Family Portrait *** (1950, voice of Michael Goodliffe) – Classic Movie Review 9152

Director Humphrey Jennings’s esoteric 1950 short film Family Portrait is a wistful, rather attractive and appealing documentary celebration of Britain’s past, with warmly nostalgic scenes of the nation’s home, town, farm, scientific, political and social life, as a film on the theme of the Festival of Britain 1951. It was ace documentarist Jennings’s final short film before his accidental death in a cliff fall while scouting for a location in Greece.

The official film for the 1951 Festival of Britain, it is narrated by Michael Goodliffe and was nominated for a BAFTA Film Award as Best Documentary Film for 1952.

Humphrey Jennings’s 1950 short film Family Portrait.

Family Portrait is directed by Humphrey Jennings, runs 25 minutes, is made by Wessex Film Productions, is released by Festival of Britain, is written by Humphrey Jennings, is shot in black and white by Martin Curtis, is produced by Ian Dalrymple and is scored by John Greenwood.

Jennings is the maker of Listen to Britain (1942), Fires Were Started (1943) and A Diary for Timothy (1945).

The BFI’s Complete Humphrey Jennings Volume Three: A Diary for Timothy is available on DVD.

Volume three includes the following films: The True Story of Lili Marlene (1944), The Eighty Days (1944), Myra Hess (1945), A Diary for Timothy (1946), A Defeated People (1946), The Cumberland Story (1947), The Dim Little Island (1948) and Family Portrait (1950).

Also available are The Complete Humphrey Jennings Volume One: The First Days [1939] and The Complete Humphrey Jennings Volume Two: Fires Were Started [1941].

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9152

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