Shooting the Past

Shooting the Past is a fine piece of work. It entertains, it makes you think, it deals with issues and you end up discussing it and thinking about it at length afterwards.

The scenario is somewhat far-fetched - it is inconceivable that most of the staff at the archive would be unaware of the plans to chuck them out of a listed building - the place would have been swarming with bureaucrats for months before the bulldozers arrived, if indeed anything that requires bulldozers would have been permitted. Further, it also seems inconceivable that a man with a passion for his new business school and with mission-critical deadlines would visit the place for the first time without having verified that the archivists were moving out.

But we forgive Poliakoff his fanciful scenario because it sets up a terrific and taught drama.

Lindsay Duncan is simply superb, as is Timothy Spall as the "borderline autistic, photo-savant" Oswald.

Some of the cinematography (if you call it that in made for TV films) is superb - in particular the long shots of Liam Cunningham walking through the archive and the film shots of still photos.

This is fine stuff and highly recommended.

This gem from writer-director Stephen Poliakoff aired on the BBC to popular and critical acclaim, and was a surprise hit of a drama-lite year. Using the setting of a photograph library, and the plot that the collection needs to broken up and sold off to satisfy the greed of an American property developer, it says a lot about the associative process of memory, the sequencial nature of small details, and about ourselves as viewers of the drama within a drama.

Of the excellent cast, four stand out - Lindsay Duncan, Timothy Spall, Billie Whitelaw, and Liam Cunningham. The images really provide the crux of the series though, as we see a path through time and follow one character through from one reality to the next. The fabulous music also helps the process, and all things combined make this a really superior piece of small-screen drama.

This production is a work of profound beauty and intelligence. The dynamics of this film take you on a wonderful journey from the edge of your seat to the back of your mind. The actors fully inhabit their roles with all the humour and tragedy that involves, as the story unfolds. The success of the actors was to convey so much with such minimal, yet superb, dialogue.

The action unfolds in the almost wordless present (more usually suited to "action genre"), yet the film's major theme can only be resolved by the characters understanding of a broader present context that reaches back to the past and forward to their future. The characters dilemma is specific to the plot yet generalises to us all.

The subtlety and scope of this production grows with each viewing, as does the admiration for the casting, acting, directing, editing and musical scoring. If any of the components were less than exceptional, then it wouldn't be THIS film. If your looking for a film with timeless grace and immediate relevance, this will always be it.

....I cannot think of any other films quite like it, and think it draws more from theater, classical painting, photography, and great literature. However I would liken it most to a very visual feature length piece of music with superb production value - perhaps Roger Waters's "Amused to Death".

Poliakoff's greatest achievement (so far) works perfectly as a thought-provoking and intensely satisfying meditation on the price of progress. The hard-headed, unscrupulous world of big-business is set in stark contrast to the quintessentially English, eccentric and old-fashioned central characters battling against the odds to preserve the collection. With sublime casting, atmospheric use of lighting and a haunting, beautiful soundtrack the production values are magnificent. However, the real stars of the show are the photos from the collection itself - used to relay fascinating, quirky and heart-rending stories from history that would have otherwise been forgotten. The way these stories unfurl are spell-bindingly atmospheric and paced to perfection.

For all the talk these days that the BBC isn't what it used to be, it would be hard to prove by this exceptional film. A brilliant examination of the power of photographs to chronicle, the mysteries and stories captured within their still frames, and the mystical and evocative powers moments frozen in time can manifest.

A superb creation from a writer-director whom I shall certainly seek out in the future. The entire ensemble is letter perfect, and the film does a wonderful job of alternately moving one to tears, then later creating tension that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat. Is it any wonder that US television films come off as hackneyed when compared to superlative efforts such as this. One of the best films I have seen this year in any medium.