Small-Gauge Storytelling: Discovering the Amateur Fiction Film

319 Pages·2013·6.01 MB·English

by  Ryan Shand

S
M
A
L
S M A L L- G A U G E
L
-
G
A
U
G STO RY TE L L I N G
E

S
T
O
R
Y
T
E
L
L
I
N
G
E
D
I
AT
NE
DD
I B
AY
N
R
CY
RA
AN
V S DISCOVERING THE AMATEUR FICTION FILM
E
H
N
A
Jacket image: TBC N
Jacket design: www.paulsmithdesign.com ISBN 978-0-7486-5634-9 D

EDITED BY RYAN SHAND AND IAN CRAVEN
www.euppublishing.com
small-­gauge­storytelling
Andy Jarvis:Users:AndysiMac:Public:ANDY'S IMAC JOBS:13950 - EUP - SHAND:SHAND 9780748656349 PRINT
small-­­gauge­storytelling
Discovering­the­amateur­Fiction­Film
edited­by­ryan­shand­and­ian­Craven
Andy Jarvis:Users:AndysiMac:Public:ANDY'S IMAC JOBS:13950 - EUP - SHAND:SHAND 9780748656349 PRINT
© the chapters their several authors, 2013
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LF
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in 10/12.5 pt Sabon
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 5634 9 (hardback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 5635 6 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 0 7486 5637 0 (epub)
The right of the contributors
to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction: Ambitions and Arguments – Exploring Amateur
Cinema through Fiction 1
Ryan Shand
Part I: Framing Fiction
1 Historical, Aesthetic, Cultural: The Problematical Value of
Amateur Cine Fiction 33
Guy Edmonds
2 Sewell, Rose and the Aesthetics of Amateur Cine Fiction 55
Ian Craven
3 Crafting Life into Film: Analysing Family Fiction Films from the
1930s 83
Martina Roepke
4 Framing the Welfare State: Swedish Amateur Fiction Film 1930 to
1965 102
Mats Jönsson
Part II: Studio Sensibilities
5 Occupying a Distinguished but Lonely Place in the Amateur
Movement: Ace Movies 1929 to 1964 125
Francis Dyson
6 ‘High Art’ Locally: The Screen Adaptations of IuG- Film 144
Maria Vinogradova
Andy Jarvis:Users:AndysiMac:Public:ANDY'S IMAC JOBS:13950 - EUP - SHAND:SHAND 9780748656349 PRINT
small-gauge storytelling
7 Brazilian Amateur Cinema and Fictional Films from Foto- Cine
Clube Gaúcho 164
Lila Foster
Part III: Single-M inded Scenarios
8 ‘This is not Hollywood!’: Peter Watkins and the Challenge of
Amateurism to the Professional 183
John R. Cook
9 ‘Start as You Mean to Go On’: Ken Russell’s Early Amateur Films 201
Brian Hoyle
10 The Nocturnal Affairs of Mr Miletic: Authorship, Genre and
Cine- Amateurism in Yugoslavia 221
Greg DeCuir, Jr
Part IV: Genres and Genericity
11 The Aesthetic of the Possible: The Green Cockatoo as Bricolage of
Heterogeneous Traditions 243
Siegfried Mattl and Vrääth Öhner
12 The Fragile Magic of the Home: Amateur Domestic Comedies and
the Intimate Geography of Childhood 260
Karen Lury
13 The Spence Brothers: Amateur Sci-F i and Cine Culture in Northern
Ireland 278
Ciara Chambers
Notes on Contributors 298
Index 302
­vi
list­oF­illustrations
I.1 Promotional image from Coming Shortly (Tony Rose and
Christopher Barry, 1954), from Movie Maker Presents the Ten
Best Amateur Films of 1976 competition programme (author’s
collection). 5
I.2 Frame enlargement from Winner Takes All (Billy Rae, 1968)
(Scottish Screen Archive). 8
I.3 Frame enlargement from Winner Takes All (Billy Rae, 1968)
(Scottish Screen Archive). 10
I.4 Frame enlargement from Winner Takes All (Billy Rae, 1968)
(Scottish Screen Archive). 11
1.1 Frame enlargement from Remember (Ray Papaia, 1977) (author’s
collection). 41
1.2 Frame enlargement from Io Bacchoi (Oh, Bacchantes, Lennaert
Nijgh, 1964) (EYE Film Institute, Netherlands). 47
1.3 Frame enlargement from Ze Komen (They are Coming, Gé Aarts,
1969) (EYE Film Institute, Netherlands). 48
1.4 Frame enlargement from Drama in de Wildernis (Drama in
the Wildernis, A. G. Jurgens, 1930–1) (EYE Film Institute,
Netherlands). 49
2.1 Advertisement for the Eumig C16 camera, Amateur Movie
Maker, Vol. 1, No. 7, 1958, p. 182 (author’s collection). 59
2.2 Summary illustration from Tony Rose, ‘Three men and a
camera’, Amateur Movie Maker, Vol. 1, No. 12, 1958, p. 467
(author’s collection). 63
2.3 Frame enlargement from Petrol (Enrico Cocozza, 1957) (Scottish
Screen Archive). 74
2.4 Frame enlargement from Petrol (Enrico Cocozza, 1957) (Scottish
Screen Archive). 75
3.1 Instructional illustration from Hermann Lummerzheim, Das
Agfa- Schmalfilm- Handbuch (Harzburg: Dr Walter Heering
Verlag, 1935), p. 14. 85
vii
Andy Jarvis:Users:AndysiMac:Public:ANDY'S IMAC JOBS:13950 - EUP - SHAND:SHAND 9780748656349 PRINT
small-gauge storytelling
3.2 Leaflet advertisement for the Siemens- Heimkinoprojektor,
