Transmetropolitan
From HIGH TREASON, Britain’s 1929 answer to METROPOLIS, a drama of impending warfare in the distant year 1950, a time of two-way television, channel tunnels and beach volleyball. Over at the Daily Notebook, in this week’s edition of The Forgotten, you can read all about it and ponder the weird mindset of it’s writer-producer, Noel Pemberton Billing.
Grabbing some of the big city imagery of Lang’s film, but not taking it quite so far, the more muted Brits eschew the class warfare theme (unsurprisingly) of the earlier meisterwerk, concentrating on a less-than-simmering conflict between hawkish military types and religious peaceniks — the promising subplot about international agitators seeking to provoke a war between Britain and America is swiftly abandoned, alas.
Incidentally, where is Scene 1 taking place? It appears to be at a sort of Checkpoint Charlie in between Europe (ruled from London, rightly enough) and the US. And it’s on dry land…
April 14, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Mind you, the class war theme (and eugenics) theme was front and centre in Things To Come, just a few years later.
April 14, 2011 at 8:23 pm
The Onion recently announced the death of the last historian who knew the cause of the War of 1812. Could it have been … beach volleyball?
Britain sure used to know how to get the best out of its odd ducks.
April 14, 2011 at 9:52 pm
Eccentricity is a respected profession in Britain.
April 14, 2011 at 10:02 pm
You want even more lumbering futurism? Check out Fox Studio’s answer to METROPOLIS, David Butler’s JUST IMAGINE (30). With the achingly unfunny “comic” El Brendel, Mia Farrow’s adorable mother, and totally fabulous miniatures that go even beyond Lang’s and NPB’s films for sheer Art Deco excess.
April 14, 2011 at 10:15 pm
NPB, who mastered political paranoia for fun and profit, was one degree of separation away from Oscar Wilde, exploiting the middle-aged Bosie’s homophobia in his, NPB’s, suit against Lesbian dancer Maud (“Salome”) Allan. Riveting stuff!
I am grateful to learn more about his one-off film career.
April 14, 2011 at 10:20 pm
And we owe him the Spitfire.
Just Imagine has amazing visuals, cute, if irrelevant songs, Maureen O’Sullivan, and yes, El Brendel, proving that EB has the power to sour ANY cinematic experience.
April 14, 2011 at 11:06 pm
>>Eccentricity is a respected profession in Britain.<<
In reading this and watching the clip, I couldn't help but think of Tom Baker's intros for Little Britain; Britain, Britain, Britain….
skip to :55
April 15, 2011 at 12:09 am
That’s very weird, because I watched Pasolini’s Canterbury Tales this morning, featuring full-frontal Tom, and then I found this –
http://www.flickr.com/photos/apelad/5617913443/
April 15, 2011 at 12:16 am
I dunno about that, Brendel didn’t kill Sunnyside Up. Maybe it’s a talent he quickly developed. Oh, El has his fans, too, but I’m kinda agnostic.
April 15, 2011 at 2:03 am
I just couldn’t help thinking of Baker’s sublime doggerel while watching that clip.
April 15, 2011 at 9:18 am
Tom Baker is in Canterbury Tales? Tell me where!
April 15, 2011 at 10:43 am
About an hour in (they make you wait) — scholar who marries a domineering sex maniac. His appearance is followed swiftly by Robin Askwith’s. Almost the first actor we see is jug-eared Nicholas Smith from Are You Being Served?
“Britain, Britain, Britain…” A shame Little Britain outstayed its welcome so badly, the first series was sublime.
I think maybe it’s the fact that El B is so centrally positioned in Just Imagine, in a role that needed to be some kind of everyman to work. El Brendel is not everyman. He’s not even anyman.
April 15, 2011 at 12:43 pm
For something to disturb your day, I recently saw a picture of El wearing nothing but a hat and shoes, seated in the “thinker” position. Worst of all it didn’t look like a photoshop.
April 15, 2011 at 1:02 pm
As long as the hat is about 100 cubic feet in size, I wouldn’t have a problem with that.
April 16, 2011 at 2:40 am
Aw it’s great you got round to watching this “High Treason”. I personally liked that the model shots were recognisably London. And am I right in remembering the computers all had wooden push-stops like a church organ? Oscar Wilde’s Last Stand really is worth a read by the way.
April 16, 2011 at 8:43 am
Couldn’t tell on this copy if the push-stops were wooden, but they’re built into desktops, so why not? The London-ness was just right. What was odd was that the futuristic New York looked just like contemporary New York — one wondered why they built it. Then they blow it up, and you understand.
Thanks for recommending this one!