This film is part of Rentals
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_480x270/public/hero-images/7d4be2ff5542f74953762baf16474128_0.jpg?itok=xCzZwugL)
Black Bird Descending: Tense Alignment
A brilliantly constructed, melancholic ode to the passing of time by Malcolm Le Grice
Director: Malcolm Le Grice
Overview
The ritualised actions of daily life in a suburban house gradually unravel in this film by Malcolm Le Grice, as numerous tasks are performed and then fragmented through careful camera placement and the manipulation of expectations. The first feature by experimental filmmaker Le Grice, it's a masterwork of construction, and is quietly existential and melancholic in tone, evoking Reginald Perrin and Groundhog Day.
The first of three features by Le Grice, Black Bird Descending took him away from the London Filmmakers' Co-op, where he had been a prominent figure, and instead placed him in the domestic sphere, exploring what it can mean to make art not just at home, but somehow through it. In rigorous and extremely engaging fashion it not only plots out the space of a suburban house and its garden, but also fragments that space through the cutting up and blurring of activities and expectations. At one level Le Grice's film is a giant elliptical puzzle, ready for the viewer to untangle, but at another it's a melancholic ode to the passing of time and the patterns of daily life. Its existential qualities make for a very different pastoralism from that evoked by Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending, to which the title alludes.
Related
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Robot-Dreams-01.jpg?itok=W9QH_7U3)
Robot Dreams Robot Dreams
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2023 103 mins Director: Pablo Berger
Spanish director Pablo Berger delivers a rich and emotionally engaging dialogue-free animation about friendship, set in a bustling 1980s New York City.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Blind-Willow-Sleeping-Woman_1920-3.jpg?itok=-FGL2AGh)
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2022 108 mins Director: Pierre Földes
Impressive and captivating animated adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short stories.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/times-for-1970-veil-woman.jpeg?itok=3cJvcV__)
Times For Times For
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1970 80 mins Silent Director: Stephen Dwoskin
Four characters go through a series of deeply emotional, psychedelic, sensual, sexual encounters, evoking the times and textures of the 1960s underground.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Estuary%252C%2520cropped.jpg?itok=1wl4neEL)
Estuary Estuary
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1980 49 mins Director: Chris Welsby
Tides rise and fall and the landscape twists around the camera.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/belle0.jpg?itok=Ql3Idumh)
Belle Belle
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2021 122 mins Director: Mamoru Hosoda
High-school student Suzu finds her voice in an incredible virtual world that allows everyday people to become extraordinary.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/flee-2021-1920x1080-brighter.jpg?itok=0LHFCQEU)
Flee Flee
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2021 83 mins Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance Film Festival, Flee is a testament to friendship, family and acceptance.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/787c4463c1c4eddb2e38d0455ffa7e06.jpg?itok=N5sBEGj6)
Mr. Topaze Mr. Topaze
Comedy 1961 97 mins Director: Peter Sellers
Charming character comedy, unseen for decades, starring Peter Sellers as a school teacher corrupted by big business.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/8a639a9602fee0483d1c503dfb5eb83a.jpg?itok=GvGKaUAJ)
Wild West Wild West
Comedy 1993 84 mins Director: David Attwood
Defying opposition from his conservative Pakistani family, Zaf Ayub dreams of becoming Southall's greatest gift to country & western.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/cdf0ce29f23d65677b2500aa08612625.jpg?itok=WdnJPqNF)
Lamb Lamb
Drama 1985 110 mins Director: Colin Gregg
In one of Liam Neeson’s earliest starring roles, he plays an errant priest who kidnaps a vulnerable boy from an abusive Catholic school
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/fb1705731118fa54f9b51af312eabded.jpg?itok=Vjoaw4iy)
Extremes Extremes
Documentary 1971 81 mins Director: Anthony Klinger and Michael Lytton
In-your-face 70s documentary exploring the lives of Hell's Angels, hippies, skinheads, rudeboys, mods and drug addicts.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/62cf2a1ab0aa00577822c20833cde163_0.jpg?itok=gkiBxak9)
Remembrance of Things Fast Remembrance of Things Fast
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1993 62 mins Director: John Maybury
John Maybury’s dark, queer state of the nation film starring Tilda Swinton and Rupert Everett
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/28126489b300cff87f3e4d0cddad0d76.jpg?itok=nwbhH6uT)
The Golden Madonna The Golden Madonna
Drama 1949 88 mins Director: Ladislao Vajda
When she inherits an Italian palazzo, a young woman takes on more than she bargained for
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Green-Border-01.jpg?itok=-YVcr1Za)
Green Border Green Border
Drama 2023 152 mins
Three-time Oscar-nominee Agnieszka Holland returns with a powerful, timely and unflinching exploration of the current migrant crisis.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Our-River-our-sky-01.jpg?itok=p9xO8tL8)
Our River... Our Sky Our River... Our Sky
War 2021 118 mins Director: Maysoon Pachachi
A small Baghdad community searches for hope in the face of unpredictable violence, turmoil, and loss.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/LoveLiesBleeding-01_brighter.jpg?itok=Ji_gwS-r)
Love Lies Bleeding Love Lies Bleeding
Romance 2023 104 mins Director: Rose Glass
Rose Glass’s gripping and gory follow-up to Saint Maud finds a lesbian couple drawn into a web of violence in 1980s small-town New Mexico.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/sick-of-myself-01.jpeg?itok=6WYKe_5g)
Sick of Myself Sick of Myself
Comedy 2022 97 mins Director: Kristoffer Borgli
She just did what! Attention-seeking Signe will do anything to keep the focus on herself, in this wildly demented comedy.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/wilding-02.jpg?itok=AmImzKtl)
Wilding Wilding
Documentary 2023 75 mins Director: David Allen
A dying landscape is healed against all odds, going on to thrive in astonishing ways, in this hopeful story of ecological regeneration.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/AHouseInJerusalem-01.jpg?itok=9SyTSTlz)
A House in Jerusalem A House in Jerusalem
Drama 2022 104 mins Director: Muayad Alayan
After moving from the UK to Jerusalem, young Rebecca strikes up a mysterious and an unlikely friendship, in this poignant tale of loss and longing.