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Monthly Archives: August 2017

ART: Arthur Boyd – Art Gallery of South Australia –

22 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by APHK PHOTOGRAPHY in 20TH CENTURY ART, Adelaide, ART, Australia, HISTORY, PEOPLE, PUBLIC ART, SALA, South Australia, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ART GALLERY, Uncategorized

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ART, Arthur Boyd, Australia, Australian Art, South Australia

ARTHUR BOYD (1920-1999) is one of the most important and unique Australian artists of the 20th Century. His range of work is extraordinarily vast in scope, size and subject matter, ranging from impressionistic landscapes to biblical and historical matters.His works are always incredibly dramatic and eye-catching. Invariably the characters in his works are somewhat devoid of emotion, reminiscent of ‘mannerism’ art in the late 16th Century. The four works by Arthur Boyd are currently on display at the Art Gallery of South Australia and are representative of particular periods of his extraordinary work.

Arthur Boyd was born at Murrumbenna, Victoria, into an artistic family. When he was 14 years old attended evening classes at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, where he met Jewish artist Yosi Bergner who introduced him to the the works of Dostoyevsky and Kafka and played a major role in influencing Boyd’s humanitarian and social values. Boyd then spent several years living on the Mornington Peninsula with his grandfather, Arthur Meric Boyd, who influenced Arthur Boyd’s particular talent and skill in landscape painting. He then moved to in the inner city of Melbourne painting urban cityscapes. In 1941 he was conscripted and served with the Cartographer Unit of the Australian Army during WW2 until 1944. His paintings of this period, of people deemed unfit for service are startling, and reveal an interest in ‘outsiders’, which was to become a major feature in his later works.

The painting, Figures by a Creek, from this period of Boyd’s life is relatively disturbing and turbulent, almost apocalyptic. A range of human expressions are evident in the painting, including love and grief. It is however, the soulless vacant eyes and naked abandonment in this prison like terrain that is unsettling.

P1030160 - Version 2Figures by a Creek (1944)

In the 1940s he became a member of the ‘Angry Penguins’, whose aim was to challenge conventional art and literature in Australia. and introduce a new radical and modern perspective. In the 1940s and 1950s Arthur Boyd traveled extensively through outback Australia. He was profoundly influenced by the landscape as well as indigenous culture. His series of The Bride, a half-caste who was also an ‘outsider’, was painted during this period and became his most successful works.

The paintings Persecuted Loves and Bridegroom going to his Wedding date from this period.

P1030255Persecuted Lovers (1957)

P1030162Bridegroom going to his Wedding (1958)

In 1959 he was a founding member of the ‘Antipodeans’, which presented figurative work rather than abstracts that were the dominant form at that time. Other ‘Antipodeans’ included John Brack, John Perceval, Charles Blackman and Clifton Pugh. He and his family then moved to London where he remained until 1977. Boyd’s work during this period reveal another evolution. His Nebuchadnezzar series of painting are his responses to the VietnamWar, whilst overall there is recurrent theme of ‘metamorphosis’. He also worked within the theatre, designing sets for opera and ballet. Boyd’s Lovers under a tree with weeping head (1963) is a work painted on a ceramic tile, and aspect of Boyd’s work in the years he was living and working in London. The subject matter of ‘lovers’ and a ‘metamorphosis’ that is apparent in the work and exemplifies his artistic concerns in this period.

P1030161Lovers under a tree with weeping head (1963)

Boyd returned to Australia and he and his wife Yvonne bought over 1000 acres of property in Bundanoon on the Shoalhaven River, not far from the town of Nowra, New South Wales. They later gave this property to the Australian Government for the use of artists. He also gave the copyright to all his work to the ‘Bundanoon Trust’ that was set up to care and manage the property.

A truly great Australian artist.

