Night Mail. Harry Watt and Basil Wright, 1936.
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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray The Soviet Influence: From Turksib to Night Mail, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 23 minutes.
Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray The Soviet Influence: From Turksib to Night Mail, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 23 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.
Night Mail shows the people and machinery of a post office on rails that provides non-stop pickup, sorting, and delivery on its nightly run from London to Scotland. Although made as a public education piece by the UK General Post Office, it is a beautiful little film with original music by Benjamin Britten and poetic narration that reflects the train’s rhythm and speed.
The glitch is featuring this title in a compilation declaring to show how the English learned modern filmic techniques from the Soviets. Rather, Night Mail indicates that even seven years after Turksib the Brits still feared an artful modern appearance and clung to quaint traditionalism. A slight rewording of BFI’s mission statement, reminding us that change comes slowly in England and often through side doors, would have accommodated Night Mail nicely. Additionally, Britten’s music and W.H. Auden’s narrative poem are nicely modern in style and content, but their mere presence reflects the dual Anglo needs to over-explain everything and to decorate all available space. Contrast to Turksib’s elective silence and boldly superimposed lettering of shockingly modern scale and typeface.