1917 (2019)

 "Am I dying?"

"Yes, yes, I think you are."

Wow. How else can I begin? This film is at once a tour de force of cinematography, an epic quest that is at times both dreamlike and almost evocative of Lord of the Rings... and profoundly, deeply, realistic. It's a profound work of the cinematic art that will linger in my mind. And I'm sure there are subtexts and metaphors which have just swooshed right over my head.

The cinematography, by the great Roger Deakin, is sublimre, giving us a textured world that feels at once both of its time and utterly real. The first few minutes, from the field right through the trenches and what must be a cavernous set, are apparently a single shot... and the feat is repeated again and again as Schofield and Blake traverse the bleak sights of No Man's Land on their desperate mission.

The War and its very real horrors are superbly evoked- the rats, the mud, the fear, the grim humour, the bloody awful food, the normalisation of violent death. The dialogue feels real So do the characters- we get to know Blake and Schofield very well, and Schofield's slow metamorphosis from reluctance to absolute determination is well-earned and feels real.

And yet... there is also, somehow, a mythic element here, an epic quest, a kind of Odyssey, a picaresque tale of wanderings. It is hard not to see the cherry trees as metaphor- cut down in their prime, but they will grow again. And the poor orphaned baby, with milk from Schofield, is another sign that out of death comes rebirth. And yet, at the same time, war is unremittingly grim.

An extraordinary work of genius. Literally my only criticism is of Colin Firth's moustache.

Hustling for Health (1919)

It's most odd to see Stan without Ollie, but here we have an early solo outing from Lancashire's very own Stan Laurel.

The film is only fifteen minutes long but, like a cartoon short, packs a lot of splendid visual and slapstick humour within that run time, along with some delightfully terrible one-liners as part of the intertitles. But, most notably, it clearly hows just how brilliant the twentysomething Stan Laurel was at physical comedy.

It's clearly of another era, of course: a world of hen-pecked husbands and tyrannical wives who were sometimes (gasp) suffragettes, a time when horses and carts were still a common sight on the road, and a time when one could casually remark that one was going out to "kill a giblet for diner". And there's a baby in this short, who would certainly be a centenarian if alive today.

Some things are timeless, though, and the comic potential of a hose is certainly one of them. The film is genuinely funny, with some top quality physical comedy acting from all involved, and the hopefully romantic ending is cute. The film is freely available on YouTube and is certainly worth a look.

Ask Father (1919)

I'll admit to not much liking the only Harold Lloyd short I've seen previously but this was genuinely funny and, like all silent comedy shorts, a huge and obvious influence on Warner Bros cartoon shorts and the like. Harold Lloyd has an amazing propensity for physical comedy and the conceit- Lloyd faces increasingly absurd obstacles in getting to see his intended's father to ask for her hand- is a good one. The ending is funny too- when his second choice for fiancée says that her father died many years ago he is overjoyed!

I suppose this is typical of a good silent comedy short, but what surprised me was a short sequence in which he scales a building from the outside, a harbinger of the much longer scene in Safety Last.

Like all films of this age it is pleasingly free of copyright and there to see on YouTube (other media are available). It's only thirteen minutes long. Why don't you watch it now?