TONY KNIGHT

ART: Australian Fashion – Linda Jackson

18 Friday Aug 2017

Posted by APHK PHOTOGRAPHY in Adelaide, ART, Australia, FASHION, HISTORY, PUBLIC ART, SALA, South Australia, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ART GALLERY, Uncategorized

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ART, Australia, FASHION, Linda Jackson, South Australia

Linda Jackson is one of the pioneers of Australian fashion. Born and raised in Melbourne, where she studied art and design, and then through the 1960s travelled extensively through Asia and Europe. In 1972 she met fellow Australian fashion icon, Jenny Kee, and together they opened Flamingo Park,  a boutique fashion shop in the Strand Arcade, Sydney. This proved to be extremely popular and successful, complementing a kind of Australian Renaissance in the arts throughout the country. Numerous influences have played their part on Linda Jackson’s body of work, most notably the artists Peter Tully and David McDiarmid. It is, however, her travels and experience in the Australian outback with aboriginal communities that has made her work so dazzling unique. Currently on display in the South Australian Art Gallery there are a number of dresses and fabrics designed by Linda Jackson. They are all wonderful and exemplify her beautiful work.

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(top left) LINDA JACKSON & DEBORAH LESER – Desert Rock top, Sturt’s Desert Pea tunic, and Desert Pea Oz map scarf (1980); (bottom left) LINDA JACKSON – Sturt’s Desert Pea outfit (1990); (top centre) LINDA JACKSON – Red Centre Textiles (1995-97); (bottom centre) LINDA JACKSON – Red Centre Standley Chasm outfit (1995-97); (right) LINDA JACKSON – Indigo gold-eyelashes textile (1999).

P1030231LINDA JACKSON – Santa Teresa outfit (1997)

TONY KNIGHT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 7 Golden Rules of Blogging

17 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by APHK PHOTOGRAPHY in Uncategorized

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Cristian Mihai

It’s Blogging Week here at Cristian Mihai blog (yeah, I don’t have a fancy name for my blog). We’ll talk about blogging, different tools that make blogging easier, and other stuff. The other stuff is mostly related to some of the do’s and don’t of blogging, what works and what doesn’t.

Everything you’re about to read is common sense. So, please, don’t expect some 3 step tutorial to gaining a billion followers.

And now for today’s post. 7 Golden Rules of Blogging.

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ART: Australian Colonial Art

17 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by APHK PHOTOGRAPHY in Adelaide, ART, Australia, ENGLISH HISTORY, HISTORY, PUBLIC ART, South Australia, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ART GALLERY

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ART, Australia, COLONIAL ART, South Australia

The South Australian Art Gallery has a broad and diverse collection of Australian and international artworks. This article focuses on seven selected works and artists from the Australian Colonial Art section of the gallery. Most of the pieces are associated with the history of South Australia. They are representative of the how Australia was first realised and essentially romantically portrayed by English and European artists during the 19th century. Many of these ‘travel artists’ had colourful and adventurous lives, leading them to explore ‘brave new worlds’ and creating works that stand as unique in the first appreciation of this new ‘great southern land’ we now call Australia.

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AUGUSTUS EARLE – Barnett Levey (c. 1825)      Augustus Earle (c. 1793-1838) was arguably Australia’s first major artist. Born in London, Augustus Earle was a member of a prominent American family. He trained at the Royal Academy and was exhibiting at the age of 13. From 1815, when he was 22 years old, Earle began his many and extensive travels throughout the known world. He was able to finance his travels through the sale of his art work. Augustus Earle came to Australia in 1825, arriving first in Hobart and then up to Sydney. Earle remained in Sydney, with excursions to its outer regions, as well as New Zealand, until 1828. One of his first commissions was this wedding portrait of Barnett Levey (1798-1837). Barnett Levey was the young colony’s first Jewish free settler. He was also the person responsible for building, creating and operating Australia’s first professional theatre, the Theatre Royal, which opened on the 26th December 1832 with Douglas Jerrold’s burlesque Black-Eyed Susan. Unfortunately, Barnett Levey’s fortunes and efforts were not successful. He died in 1837 leaving his family in poverty. Nonetheless, as the Sydney Times (21 October 1837) wrote, ‘to his spirit and perseverance are the public indebted for the introduction of theatricals into New South Wales’.

