The brief of the BFI's Flipside Collection is 'rescuing weird and wonderful British films from obscurity and presenting them in new high-quality editions'. And when they say obscurity, they really do mean obscurity. The collection includes movies even the most devout cult film fan won't be familiar with. The majority of titles were made between the early 1960s and early 1970s and range from noirish thrillers and educational films to cutting-edge art movies and sleazy esoterica.
To guide the viewer around this 'lost continent' of British films, the BFI has produced a budget-price DVD that samples a few of the riches on offer in the ever-expanding collection. Kim Newman's Guide To The Flipside Of British Cinema includes an insightful documentary by the eponymous cult-film critic where he reveals the role these films play as part of our cinema heritage and as snapshots of a hidden social history. The disc also includes a tourist board short from 1969 called Tomorrow Night In London, which takes an impressionistic, kaleidoscopic look at the capital's nightlife. Carousella is a nouvelle vagueish 1965 documentary about Soho strip clubs that was banned by the British Board of Film Censors on the grounds it might cause girls to flock to London to take up the profession (now, it could almost be a feature on The One Show). The DVD is rounded off by The Spy's Wife, a fly 1972 crime movie directed by Flipside favourite Gerry O'Hara and starring the criminally underrated Tom Bell (it has a great score, too).
If the sampler DVD whets your appetite, here are the nine Blu-ray and DVD titles that make up the collection so far...
The Bed Sitting Room: Probably the best-known Flipside film, this anarchic, post-apocalypse satire from 1969 was directed by Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night, Help, Superman 2). It features a host of British comedy talent (Peter Cook, Spike Milligan, Arthur Lowe) and luvvie acting legends (Ralph Richardson, Michael Hordern).
London In The Raw and Primitive London: These two discs feature early-60s mondo exploitation documentaries by low-budget filmmaker Arnold Miller. Trawling some of the capital's seedier clubs and bars as well as glittering cocktail lounges, they're equal parts fascinating social documents and unintentionally hilarious (especially the scenes where disgruntled mods keep getting asked if they're beatniks).
Herostratus: The most avant garde title in the collection, Don Levy's 1967 film is a Mephistophelean story of a young poet selling his own suicide to a marketing company. Pretentious? Definitely - but as Kim Newman says in his Flipside documentary, someone has to go too far at some point to establish what the limits are. And what price invention and surprise in these times of Michael Bay's cinema of the bleeding obvious? Levy was just one of many directors looked down upon by the critical elite of the period, who only recognised artistic vision if it was accompanied by subtitles. Trivia fans, look out for Helen Mirren in her first ever film role.
That Kind Of Girl and All The Right Noises: Two dramas from the aforementioned Gerry O'Hara. The former is a 1963 curio that covers bases as seemingly diverse as nuclear proliferation, au pairing and STDs, while the latter is a 1969 tale of adultery in the lower rungs of showbiz (starring Tom Bell and then bright young thing Olivia Hussey).
Man Of Violence: Hardboiled film noir from director Pete Walker. It's 1971 and London is still swinging by a thread. Think crooked property developers, think bent coppers, think the sort of thugs who'd laugh DCI Gene Hunt out of the boozer and give him a good shoeing in the process. Cynicism is served with a side order of hopelessness in a world now so far removed from our own it could be set on Mars.
Privilege: Kim Newman calls Privilege's director Peter Watkins 'the greatest unknown filmmaker' and he has a point. Anyone who has seen Watkins' longtime banned docudrama The War Game will be aware of the power of his work (as well as being appalled that such a revealing and informative film could be suppressed for decades) and 1967's Privilege is equally hardhitting. Here, using the mock documentary format he pioneered, Watkins tells the story of a pop singer (played by real-life pop and blues performer Paul Jones) who's employed by the government as a means of social control (hello The X Factor). Remarkably, the film also presages rock becoming a force for conservatism (give us a wave Snow Patrol, Nickelback, Stereophonics, Metallica and your ilk).
Permissive: Rock music again, this time courtesy of director Lindsay Shonteff. Made in 1970, Permissive is a drama exploring the counterculture world of groupie Suzy (played by Maggie Stride). Glamour never enters into the equation as our whey-faced heroine wanders from one downbeat location to the next, rather like an extra from a mash-up version of Almost Famous and Night Of The Living Dead. You're constantly reminded why punk happened, but it's yet another absorbing portrait of a lost world.
Kim Newman's Guide To The Flipside Of British Cinema is out now (BFI). All the BFI Flipside titles are also available and contain various short films and extra features.
Colin Houlson
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here