Customer Reviews

Shooting the Past 1 [VHS]

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

A unique library of old and modern photographs are put under threat when the building they are housed in is suddenly sold. The new owner of the property, Liam Cunningham played by the able Christopher Anderson, has no interest in the photos and doesn't care what happens to them. In fact most of the photos will be destroyed with the crème de la crème of the collection being sold on. All Liam is interested in is renovating the building and making a hefty profit for the business he represents.

However the library's many eccentric employees won't give up without a fight and from then on a war of wits and determination is played out among a wonderful array of black and white photographs that represent the past, the present and even the future.

The characters in this film are truly delightful, especially Timothy Spall who plays the oddball Oswald Bates, a man with a memory for faces so attuned that he can see resemblances between a person he has only seen once and those whose pictures are imprinted upon photographic paper.

However the battle to save the collection seems doomed, with every attempt the Library staff makes being thwarted but fate has something wonderful in store for Liam Cunningham and it is this wonderful twist in the story that ultimately will save the collection for future generations.

This is a fabulous film, originally a three part series for the BBC in the late 1990s I think it would have been a success if it had been released in Art House Cinemas all over the World.

A final pointer, watch (and listen) out for the superb Lindsay Duncan who plays the diminutive Marilyn Truman, the Head Librarian in the story, she has the most amazing voice and when telling Liam Cunningham stories around certain photographs, she captivates her audience to the point that you think that you are in the same room as her and Liam.

A good musical score, a sound cast, wonderful photography and camera work, "Shooting the Past" is a classic of a film that Stephen Poliakoff has every reason to be proud off. Look out for Poliakoff's other masterpiece, "The Lost Prince" both are worth having in your DVD/video collection.

My first impression of this series is comparable to a book which you sit down to read, and hours later it is dark outside, you wonder where the afternoon went and put the book down finished with immense satisfaction. It is one of the few TV series that I've seen that is truly gripping.

The lighting and photography beautifully complement the photographs used in the film. The characters developed by Duncan, Spall and Cunningham are facinating, constantly building hope for the collection , destroying it and recreating hope anew.

This video is a marvelous journey through the lives of people forced by the world into rebuilding themselves.

I can only strongly advise that you watch this video.

I cannot recommend this too highly. My initial thoughts on sitting down to "Shooting the past" was "Hmmmmm - Chick Flick". How wrong I was!

"Shooting the past" tells the story of an English photo collection facing closure by an American corporation. The story of the struggle for the collection to be kept together, combined with the amazing stories linked to the photographs themselves kept me rivetted to the screen until the last moment.

It was written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff and he has just excelled himself. The settings and Music are *so* atmospheric, and this is combined with sterling performances from [get this] *every member of the cast!*. However...Timothy Spall gives the performance of his life as the brilliantly eccentric "Oswald".

Shooting the Past is a British national treasure. I saw it a few years ago, videotaped it (badly) and forced my whole family to watch it. All loved it. I am so grateful to now have a decent copy of it. I hope, hope, hope they put it out in DVD. The other reviews have covered the plot and characterization, which are superb. You'll think twice before you throw away any pictures in the future. My only regret is that we have no such museum where I could volunteer to work.

A picture is worth a thousand words is an over worn cliche but is appropriate in describing this delightful mystery. A photography librarian , Marian(Lindsay Duncan) is caught off guard when told that her collection of ten million pictures must be broken up and sold. Of course such news from the American capitalist Chris Anderson(Liam Cunningham) causes great stress among her staff.

And what a staff. Her second in command ,Oswald Bates (Timothy Spall), is an overweight, eccentric off the wall fellow who will resort to any wild idea to save the collection. In addition to him is carrot red haired assistant whose brains are scrambled and her partner who remains most of the time silent.

Bates tells the story of this wild crew's attempt to find a home for the collection in a week's time. You will laugh at their far fetched schemes and become intrigued by the pictures which have their own story to tell. In fact the pictures unravel some not so nice truths about Anderson. You will love this tale whose various twists, turns and pictures uncover a mysterious past long thought dead.

PRO + Great story, teriffic acting, beautiful setting
CON - Some pacing flaws, but not enough to destroy the whole

Lindsay Duncan is perfectly cast as the guardian of this endangered photographic archive and Liam Cunningham is her well-cast, perfunctory foil. As as the story unfolds, the differences between British and American style (and culture) are revealed, providing a nice subtext to the plot.

One of the viewing pleasures is in discovering that not everything is as it appears, from the central story to the character's lives. Good actors all. But my "best actor" award goes to the photographs themselves: the stories they tell and the feelings they evoke are haunting and captivating all at once. A visually rich film.

I can't add much to the previous reviews other than to say that I too found this movie of spell-binding interest through to the last moment. I had originally intended to watch it over two evenings. However, once started, I couldn't put it away. Absolutely spectacular performances by the entire cast! It is a stunning fictional story written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff weaved in conjunction with actual photographs from the Hulton Getty Photograph Collection. The story gives deeper meaning to the value of what has come before us. This is a MUST HAVE film for any photography, history, and/or mystery buff. Poliakoff deserves significant praise for this stupendous film. I sincerely hope it will be considered for numerous awards.