JOHN GLOVER – A View of the Artist’s home and garden in Mills Plains, Van Dieman’s Land (1835).P1030106

John Glover (1767-1849) was born at Houghton-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire. He had a highly successful career in England, although never a member of the Royal Academy. In 1830 John Glover decided to move to Australia, arriving in Hobart, Van Dieman’s Land (now Tasmania), on 18 February 1831, which coincided with his 64th birthday. John Glover has been called ‘the father of Australian landscape painting’. His work in Australia is noted for the first realistic impression of the Australian natural bright light and unique flora and bushland.

EUGENE VON GUERARD – Early Settlement of Thomas and William Lang, Salt River, Port Phillip, New South Wales (1860)SA ART GALLERY - COLONIAL ART - EUGENE VON GUERARD - Early settlement of Thomas & William Lang, Salt River Port Phillip, NSW. March, 1840

Eugene von Guerard (1811-1901) was born in Vienna, Austria, and came to Australia in 1852. Guerard was a prolific and influential landscape artists in a particular style known as stemming from the  ‘Dusseldorf School’ of painting. This relatively ‘romantic’ style involved a new realistic approach and realisation based on empirical observation of nature. Eugene von Guerard initially came to Australia to try his luck on the Victorian Gold Fields. He was not successful, but did produce numeros drawings and sketches of the life of the ‘diggers’ on the Gold Fields. By the 1860s he had established himself as the country’s foremost landscape painter, mainly working by commission for wealthy pastoralists. In 1870 he was appointed the first Master of the School of Painting at the National Art Gallery of Victoria, a position he was to occupy for the next 11 years. During this time he taught future important Australian artists such as Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin. He also assisted another German artist from the ‘Dusseldorf School, Louis Tannert when Tannert came to Australia in 1876. Eugene von Guerard  returned to Europe in 1882, but his fortunes rapidly declined after his wife died in 1891, and he lost all his money in the 1893 Australian bank crash. He lived in poverty for the rest of his life, dying in Chelsea, London, 17 April 1901.

NICHOLAS CHEVALIER – Memorandum of the Start of the Exploring Expedition (1860)P1030111

Nicholas Chevalier (1828-1902) was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and studied in Lausanne (Switzerland), and Munich (Germany). He moved to London in 1851 where two of his paintings were shown at the Royal Academy. After further study in Rome he came to Australia in late 1854, and by August 1855 he was working as a cartoonist for the Melbourne edition of Punch magazine. He also worked as an illustrator for the Illustrated Australian News. This relatively large oil on canvas painting shows the start of the ill-fated ‘Burke and Wills’ expedition from Melbourne on the 20th August 1860. This was a relatively large expedition comprising of 19 men from different ethnic backgrounds – English, Irish, Afghani and one American. They had 23 horses, 6 wagons and 26 camels, and their departure was witnessed by over 15,000 spectators. Chevalier’s celebratory painting with it’s finely observed detail of the backers of expedition in the right-hand corner, gives little indication of the tragedy that was follow; although the disproportion of the man on the white horse at the central front of the painting in contrast with what is behind him does give a hint of the miss-match of respective personalities that was to play its part in this epic disaster. Nicholas Chevalier worked in Australia until 1869 when he returned to London. He remained in London, constantly having work exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1871 and 1887. Thereafter his output radically decreased and by 1895 had virtually given up painting. He died in London on 15 March 1902.

