gerrythree

"Masterpieces Of The British Museum" is a six episode documentary on art treasures in the British Museum. Fulmar Television & Film produced this series. Fulmar was a production company best known for its "Private Life Of A Masterpiece" documentary series. Over 10 years, from 2001 to 2011, that series had 19 50 minute long individual episodes usually covering a famous painting by a great artist e.g. "Census At Bethlehem" by Pieter Bruegel. So, when Fulmar produced its British Museum series in 2006, in went the word masterpiece in the title. Fulmar folded after 2011, no more documentaries or anything for BBC, channel 4 or itv.

Its 2006 "Masterpieces Of The British Museum" is Fulmar at its peak. Four out of the six 30 minute episodes in this series are really interesting to me: The Sutton Hoo Helmet; Dürer's Rhinoceros woodblock print; the Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs; and the Lewis Chessmen. I think the other two episodes on artwork, on the Ife King mask and the Aztec double-headed serpent, are put in for geographic balance, to show an African and ancient Mexican art object.

The Sutton Hoo Helmet episode describes the discovery of the 7th century ship burial site England, where excavators found beneath a mound a fabulous treasure horde featuring golden objects like scarf clasps looking brand new and also the many pieces of an iron helmet that, when put together, are a window to a lost world. The Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs are near life-size scenes of an Assyrian ruler, the scenes carved into alabaster wall panels stretching down the walls of two facing hallways in the museum. It is a wonder that these 2,600 year old reliefs survived in such great condition. Dürer's Rhinoceros print is one of many, even though the museum has a great copy. The Lewis Chessmen episode was interesting enough for me that I bought a replica set.

If you are a culture vulture like me, the back stories on the art objects in this British Museum documentary series are real interesting. Made 20 year ago, Masterpieces Of The British Museum has not dated at all.

Dunkirk is a cobbled together bunch of scenes highlighted by one big scene, the British troops evacuating from the beach dunes. The extras in that scene are real soldiers lent to the studio at apparently no production cost except to provide free inedible lunches. Actor John Mills plays a corporal who does nothing but look grim and walk in front of his six man squad. Many of the small boat scenes are filmed on a interior studio tank, scenes that looks totally phony. Of course, being a British war movie, there are some scenes showing officers behaving gallantly or displaying superior decisiveness and brainpower. Grainy stock footage of German dive bombers is used, all looking crap. The film must have had a very limited production budge, I did not see one jeep or truck on the evacuation beach. No bicycles either.

If you want to see an authentic depiction of the Dunkirk evacuation, with no CGI, watch "Weekend at Dunkirk," a 1964 French movie filmed in great color starring Jean Paul Belmondo and Catherine Spaak that was actually filmed at the Bray Dunes in Dunkirk. Five minutes of this 1964 French movie has more cynicism about war than all of the 1958 Dunkirk.

"Circle of danger" is a quality production all around. I watched the movie from the recent 2024 StudioCanal release of the movie on Blu-ray, where the cinematography glistens, especially the scenes of the salvage operation. Ray Milland's character heads to the United Kingdom after finally scoring a big salvage haul of tungsten from a cargo ship sunk off Tampa, Florida. With the $30,000 he makes from his quick sale to the boat captain of his salvage share, he travels from the lowlands of London to the Highlands of Scotland to discover how his brother died in a commando raid in occupied Europe WWII; his brother being the only casualty of the raid. This raid is is where I have a problem with the movie. The raid is never shown in flashback; other characters who were there describe what happened. But what really happened? The explanation at the end by the commander of the raid and another surviving witness (Marius Goring playing a former commando turned fey choreographer) seems contrived. The movie's screenplay was written by Philip MacDonald, who also wrote the novel "White Heather," the basis of the screenplay. That novel is MIA on the Internet, as far as my search went. In 1950 England, where the story takes place and when the film was made, WWII was a recent memory. Food rationing was still in force for meat and life was hard for many from the war's physical damage and damage to the British economy. For me, the movie's ending rings false. The ending of "Circle of Danger" smacks of self-censorship, to avoid showing stuff, even in a fictional incident, that possibly puts the British war effort in a bad light. Too bad the movie's budget apparently did not allow for filming that ill-fated commando raid, which could have better shown what happened.