Effects, Lies And Videotape

PUBLIC INFORMATION films (PIFs) have been with us since the end of World War II. Commissioned by the Government, these short films originally advised the British public about health awareness, showed the safest way to use a pedestrian crossing and warned holidaymakers about carrying more than £5 in notes when going abroad. More recently, hard-hitting PIFs highlighting the dangers of speeding and drink driving have been credited with helping to reduce the number of accidents on our roads.

However, there's no disputing that the 1970 and 1980s were the golden age for public information films. Jimmy Savile clunk clicked every trip to promote seatbelt use, animated proto-chavs Joe and Petunia ran roughshod over our green and pleasant land to illustrate the importance of the Country Code, Charley the cat said it was foolhardy to douse yourself with scalding tea, talk to strangers in the park and set yourself on fire with matches (especially at the same time), Jimmy Hill advised us to: 'Think once, think twice, think bike' (although most people just thought: 'Chin') and 1986 saw the first appearance of the AIDs iceberg.

The aforementioned AIDs PIF Don't Die Of Ignorance is one of 14 short films and documentaries produced by the Central Office of Information (COI) on the BFI DVD release MisinforMation. The BFI now manages the COI film collection and it commissioned Mordant Music's enigmatic Baron Mordant (a sort of ambient Banksy) to re-score and re-name the films.

The DVD begins with Mindless Reverie, a burglary-awareness short that depicts magpies ransacking a house, and the discordant dub-effect backing cranks the sense of menace up another notch. Similarly, substance abuse documentary Attenuated Shadows is made even bleaker when its narration is replaced by futuristic industrial noise. In A Double Room In A Single Bed, the 1970 Ideal Home Exhibition resembles a Chapman Brothers vision of hell thanks to its murky 23 Skidoo-influenced soundtrack.

It isn't all doom and gloom, though. Ridyll (originally entitled Looking At Prehistoric Sites) combines an ethereal melody and striking images of Stonehenge to produce something resembling a mash-up of the UK Tourist Board and Boards Of Canada. Peter Greenaway's 1983 documentary The Sea In Their Blood, the most accomplished film in the collection, originally featured a score by Michael Nyman, but now has a shuffling, shifting ambient wash that matches the ebb and flow of the tides.

For many, this left-field release will be about as welcome as a driving lesson from Reginald Molehusband. In fact, the BFI themselves call it one of their 'most startling and uncategorisable releases'. But I enjoyed its warped trip down memory lane and would certainly welcome another volume – if only to find out how the likes of Aphex Twin or Flying Lotus might re-imagine a swimming lesson with Rolf Harris.
MisinforMation (BFI) is out now on DVD.

THE PUBLICATION of the fifth edition of David Thomson's The New Biographical Dictionary Of Film (Little, Brown) cements its reputation as the best reference book ever written about cinema. But even this exalted praise does a disservice to Thomson's masterwork. Far more than a mere collection of facts and filmographies, it contains 1,500 trenchant, passionate and often very funny mini essays on actors, directors and producers – ranging from Abbott and Costello to Terry Zwigoff – that defy reading in isolation. For example, Thomson's view that Tom Hanks 'carries the automatic sentiment of a dog in a film about people' prompted me to flick to the entry on Ron Howard, who has directed Hanks on several occasions, and discover the spot-on observation: 'He's a proficient director of mild entertainments that make people feel good about their fellows. It's just that I could scream.'

The New Biographical Dictionary Of Film can be digested in a mazy, Borgesian way where the boundaries of fact, fiction and philosophy become blurred, or like a novel from cover to cover. And whether you find yourself agreeing with statements like Cary Grant was 'the best and most important actor in the history of the cinema' or bemoaning the lack of Asian filmmakers (something Thomson has promised to rectify for the sixth edition), this brilliant, provocative book will never fail to entertain.

LAST YEAR, Peter Morgan concluded his Tony Blair trilogy with The Special Relationship. But how will Nick Clegg be remembered by future filmmakers when they eventually get around to documenting his time in Government? Here are Popcorn Double Feature's Top 10 title suggestions for the Clegg biopic...

1) A Cock And Bull Tory
2) Coalition Impossible
3) Lie Hard
4) Broken Promise Mountain
5) True Colours: Blue
6) The Unbelievable Untruth
7) Lib And Let Lie
8) Robin Falsehood: Prince Of Thieves
9) Tall Story 1,2 & 3
10) Charlatan's Web

Colin Houlson

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here