Humphrey Jennings

The Films

Humphrey Jenning’s film work started in 1934 editing Post Haste for the General Post Office film unit. He joined the unit and was involved in numerous productions (including co-directing The Birth of the Robot with Len Lye in 1936) until he was given the opportunity to conceive and direct his own documentary in 1939. His first film proper, Spare Time has strong links to the topics mentioned above; it is often referred to as his ‘Mass Observation’ film, and is set within the heart of the industries and towns affected by the industrial revolution. It is a look at Britain’s leisure life in three industrial centres; cotton production in Manchester; the steel industry in Sheffield; and coal mining in Pontypridd. The film has a very personal observational tone to it, and has some memorable moments.

Spare Time lacks a sense of purpose though, and it was only really when war started that Jennings’ films became such forceful evocations of British life. From Spring Offensive on, Jennings began to create short (he only directed one feature length film – Fires Were Started) and extremely powerful meditations on the affect of war on all aspects of Britain. The notion of the “totality of war, reaching even these people, this landscape” (Lovell & Hillier, 1972 pp75) permeated itself through his early war work, as he focused on individual elements under the affects of war. Such cinematically important films such as Listen to Britain, Fires Were Started and A Diary for Timothy consistently brought into view the affect of war on the British people, to the British people. After the war, Jennings’ films became less direct, and lost their sense of real power. Of his post-war films only in A Family Portrait (made for the Festival of Britain in the year he died) did Jennings in any way begin to create films that spoke about what had been fought for, and what remained. The relevance of Jennings in today’s cinema can be traced through his impact on British Cinema since his death; he was an acknowledged key figure for the free cinema movement of the late 50’s and early 60’s (not only on Lindsay Anderson, but also on Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson); in turn a direct and indirect influence of the realism of the late 60’s Play for Today era of directors (Ken Loach, Alan Clarke); and further still his influence can be seen in the contemporary films of Michael Haneke and Harmony Korine. His films have a realism and an honesty to them that makes them easily accessible today.