Films of Love and War
This wonderfully evocative film captures the life and times of a young man, his days of love, his years of war, his memories of friends and family – and so many moments of life in between, writes Dave Hopwood.
It’s a carefully crafted time capsule in grainy monochrome and speckle-dusted colour.
Harry Birrell was born in 1918. Aged just 10, he was given his first camera, and so he began documenting his life in over 400 home movies, from childhood in Scotland, to the high life of 1930s London, and on to the thrill and beauty of life in India. This includes trekking through the snowy magnificence of the Himalayas, the horror and danger of the war in Burma, and on into the peacetime years.
Actor Richard Madden (of The Bodyguard and Rocketman fame) and Harry’s granddaughter, Carina Birrell, time-travel us back as they give voice to Harry’s diaries alongside the resonant visuals and stirring soundtrack.
The film quality is not great – but that’s the point.
It shows its age and so draws us into another era, a time long before smart phones and HDTV. This hails from an era when home footage was precious, and the moments Birrell has captured are the treasured currency of an age now past.
Dave Hopwood is a film critic for Sorted magazine.