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Story of Westminster Hall
Intriguing early documentary about the oldest part of the Palace of Westminster and its restoration.
Overview
An intriguing and valuable early documentary about one of our major historic buildings. Nowadays practically every building restoration is commemorated by a film - but in 1923 Sir Frank Baines was definitely thinking out of the box when he commissioned this record of his soon-to-be-completed nine-year project to repair the roof of Westminster Hall - the oldest part of the Palace of Westminster.
Baines is credited with 'editing' the film himself but no doubt with much professional help: the producers, British Instructional Films (BIF), were Britain's premier non-fiction filmmakers of the day. Their specialism with natural history (they produced the popular series Secrets of Nature) comes handily into play in one sequence, about death watch beetles. But they also communicate the history of the building and the technical detail of the repair project with impressive clarity, aided by some ingenious camerawork and effects. Typically of BIF, the pace is slow and the overall style of the filmmaking conservative. In fact, BIF's films tended to take a conservative view of life in general, here for example presenting a one-dimensional 'Ladybird book' version of British history as a glorious pageant of progress and liberty.
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