Product Details

• Actors: Lindsay Duncan, Timothy Spall, Liam Cunningham, Billie Whitelaw, Emilia Fox
• Directors: Stephen Poliakoff
• Writers: Stephen Poliakoff
• Producers: Helen Flint, John Chapman, Peter Fincham, Simon Curtis
• Format: PAL
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: Unrated
• Run Time: 182 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000AISIF
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,405 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Shooting the Past [Region 2]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN, SPECIAL FEATURES: Cast/Crew Interview(s), Commentary, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: This 1999 British film pits idealistic overseers of a London photography collection against a pragmatic American entrepreneur exercising his right to evict them from a mansion he has purchased. The photo collection is one of the world's largest, containing ten million pictures which the staff files, maintains, and rents to various media. From an aesthetic standpoint, the collection -- dating all the way back to the beginning of photography in the 19th century -- is priceless. The key question is what will happen to it, for wealthy American businessman Christopher Anderson (Liam Cunningham) owns not only the building, but also the collection itself. After announcing plans to remodel the mansion into a state-of-the-art business school, he threatens to destroy all but the most valuable photographs because there's no time, according to his rat-race schedule, to find a new repository for them. Feisty curator Marilyn Truman (Lindsay Duncan) and her eccentric assistant, Oswald Bates (Timothy Spall), then hatch plots to thwart his plans. First, they "mislay" a selection of highly valuable photographs. When that stratagem doesn't work, Truman persuades Anderson to look at several stacks of the ordinary, less valuable photographs. These photographs turn out to be extraordinary. One set tells the poignant story of a Jewish family victimized by the holocaust. The images impress Anderson, but he refuses to alter his plans. Then Bates launches an ingenious scheme. Using his incredible "photographic" memory, he selects a few startling photos from among the millions -- pho...Shooting The Past

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and Wonderful, Evocative and Elegant, January 16, 2000

By 

George K. Fawcett Jr (New Orleans, La. USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Shooting the Past 1 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I caught this on Masterpiece Theatre, it is truly amazing. A story within a story. The cast of characters is superb and makes you almost want to know each one.Each character is unique. The story of the massive and unique photograph collection is amazing in itself. But the stories within the stories, as told to the mean American who threatens to destroy the photo collection are the real jewels. As the film unfolds we are drawn onto the black and white photos in the collection. We see the body of photographs as a whole for thier special beauty. I felt joy, amazement and wonder....This film is a contemporary masterpiece.One of my favorite joys of the past year.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hubby and I Loved It!, June 19, 2000

By 

carol irvin "carol irvin" (United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shooting the Past 1 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I bought this 2 video set expecting it to be good. It was much, much better than good! The stories that are told to the corporate man who wants to destroy this photo collection from the past are incredible. There is one, involving an ancestor of this man's, that will keep you spellbound as he sees and hears the story of that ancestor unfold picture by picture. The pictures themselves are also gorgeous. Actually, this is very close to being a mystery since the goal is to unveil the man's past through photos to convince him the past, in general, is worth saving through saving all of the photos. There are 10 million photos in this collection! If you like English historical romances, this is one presented in a very unique way. The story is set in the present but the photos are from those prior romantically imagined times. This would have been made into a video only in Britain. I cannot imagine we Americans ever turning a subject like this into a movie, unfortunately.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Library Tour De Force, January 17, 2001

By 

Ann M Ferrari (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shooting the Past 1 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film is a wonderful portrayal of librarians as the heroes of the film. The staff is portrayed as extremely resourceful, able to find anything in a non-computerized collection, and extremely creative at piecing together information. In order to convince the new owner that the collection is worth saving, the librarians assemble a series of stories linked to various photographs--a sort of librarian's Sheharazade.

One of my favorite scenes is where Marilyn, the head librarian, is showing the new owner a set of photographs of a young Jewish girl that were found from different parts of the collection, in the hopes of convincing him of the value of keeping the library intact. Marilyn narrates Lilly's story, showing the happy child with her parents, then being separated from her parents and sent to live with a non-Jewish family during the Holocaust era. She is allowed to reunite with her parents for a morning in a park, and the photos capture the love between the parents and child, the despair of their separation, and the terrible sense of fear of that era. The story and the surprise ending are intensely moving and will leave you with an Anne Frank type of ache in your heart.

The final story of the movie that the librarians ingeniously weave together is a series of photographs involving the owner's Irish grandmother (and mysterious stories from her past that have a huge impact on him).

I really appreciated the great character development which allowed each of the librarians to be seen as individuals with unique quirks and their own brand of British humor. This film proves that even in this computerized world, the power of the human intellect and the beauty of vintage still photography are not dusty relics to be kept on a shelf, but are vibrant ways of preserving our past and linking lives together. There are a lot of genres here in this film that you won't find mixed together elsewhere: mystery/suspense, librarianship, historical preservation, photography, and themes of ancestry.

Hats off to writer/director Stephen Poliakoff for such an accurate portrayal of the analytical and intellectual abilities of librarians, as well as for the most suspenseful film about a library that I've ever seen.