JOHN MICHAEL SKIPPER – Corroboree (c. 1864)P1030121

John Michael Skipper (1815-1883) was born in Norwich, Norfolk, and was a solicitor as well as an artist. He was always a rather free-spirited and rebellious individual, preferring to work as an artist than a lawyer. This was evident as early as 1833 when he abandoned his legal studies and went to sea for the East India Company. However, he used his legal skills and knowledge to finance his artistic and adventurous achievements. In 1836 he decided to migrate to Australia and arranged to be appointed as an article clerk for Charles Mann, the advocate-general for South Australia. In 1840 he became an attorney and practised until 1851 when he joined others in the Victorian ‘Gold Rush’. He returned to Adelaide in 1852 having not much luck finding gold and worked as a court clerk at Port Adelaide until 1872. Throughout all this time John Michael Skipper also produced numerous drawings and sketches, as well as a few paintings, that reflected his personal experience at sea as well as life on the gold fields and the early history of Adelaide. He retired in 1872 to his farm in Kent Town, Adelaide, where he died 7 December 1883. This spectacular large painting is an exception to John Michael Skipper’s overall canon of work. The painting has a theatrical nature with a small group of wealthy white colonists being dazzled by an aboriginal corroboree under a full moon in front of what may be Mt Abrupt in the Grampians mountain range. Whilst the white colonials dominate the front of the painting, particularly the lady in black riding side-saddle, nonetheless, the eye is drawn to the fiery phalanx-like army of indigenous warriors – two different worlds lined up in juxtaposition with one another.

CHARLES HILL – Georgetown (1877)SA ART GALLERY - COLONIAL ART - CHARLES HILL - Georgetown (1877)

Charles Hill (1824-1915) was born in Coventry, England, into a military family. Charles Hill, however, did not follow the path expected of him but became a relatively successful  artist. He studied at the Newcastle Fine Arts Academy and at the Government School of Design. He emigrated to  South Australia in 1854 where he taught art at St Peter’s College and Adelaide’s Educational Institute. In 1856 he opened his own School of Art in his own home on Pulteney Street, Adelaide, and was instrumental in setting up the South Australian Society of Arts. When the South Australian School of Design was founded in 1861 Charles Hill was appointed at its first Master. He moved to ‘Alix House’ 100 South Terrace in 1866. He eventually retired from the School of Design in 1886. Charles Hill painted numerous landscapes and cityscapes, including this one of Georgetown in 1877. Georgetown is a small town in the mid-north of South Australia, 196 kilometres (122 miles) north of Adelaide.

H. J. JOHNSTONE – Evening Shadows, backwater of the Murray River, South Australia (1880)P1030109

Henry James Johnstone (1835-1907) was born in Birmingham, England, and studied at the Birmingham School of Design before joining his father’s photographic firm. He came to Australia in 1853 when he was only 18. By 1865 he established in Melbourne, with Emily O’Shannessey and George Hasler, the photographic company of Johnstone, O’Shannessey & Co., which became Melbourne’s leading portrait photographers. Whilst Johnstone may mostly known as in influential early photographer, he was also a successful artist. In 1867 he joined the Melbourne National Gallery School of Painting, and 1871 he became a member of the Victorian Academy of Arts. In 1876 he left Melbourne for South Australia where he remained for the next four years. He then toured extensively throughout the USA, and finally ended up in London in 1880 where he remained for the rest of his life. He regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy until 1900. He died in London in 1907 at the age of 72. The above painting is one of a few he painted whilst residing in South Australia. It is truly an extraordinary work, prefiguring ‘photorealism’ by nearly a century. Hardly surprising considering H. J. Johnstone’s knowledge, skill and talent as a pioneer photographer.

I hope you enjoy this brief journey through Australian Colonial Art. They are amongst my personal favourites and give a hint of the many marvellous works that are on display in the South Australian Art Gallery.

