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Humphrey Jennings (August 19, 1907 – September 24, 1950), was an English filmmaker and one of the founders of the Mass Observation organization. Events 43 BC - Octavian, later known as Augustus compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul. Year 1907 ( MCMVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 622 - Prophet Muhammad completes his hegira from Mecca to Medina. Year 1950 ( MCML) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland A film director, or filmmaker, is a person who directs the making of a Film. Mass-Observation was a United Kingdom Social research organisation founded in 1937 Jennings was described by film maker Lindsay Anderson as: "the only real poet that British cinema has yet produced. Lindsay Gordon Anderson ( April 17 1923 — August 30 1994) was an Indian born English Feature film, Theatre A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" The United Kingdom has been influential in the technological, commercial and artistic development of cinema. "[1]

Contents

Biography

Early life

Born in Walberswick, Suffolk, Jennings was the son of an architect father, and a painter mother and attended The Perse School, Cambridge. Walberswick is a Village on the Suffolk coast across the River Blyth from Southwold. An architect is a licensed individual who leads a design team in the Planning and Design of buildings and participates in oversight of Building Construction The Perse School is a fee-paying secondary day school for boys 11&ndash18 and girls at 16+ situated in Cambridge, England. Later he read English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where when not studying, he created advanced stage designs and was the founder-editor of Experiment in collaboration with William Empson and Jacob Bronowski. The city of Cambridge (ˈkeɪmbrɪdʒ is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England Sir William Empson ( 27 September 1906 – 15 April 1984) was an English Literary critic Jacob Bronowski ( January 18 1908 – August 22 1974) was a British mathematician and biologist of Polish-Jewish origin

Early career

After graduating with a starred First Class degree in English from Pembroke College, Cambridge, Jennings did a number of jobs - including photographer, painter and theatre designer. The term English literature refers to Literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by Writers not necessarily from Pembroke College is a college of the University of Cambridge, home to over six hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest of the colleges In 1929, he married Cicely Cooper. He eventually found his niche in John Grierson's GPO Film Unit in 1934. John Grierson ( 26 April 1898 &ndash 19 February 1972) is often considered the Father of British and Canadian The GPO Film Unit was a subdivision of the UK General Post Office.

In 1936 Jennings helped with the organisation of the 1936 Surrealist Exhibition in London, in association with Herbert Read and André Breton. The International Surrealist Exhibition was held from 11 June to 4 July 1936 at the New Burlington Galleries in London, England Sir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC (1893&ndash1968 was an English anarchist Poet, and Critic of Literature and André Breton (in French ɑ̃dʀe bʀəˈtɔ̃ ( February 19, 1896 &ndash September 28, 1966) was a French Writer, It was at about this time that Jennings became involved in the start-up stages of Mass Observation, and was to make the film May the Twelfth as a montage of the 1937 coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth for Mass Observation. Mass-Observation was a United Kingdom Social research organisation founded in 1937

The War years

With the outbreak of World War II, the GPO Film Unit became the Crown Film Unit, a movie-making propaganda arm of the Ministry of Information, and Jennings joined the new organisation. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Crown Film Unit was an organisation within the British Government's Ministry of Information during World War II. Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people

Jennings made only one feature length film, the 70-minute Fires Were Started (1943), also known as I Was A Fireman, a wartime propaganda movie detailing the work of the Auxiliary Fire Service, which blurred the lines between fiction and documentary. Fires Were Started ( 1943) is a British film written and directed by Humphrey Jennings, filmed in documentary style showing the lives of firemen The Auxiliary Fire Service ( AFS) was first formed in 1938 in Great Britain as part of Civil Defence Air raid precautions. Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt in one fashion or another to " Document " reality This film, which uses techniques such as montage is considered one of the classics of the genre. A montage sequence is a technique in Film editing in which a series of short shots is edited into a sequence to condense narrative A genre (ˈʒɑːnrə also /ˈdʒɑːnrə/ from French "kind" or "sort" from Latin: genus (stem gener-) is a loose set

