Giuseppina

This is a modern classic in the guise of a half-hour industrial film. Why is it not better known? It should be celebrated in books, magazines, websites and fan discussion groups!

GIUSEPPINA, filmed in color, became known to British tv viewers in the mid- to late 1960s because it was often broadcast in off-hours as a kind of moving test pattern, a sales incentive in tv dealerships showing off their latest colour television sets.

The film itself, largely dialogue-less and reminiscent of the visual comedy of Jacques Tati, is an endearing story, told with utmost simplicity. Filmed on one location in rural northern Italy, it is centered on the life of 9-year-old Giuseppina whose father runs a BP petrol station.

The film won numerous awards, including an Oscar.

Like other reviewers I remember watching this film as a BBC2 "Trade Test Transmission" and I suppose the last time I saw it was in 1973...until BP recently released it on DVD.

Although I enjoyed watching the film again, I have a very strong feeling that the incidental music-track has been changed. I distinctly remember a jaunty little tune which perfectly fitted the mood of the film, but it's not on the BP DVD. Either my memory (usually very reliable) is playing tricks on me, or the music in this film has been changed, perhaps for copyright reasons. Does this ring any bells for anyone?

This is quite a quirky documentary, produced by BP, that follows a morning in the life of the eponymous girl who is a bit bored, so watches the customers come and go through her dad's petrol station because he won't take her to the nearby fair! He tries to convince her of just how much fun she can have staying put - but she's unconvinced and for the first five minutes, so was I! The the oil tanker delivers - but he only stays for a few moments to top up his coffee... More birdsong the a hunter on his bike, a couple of Vespa-riding clergymen. Finally, a swanky big saloon car. Dad can't find the petrol cap but at east she gets her photo taken (about two thousand times!) and he gets a big cigar. Then some unlucky newlyweds arrive, all suited, booted, oily and sweaty, but with a puncture on their tiny little car - dad gets to fix that and she gets to replace the bride's long gone corsage. Fun day, eh? Wait, there's even more excitement as one of those Morris Travellers - remember with the wooden framed rears, well it's got engine trouble so the (British) owners must stop and have some civilised afternoon tea whilst they wait for a new spark plug to be fitted. They don't even ask her to join them though, miserable gits... Eventually a sleek Mercedes convertible arrives and it's guitar playing passenger gives her a chance for a quick dance before lunch. The snag with this is that except for the few seconds of liveliness in her day, this is as dull to watch as it is to live through and the pace really doesn't have much gas either. Quite what or who BP made this for is anyone's guess, but it does have a charm to it as we watch the quiet life of a rural community where roads were still shared by donkeys and dreycarts, bikes and classic looking sardine tins with wheels and 500cc engines.

A truly international film in pristine colour with a British director, a Czech cameraman and an Italian cast.

Director James Hill was presumably familiar with the films of Jacques Tati of which this seems a more benign version. Like Tati it explores the possibilities of colour, notably in the use of BP's green & yellow colour scheme of the petrol station, complete with two canaries in a cage, at which an enormous green & yellow petrol tanker arrives to fill it up.

The only language we hear spoken is Italian, but the subtitling is largely unnecessary since the dialogue as in Tati serves predominately as sound effects.

I agree with comments made by others here. I remember this when returning from school and watching the test transmissions on the BBC. Until recently, I've always remembered the story as clear today as when i watched it years ago. This is the television "easy listening" equivilent of music. Just enjoyable, quaint short movie. This and others are available to buy from the BP video library.

A small girl and her father who runs a BP garage in Italy is the plot. It follows an average day for them, few customers, nice scenery and little else, but great!

An absolute classic