright
Publisher -
BFI
Format - DVD
Year - 2017
Original Cost – Unknown
-o-
I’ve known about this film for a while but only
watched it this weekend. Its not
especially old but it is made from old things.
The soundtrack is modern but remains wholly appropriate. And it’s certainly not meant to be coherent
but there is a structure and it makes its points by drawing you along and
letting you confirm them for yourself.
In its construction it is simply 78 minutes of archival footage from over one hundred years of film. Its themes are the English Countryside and our ongoing relationship with it. And it explores how our national identity grew from the rural idyll of artistry, husbandry and tradition but counterpoints it with the exploration of the folk horror of blood, soil and ritual. It is both England’s Dreaming and its nightmare presented just as one might experience those nocturnal picture shows.
-o-
This wasn’t planned to be the next blogpost, but it fits
in quite nicely between Raggety and where we are going next. Within his film Paul Wright, with the musical
shadowing’s of Adrian Utley and Will Gregory, has captured the echo and bottled
it for all its children to experience.
If you haven’t yet, then you probably should.
Steve
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