TONY KNIGHT

ART: Hans Heysen

15 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by APHK PHOTOGRAPHY in Adelaide, ART, Australia, HISTORY, South Australia, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ART GALLERY, Uncategorized

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ART, Australia, Australian Art, Hans Heysen, South Australia, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ART GALLERY

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Hans Heysen (1877-1968) is one of Australia’s greatest landscape artists, and is a personal favourite of mine. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, and came to Australia at the age of 7 when his family migrated to Adelaide, South Australia. He left school when he was 14 working in a hardware store whilst studying art part-time under James Ashton. One of his earliest works is At Friedrichstadt, Hahndorf (1897). The small German village of Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills was to become a place synonymous with Hans Heysen.

SA ART GALLERY - HANS HEYSEN - At Friedrichstadt, Hahndorf (1897)At Friedrichstadt, Hahndorf (1897)

His talent was soon recognised and in 1897 he was sponsored by a group of wealthy South Australian businessmen to study in France for the next four years. When he returned to Adelaide he continued his growing success and acclaim, winning the Wynne Prize in 1904 for his painting Mystic Morn.

P1030138Mystic Morn (1904)

He won the Wynne Prize again in 1909 and 1911 for the watercolour Summer and the painting Hauling Timber, respectively. In this period he also painted A Pastoral (1907).

SA ART GALLERY - HANS HEYSEN - A Pastoral (1907)A Pastoral (1907)

In the years prior to the 1st World War Hans Heysen’s popularity and finances substantially increased, allowing him in 1912 to purchase a property called ‘The Cedars’ near Hahndorf. This was to remain his home and main studio until his death in 1968. Paintings in this period include Approaching storm with bushfires (1912), and Red Gold (1913), which subsequently became his most popular work.

P1030146 Approaching Storm with Bushfires (1912)

P1030140.JPGRed Gold (1913)

During the 1st World War (1914-18) due being German born, Hans Heysen was considered an enemy alien. This is despite the fact that he had lived in Australia from the age of 7, and achieved considerable national and international acclaim for his Australian landscapes. He was placed under house arrest for the duration of the war. However, due to his reputation many national and international artists from various domains travelled up to Hahndorf to visit him. This included Dame Nellie Melba who sang for Hans Heysen and his family on a little make-shift stage in the living room of ‘The Cedars’ that is still intact today. One of Hans Heysens most beautiful works, Droving into the Light, dates from this period. He commenced the work in 1914 but did not complete it until 1921, possibly due to the psychological pressure of being regarded as an enemy-alien in his own country.

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However, he continued to win awards and acclaim for his work, including the watercolours Toilers (1920), The Quarry (1922), and Afternoon in Autumn (1924), and the painting Farmyard, Frosty Morning (1926). One of his most interesting works from the late 1920s is Patawarta: Land of the Oratunga (1929).  Not only does the painting reveal Heysen’s interests with indigenous tribes in the Flinders Ranges and surrounding region, but also his evolution as a major Australian landscape artist. The painting resonates with some of the works by Albert Namatjira, even though it pre-dates by 5 years any of the major works by Namatjira. It is possible, however, that Heysen’s work influenced the young Albert Namatjira due to Namatjira being raised at the German founded Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission. The German-Australian influence on some indigenous art and artists is exemplified by what came to be known as works deriving from the Hermannsburg School, Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory.

P1030148Patawarta: Land of the Oratunga (1929)

Hans Heysen continued to work throughout the rest of his long life. He won the Wynne Hans_Heysen_by_Harold_CazneauxPrize in 1931 for his watercolour Red Gums of the Far North, and again in 1932 for his painting Brachina Gorge. Collectively he won the Wynne Prize 9 times, which remains an unbroken record for this prestigious art prize. In 1935 the Australian photographer Harold Cazneaux (1878-1953) took a portrait of Hans Heysen. Both men were contemporaries and extremely influential on other Australian artists in their respective fields of art. Hans Heysen’s daughter, Nora Heysen, was also an important ‘modern’ Australian artist.

