Orwell documentary on BBC2 right now

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"Orwell: A Life in Pictures": decidedly odd. Made (deliberately?) fulfilling all arts-documentary tropes, but the interviews and onscreen bits of Orwell footage are actually artificially dated, and 'Orwell' is Chris Langham in makeup. Is anyone watching this that knows what to make of it?

― thom west (thom w), Saturday, 14 June 2003 19:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I started watching halfway through, and was puzzled by the supposed Orwell interview footage. I was 70% sure it was an actor, but I'm glad you made it clear.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Saturday, 14 June 2003 19:55 (twenty-two years ago)

The fact that so much (all?) of what Langham SAYS is taken directly from what Orwell wrote is interesting: it allows for interesting recontextualisation, like having 'A Nice Cup of Tea' linked with army tea in the Spanish militia. There seems to be a v. odd strain of criticism: his wife (an actress, presumably) looking uncomfortable sitting in the backgound of an interview, a letter expressing his distrust of pacifism becoming onscreen Orwell shouting over the protestations of a pacifist. (Did this debate actually take place?)

Orwell's claim that oft-used expressions in a language lost their meaning/potency: how does this fit with putting this into (what seem at first glance like) typical BBC2 documentary format?

― thom west (thom w), Saturday, 14 June 2003 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought it was terrific, Langham a revelation (just as he seemed to be settling into Roy Mallard forever), the dramatisations witty. Highlights: the John Freeman "Face to Face" interview, the bizarre stills of Orwell/Langham's wounding in Spain. Clearly, great chunks of it (any genuine faded footage of contemporaries) were lifted from some past, rather more conventional, Beeb doc.

I've no idea what the Orwellian scholar might make of it, except to be vaguely irked by its wry tone and contrivances.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Sunday, 15 June 2003 00:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't like some of the script. Orwell used clichés such as 'at the present time' that I would have thought he'd have avoided (ha ha - nearly said 'like the plague').

― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 15 June 2003 00:59 (twenty-two years ago)

anyone see the, er, 1954 1984 on BBC4?

― DG (D_To_The_G), Sunday, 15 June 2003 10:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Some unfortunate omissions, but genuinely innovative and effective.

― the Orwellian scholar, Sunday, 15 June 2003 22:06 (twenty-two years ago)

five months pass...

George Bush's 2004 campaign is urging American voters to write to Congress in support of "the president's policy of 'pre-emptive self-defense'."

Is it true that no film or audiotape of Orwell exists?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 22 November 2003 04:37 (twenty-one years ago)

so said the radio times

― thom west (thom w), Sunday, 23 November 2003 01:35 (twenty-one years ago)

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