He made a number of notable short films, inclusively patriotic in sentiment and very English in their sensibility, such as: Spare Time; Our Country, The Dim Little Island, A Diary for Timothy (with the narration written by E.M. Forster), Words for Battle, London Can Take It!, and Family Portrait (his last film, which tells of the Festival of Britain). Edward Morgan Forster OM, CH (1 January 1879–7 June 1970 was an English novelist Short story writer Essayist, and Librettist The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition which opened in London and around Britain in May 1951 Co-directed with Stewart McAllister, Jennings' best remembered short film, made 1942, is Listen to Britain. Excerpts are often seen in other in documentaries, especially portions of one of the concerts given by Dame Myra Hess in the National Gallery while its collection was evacuated for safe-keeping. Dame Myra Hess DBE ( February 25, 1890 &ndash November 25, 1965) born Julia Myra Hess, was a British

He died in Poros, Greece in a fall on the cliffs of the Greek island while scouting locations for a future film on post-war healthcare in Europe. Poros (Πόρος is a small Greek island-pair in the southern part of the Saronic Gulf, at a distance about 58 km (31 nautical miles south from Piraeus Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία He is buried near T.H. White at the Protestant Cemetery in Athens. Terence Hanbury White ( 29 May 1906 &ndash 17 January 1964) was an English Author best known for his sequence of Arthurian Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's

Reputation

Humphrey Jennings' reputation always remained very high among film makers, but had faded among others. His films appear strikingly different from the 'social critique' approach which typified the documentaries of Grierson and his "school" of the 1930s and the feature films of the 1960s and 70s such as Lindsay Anderson'sThis Sporting Life (1962) or Karel Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960). Lindsay Gordon Anderson ( April 17 1923 — August 30 1994) was an Indian born English Feature film, Theatre This Sporting Life is also a radio program in Australia See This Sporting Life (radio program This Sporting Life is a 1963 Karel Reisz ( July 21, 1926 – November 25 2002) was one of the most important filmmakers in post– war Britain Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a 1960 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alan Sillitoe.

After 2001 this situation was partly rectified: firstly by the feature-length documentary by Oscar-winning documentary-maker Kevin Macdonald, Humphrey Jennings: The Man Who Listened to Britain (made by Figment Films in 2002 for British television's Channel 4); and secondly by Kevin Jackson's monumental 450-page biography Humphrey Jennings (Picador, 2004). "The Oscar" redirects here for the film see The Oscar (film. Kevin Macdonald (born October 28, 1967) is a Scottish Jewish two-time BAFTA winning director most famous for his films British television broadcasting started in 1936 and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media through which there are up to 600 channels Channel 4 is a public-service Television and Radio broadcaster in the United Kingdom centred around a television channel of the same name which began In 2003 two of his films, Listen to Britain and Spare Time, were included in the Tate Britain retrospective, A Century of Artists' Film in Britain which featured the work of over one hundred filmmakers. Tate Britain is a part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. As of 2005, nearly all the films of Humphrey Jennings are available on DVDs. DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is

Filmography

As director

As producer/creative contributor

See also

References

  1. ^ Anderson,L: "Only Connect: Some Aspects of the Work of Humphrey Jennings", Sight and Sound Vol. Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6 1897 &ndash August 23 1982 was a Brazilian born Film director and producer. Edgar Anstey, ( 16 February 1907, Watford, Hertfordshire, England - 26 September 1987, London, Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6 1897 &ndash August 23 1982 was a Brazilian born Film director and producer. Edward Morgan Forster OM, CH (1 January 1879–7 June 1970 was an English novelist Short story writer Essayist, and Librettist Thomas James ( Tom) Harrison (born on January 18, 1945 in Trail British Columbia, Canada) is a former major league John Grierson ( 26 April 1898 &ndash 19 February 1972) is often considered the Father of British and Canadian Robert Joseph Flaherty (16 February 1884 Iron Mountain Michigan - 23 July 1951 Dummerston Vermont) was an American Filmmaker who directed and produced Charles Madge (1912-1996 was an English Poet, Journalist and Sociologist, now most remembered as one of the founders of Mass-Observation. Ivor Armstrong Richards ( 26 February, 1893 in Sandbach, Cheshire &ndash 7 September, 1979 in Cambridge) was Paul Rotha (born Paul Thompson, June 3, 1907, London - March 7, 1984, Wallingford, Oxfordshire) was Harry Watt may refer to Harry Watt (director, a film director A Harry Watt drill-bit a type of Mortiser Basil Wright, ( June 12, 1907, Sutton, Surrey - 14 October, 1987, Frieth, Buckinghamshire, England 23 no. 4, Spring 1954

Further reading

External links

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