In 1945 Hans Heysen was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and in 1959 was made a Knight Bachelor for his services to art. The 1,200 kilometres long-distance walking track, from the Flinders Ranges to (via the Adelaide Hills) Cape Jervis on the Fleurieu Peninsular is called The Heysen Trail in honour of Sir Hans Heysen. There are other landmarks and objects named after Hans Heysen, such as the Heysen Tunnels that cut through Mt Lofty and the Adelaide Hills.  Many of Hans Heysen’s work are on display at the South Australian Art Gallery, as well as other major galleries throughout Australia. However, one of the joys (of many) of living in Adelaide is being able to visit Hans Heysen’s home ‘The Cedars’, just outside of Hahndorf. Not only is the house and studio fascinating but also the grounds. You can go for walks through the surrounding bush land and with specially curated signs posts and guides you can actually see some of the respective landscapes that inspired Hans Heysen. Truly wonderful.

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TONY KNIGHT

FILM: Dunkirk (2017)

09 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by APHK PHOTOGRAPHY in ACTING, ACTORS, DIRECTORS, DRAMA, FILM, HISTORY, MOVIES, Uncategorized

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ACTING, ACTORS, CINEMA, DRAMA, FILM, MOVIES

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Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk has received ecstatic acclaim as well as condemnation. The influential English director Peter Brook once stated that the ideal audience reaction was made up of those who liked a particular piece of work and those that did not, which subsequently set up the potential for discourse – rather than forgetting about the experience and merely moving onto the after-show drink. The reaction to Dunkirk, running the gamut of film criticism, hopefully will act as an extra spur to see this film in order for you to make up your own mind.

The World War 2 historical event of ‘Dunkirk’ is one that encourages and stimulates heated debate. Was it a victory or a defeat? Depending on your perspective and preference it could be either, and then again it could be both. From the German Army’s point of view it was a victory, defeating the Allied forces and driving the British out of Europe. To the British it is a matter of snatching a victory from the jaws of defeat, with over 300,000 soldiers rescued from the exposed beaches at Dunkirk, assisted by the French Army, and 700 privately owned British small crafts. This matter alone makes the Dunkirk story a potent piece of patriotism – as well as propaganda.

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Operation Dynamo - men wait in an orderly fashion for their turn to be rescued.
Operation Dynamo – men wait in an orderly fashion for their turn to be rescued.

In the history of cinema one of the first appearances of the Dunkirk story is in William Wyler’s 1942 Academy Award Best Film Mrs Miniver, which played an important role in US and UK propaganda at the height of WW2. Other films that involve Dunkirk and ‘Operation Dynamo’ (the code name for the British evacuation) are Leslie Norman’s Dunkirk (1968) and Joe Wright’s Atonement (2007). There is also the 1964 French film, Henri Verneuil’s Week-end a Zuydcoote (Weekend at Dunkirk). This final film is important as it presents the story from a French point of view in that it deals with a young French solider trying to escape with the British flotilla and being constantly denied.

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This issue, French troops being denied access, is based on fact and is an extremely controversial matter in regards to the Dunkirk story. Whilst Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk has received some negative criticism in the French press, nonetheless, he has not ignored this issue and deals with it in a similar way to Weekend at Dunkirk, and in rather harrowing and tragic fashion. The storyline of a young French soldier trying to get on a ship complements the overall theme of the film – Survival; and as one of the young British soldiers cries at a heightened moment in this particular storyline (‘The Mole’) involving ‘scapegoats’ and ‘witch-hunting’ triggered by fear and xenophobia, ‘In survival there is no right or wrong’. 

