British Film Guides
1 primary work • 2 total works
Book 5
Tony Richardson's 1968 Charge of the Light Brigade with its star cast, lavish sets and location shoots, was one of the most expensive British films ever made. Mark Connelly examines the film, its production, the role of its stars David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave and John Gieldgud, and director Richardson's running feud with the press and the film's subsequent fame. He shows the film to be representative of its time, in its visual style and its use of sixties themes, to discuss how Charge of the Light Brigade, while meticulously reconstructed from authentic sources, reveals the horror of war to a world struggling to come to terms with American involvement in Vietnam.
Since its release in 1948 "The Red Shoes" has come to be regarded not only as a British classic, and as perhaps the most widely loved of all of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger' collaborations, but as a highlight of world cinema. Its fantastic - and indeed fantastical - mixture of dance, music, colour and light has inspired audiences across the decades. The first comprehensive study of the film that marks the pinnacle of the directors' remarkable relationship, Connelly's book offers fresh insights into this intriguing and beguiling work and into the characters at the heart of the story: the Svengali-like impresario and his obsession, the ingenue dancer embodied by the brilliant Moira Shearer. According to many accounts the most successful British film ever made, it is fitting that "The Red Shoes" should be celebrated in 2005, the centenary of Powell's birth.