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The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Series: BFI Film Classics
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The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This book is ideal for readers interested in arts and culture, particularly those who appreciate classic cinema and thoughtful analyses of nationalism and identity. It will also resonate with fans of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, as well as anyone intrigued by the historical and cultural implications behind iconic films.
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Description
Winston Churchill hated The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, and tried to have it banned when it was released in 1943. However, Martin Scorsese, a champion of directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, considers it a masterpiece.
It’s a film about desires repressed in favour of worthless and unsatisfying ideals. It also explores how England dreamt of itself as a nation and how this dream disguised inadequacy and brutality in the clothes of honour.
A. L. Kennedy, writing as a Scot, is fascinated by the nationalism which The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp explores. She finds human worth in the film and highlights the pathos of stifled emotions and unfulfilled lives. “If he is unaware of his passions,” she writes of Clive Candy, the film’s central figure, “this is because his pains have become habitual, a part of personality, and because he was never taught a language that could speak of emotions like pain.”
This edition includes a foreword by the author exploring the film's continuing relevance in an age of Brexit, when English and British national identity are deeply contested concepts.
Series: BFI Film Classics
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781838719104
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 28 May 2020
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: BFI Publishing
Illustration: 24 b/w illustrations
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 10.0mm
Width: 134.0mm
Height: 188.0mm
Weight: 140g
Pages: 88
About the Author
A.L.Kennedy was born in Dundee. She lived for almost 30 years in Glasgow and now stays in North Essex. She has won a variety of UK and international book awards, including a Lannan Award, the Costa Prize, The Heinrich Heine Preis, the Somerset Maugham Award and the John Llewellyn Rees Prize. She has twice been included on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list. Her recent books includeThe Blue Book (2011); Doctor Who: The Drosten's Curse (2015); Serious Sweet (2016) and The Little Snake (2018). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of the Akademie der Kunst. She also writes for the stage, screen, TV and has created an extensive body of radio work including documentaries, monologues, dramas and essays. She also performs occasionally in one person shows and as a stand up comic.
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