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A great deal has already been written about the three inter-related narratives in Dunkirk, involving the elements of air, sea and earth (‘The Mole’). The respective time-jumps that these narratives make in the course of the film contribute to the overall sense of chaos. Similar to the harrowing opening sequence of Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan in successfully capturing the chaotic nightmare of war so to does Nolan’s Dunkirk, albeit differently. Spielberg’s film does concentrate on character whereas Nolan’s film concentrates on the event. In a March 2017 interview with The Wrap Christopher Nolan is quoted as saying, ‘The empathy for the characters has nothing imagesto do with their story. I did not want to go through the dialogue, tell the story of my characters… The problem is not who they are, who they pretend to be or where they come from. The only question I was interested in was: Will they get out of it? Will they be killed by the next bomb while trying to join the mole? Or will they be crushed by a boat while crossing?’ – Survival in the immediacy of the moment is the focus, rather than ‘backstory’ and historical personages, such as Winston Churchill. It is a mistake, however, to think that one does not feel any empathy or personal involvement with the respective characters. You can and do – or at least I did. This is primarily due to the high calibre of acting by the respective actors, particularly (for me) Mark Rylance, and Cillian Murphy in what arguably is the most complex, dislikable and tragic surviving character in the film.

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There are so many aspects of this film that makes it worth seeing; and it must be seen on the big screen for its full impact and epic mastery. This is film-making at its very best, with Nolan’s vision successfully captured by Cinematographer Hoyt van Hoytma, and Edited by Lee Smith, and a Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer – to name just a few who successfully collaborated on this epic film.

To focus in one just one feature – the sound design and soundtrack – exemplifies the artistry involved in this film. Using the so-called ‘auditory illusion’ of a ‘Shepard tone’, which is a tone whose pitch continually ascends or descends yet seems to get no higher or lower, the sound design is extraordinary and extremely effective. It is ever present, with the addition of a ticking clock, which apparently is the synthesised sound of Nolan’s own pocket-watch. There is very little actual music, but when music does play it is highly effective and carries an emotional punch. A version of Edward Elgar’s “Nimrod” from his Enigma Variations gently creeps in just when the flotilla of small crafts arrive, accompanied by the cheers of the soldiers. It is a highly emotional sequence, and a clever use of Elgar’s stirring and recognisable patriotic ‘British’ music.

One further issue that is of interest – at least to me – is the inter-relationship of Dunkirk with others films. In an interview in a May edition of the British Film Institute Christopher Nolan discussed the various film influences,  references and inspirations that he and his crew shared in making Dunkirk. These include films as diverse as – Erich von Stroheim’s Greed (1924), F. W. Murnau’s Sunrise (1927), Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent (1940), Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear (1953), Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966), David Lean’s Ryan’s Daughter (1970), Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), Hugh Hudson’s Chariots of Fire (1981), Jan de Bont’s Speed (1994), and Tony Scott’s Unstoppable (2010). I would have to experience Dunkirk again to see if I can spot specific references to these films. I may have to leave it for a bit as I was so shattered by the experience that I need a bit of distance. Furthermore, as Nolan and his colleagues are acutely aware and appreciative of other master film-makers I suspect that William A. Wellman’s Wings (1927), with its incredible air battles, was also of considerable influence; as was (hopefully) Verneuil’s Weekend at Dunkirk.

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All these above mentioned films are terrific in their own unique way. They are all essentially films with an epic quality. As with literature, plays, opera, and other art forms, the successful production of an ‘epic’ piece of work is the ultimate goal and prize for numerous artists throughout the history of mankind. Christopher Nolan stated in an interview with the Directors Guild of America (June 2017) that he even though he had first been attracted to the story twenty years ago he had postponed doing Dunkirk until he had gained the necessary experience of doing large scale epic blockbusters. I have no idea if Dunkirk will be regarded as his ‘master-work’; it may win the Academy Award (and others) for Best Film, particularly knowing the Academy’s overall preference for ‘historical drama’ in regard to Best Film – but that is not the main reason to go an see this film. This may well not be a film for everyone, and just as many loathe ‘musicals’ or ‘horror’ or ‘science-fiction’ film, so to will many avoid ‘war movies’. However, as previously stated, as far as I was effected, Dunkirk to me is modern movie making at its very very very best.

Tony Knight

PS. May be a bit cheeky of me – but – notice the similarity between the poster for Dunkirk and After Shock? Intentional? Accidental? or another inter-film reference to a masterwork?

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