This film is part of Free
Workshop of the World: Birmingham
Spellbinding images of Birmingham between the wars.
Overview
It’s one of the reasons for archiving: the throwaway, utilitarian film of one era can weave magic when revisited in another. This short promo (encouraging businesses to move to Birmingham) is on paper little more than a succession of static postcard views. Seen now, they're perfect for location spotting if you know the city. But you'll fall under their spell even if you've never set foot there.
Produced by the makers of 'cine-magazine' Pathetone Weekly (at the time a very recent addition to the Pathe stable), this film was clearly an outside commission and not part of the series. The point is that it's the work of experienced jobbing filmmakers. Many shots are tremendous compositions, sometimes unusually framed, often taken from strikingly high or low angles. At the same time, the basic structure and feel of the film is almost archaic even for 1930 (travelogues taking roughly this form had been made for decades: this could almost pass for a 1920 production). Yet on another level again, it chimes with the urban footage of our own times.
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