c. 1934. 89
3.3 Cover image for Alex Strasser, Mit Kind und Kegel vor der
Kamera (Halle/Saale: Wilhelm Knapp, 1932). 93
3.4 Illustration from Alex Strasser, Mit Kind und Kegel vor der
Kamera (Halle/Saale: Wilhelm Knapp, 1932), p. 107. 94
4.1 Newspaper illustration from Svenska Dagbladet, 11 February
1964, picturing Eskell with ‘The White Doe’ – a reward
obtained for small- gauge filmmaking in the early 1960s. 103
4.2 Advertisements, from the Swedish film journal FOTO, Vol. 1,
No. 3 (1939), p. 10. 109
4.3 Magazine cover from the Swedish film journal FOTO, Vol. 1,
No. 3 (1939). 113
4.4 Frame enlargement from Depressed (Mauno Eskell, 1960)
(Grängesberg Film Archive, National Library of Sweden). 115
5.1 Awards ceremony illustration, Home Movies and Home Talkies,
Vol. 9, No. 1 (1940), p. 3. 127
5.2 Club photograph of the Ace film Marionettes (1948) in
production in their Wimbledon studio, c. 1939, Home Movies
and Home Talkies, Vol. 8, No. 4 (1939), p. 154. 132
5.3 Club photograph of the Ace Movies studio in Barnes, London,
in 1959, Amateur Movie Maker, Vol. 2, No. 7 (1959),
pp. 344–5. 135
5.4 Club photograph of sets constructed for the Ace Movies
production, The Miracle (1939), Amateur Cine World, Vol. 5,
No. 5 (1938), p. 236. 139
6.1 Illustration of Grishin’s Cinematograph (author’s collection). 148
6.2 Frame enlargement from Tsvety Zapozdalye (Belated Flowers,
1968) (digital capture by Maria Vinogradova). 152
6.3 Frame enlargement from Polinka Saks (1972) (digital capture by
Maria Vinogradova). 153
6.4 Frame enlargement from Mozart and Salieri (Mozart i Salieri,
1995) (digital capture by Maria Vinogradova). 154
7.1 Frame enlargement from Guerra e Paz (War and Peace, Nelson
Furtado, 1959) (Cinemateca Capitólio, Porto Alegre). 173
7.2 Frame enlargement from Guerra e Paz (War and Peace, Nelson
Furtado, 1959) (Cinemateca Capitólio, Porto Alegre). 174
7.3 Frame enlargement from O Caso da Joalheria (The Jewellery
Store Robbery, João Carlos Caldasso, 1960) (Cinemateca
Capitól, Porto Alegre). 175
7.4 Frame enlargement from O Padre Nu (The Naked Priest, João
Carlos Caldasso, 1962) (Cinemateca Capitólio, Porto Alegre). 177
8.1 Production still from The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1965)
(Peter Watkins Archive). 185
­viii
list of illustrations
8.2 Production still from Dust Fever (Peter Watkins, 1962) (Peter
Watkins Archive). 190
8.3 Production still from Diary of an Unkown Soldier (Peter
Watkins, 1959) (Peter Watkins Archive). 191
8.4 Production still from The Forgotten Faces (Peter Watkins, 1961)
(Peter Watkins Archive). 194
9.1 Front cover of Movie Maker featuring Russell’s The Boyfriend,
Vol. 6, No. 4 (April 1972). 202
9.2 Advertisement for the Canon Super-8 518 Camera, Movie
Maker, Vol. 6, No. 8 (August 1972), p. 563. 204
9.3 Production still from Amelia and the Angel (Ken Russell, 1958)
(British Film Institute Collections). 209
9.4 Production still from Amelia and the Angel (Ken Russell, 1958)
(British Film Institute Collections). 212
10.1 Miletic pictured in 1948 (Croatian State Archives/Croatian
Kinoteka). 224
10.2 Production still, with Miletic working for Zora Film in the
1935–40 era (Croatian State Archives/Croatian Kinoteka). 226
10.3 Miletic’s diploma from the Third International Amateur Film
Competition held in Paris, 1933 (Croatian State Archives/
Croatian Kinoteka). 234
10.4 Miletic’s 1936 Venice Biennale diploma (Croatian State Archives/
Croatian Kinoteka). 236
11.1 Frame enlargement from Der grüne Kakadu (The Green
Cockatoo, Franz Hohenberger, 1929) (Austrian Film Museum). 244
11.2 Frame enlargement from Der grüne Kakadu (The Green
Cockatoo, Franz Hohenberger, 1929) (Austrian Film Museum). 246
11.3 Frame enlargement from Der grüne Kakadu (The Green
Cockatoo, Franz Hohenberger, 1929) (Austrian Film Museum). 251
11.4 Frame enlargement from Der grüne Kakadu (The Green
Cockatoo, Franz Hohenberger Franz Hohenberger, 1929)
(Austrian Film Museum). 254
12.1 Frame enlargement from Early Birds (Frank Marshall, 1956)
(Scottish Screen Archive). 263
12.2 Frame enlargement from What A Night! (Frank Marshall, 1939)
(Scottish Screen Archive). 264
12.3 Frame enlargement from Early Birds (Frank Marshall, 1956)
(Scottish Screen Archive). 268
12.4 Frame enlargement from What a Night! (Frank Marshall, 1939)
(Scottish Screen Archive). 273
13.1 Contemporary image of Noel Spence’s ‘Tudor’ cinema, Comber,
Co. Down (Kasandra O’Connell Collection). 280
13.2 Contemporary image of Roy Spence’s Excelsior Cinema,
Comber, Co. Down (Kasandra O’Connell Collection). 283
ix