O, Dreamland (1953)

[Pete Fowler]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLlKR1x1oWY&NR=1

Dreamland is an amusement arcade in Margate, based, at one time, on Coney Island. In 1953, the-then young Lindsay Anderson made this documentary, fifteen minutes or so long.

It’s incredible to think that this was only fifteen years before he made If… The world turned in such a short time; and if you ever meet anyone of my age or older who tells you how much better life was in the 1950s, look again at this film. Look at the faces. Listen to the music. Look at the artefacts. Look at the way people lived.

I still have to tell people – the 1960s happened because of the way we had to live in the 1950s. That world, trapped in the austerity of the post war era, crushed by a conformity that had dominated our lives since Victoria, was characterised by a stultifying boredom where the need for joy in ordinary lives was addressed by dreamlands like this.

Where they weren’t.

The colour in our lives was finally introduced when some poor white kids in Memphis, such a long way away, started to listen to music that they were meant to avoid like the plague. And started to say, ‘hey!, that Bo Diddley guy wears a pink jacket!

[AndyM]

I don't dispute the impact of rock'n'roll (who could??) or the relative greyness of some aspects of British culture pre-Elvis, but I've always thought 'O Dreamland' was a mean-spirited, vindictive, condescending little film. Anderson was one of that unlovely tribe: privileged leftists whose yearning for ''''''''the revolution'''''''' was matched only by their mandarin contempt for actual working-class people. (Apart, in poor dear Lindsay's case, from the bits of rough he swooned and pined after.)

[Pete Fowler]

I don't disagree, Andy - I'd never seen this before and found it interesting....but, sure, he was a patronising git.

Trouble is, I remember all of those faces, all of those trapped animals, all of those arcade features, all of those models of executions, all of those laughing policemen and laughing sailors, all of those bingo calls and it does, I'm afraid, remind me of times I was dragged to the Kursaal, or to Cleethorpes Pier, given a pile of pennies and told to clear off and have fun.

But, believe me, I see your point.

[AndyM]

But there was fun to be had - genuine pleasures to be savoured - and it's that angle which Anderson tries to suppress. The way he frames & edits the film is so shriekingly slanted.

[Pete Fowler]

But there were images of people having fun, Andy...

Yes, it was slanted - but what isn't? Rather a lot of film makers start with a point of view, as do quite a lot of screen and TV writers: think of this very last week on TV - McGovern, Fellows. Both have strongly held principles, from very different sides; but neither point of view necessarily detracts from the validity or the invalidity of the end result. So, I might love McGovern to bits, I even know the guy from my time in Liverpool, I admire him enormously, but did think, watching Accused, that there were a few bits of sharp practice, admittedly largely retrieved by Eccleston...

The Anderson was evocative to me because it recorded something I haven't seen elsewhere - and it was filmed well. The guy knows how to shoot film. And, sure, it was his first attempt and had all of those biases you mention; and sure, it wasn't Eraserhead or Duel: but it recorded a moment, or, in reality, moments of moments, the other moments (that you call 'fun') presumably being minimalised.

But I never thought I'd see footage covering that stuff and it brought back memories for me (do remember I'd never seen it and am not a Film Studies academic!)....and I'm glad I read about it (in David Kynaston's Family Britain, 1951/57) and then found it was right there on faithful old YouTube.

[Adam Blake]

Anderson was one of that unlovely tribe: privileged leftists whose yearning for ''''''''the revolution'''''''' was matched only by their mandarin contempt for actual working-class people. (Apart, in poor dear Lindsay's case, from the bits of rough he swooned and pined after.)

Andy, I remember my mother saying exactly the same things about Anderson in the 70s...

[AndyM]

Not the first time I've been compared to someone's mother.

Although the first time I've been compared to yours!

[Adam Blake]

You and my mother would have got along famously, Andy...

[AndyM]

Thank you. I do tend to get on with mothers.

Shame about mine.

[Martin Owen]

As a kid in the 60's I used to work in the arcades in Rhyl. I remember having to grease the kinds of tableau in the film - I still can't work out why anyone would put coins into macabre automata like The Penny Drops which for a 1d coin allowed you to turn the handle and operate the hangman. However parting the visitor ( ah - days before they became tourists) from their cash was what it was about.

I can also recall lines of coaches as shown by Anderson (but from Liverpool, Lancs and the Potteries) bringing Sunday school trips.

I got my music education from the juke box at White Rose Amusements - and I suppose Bernie - who managed the place - was in fact my music mentor. Freddie Cannon may have had me believing I lived in Palisades Park.

When I used to teach in Paddington in the mid-70's, Margate was still #1 destination for the annual "year" outing - same sentiment - but often darker skins (kids who mentored me into a taste for dub).

I still think film makers patronise the working class. Mike Leigh in particular makes me fume. I just don't recognise the degree on inarticulateness of his characters in any of my friends, neighbours or relatives.

BTW - seaside resorts brought colour into people's lives long before rock and roll -
Rhyl Prom 1920's

[Des]

Don't get me started on Weston in the 50s.

[Martin Owen]

Don't get me started on Weston in the 50s.

I didn't get away from the beach when I went to uni. My fellow resident in digs was the son of the owner of the Tower Caff opposite Clevedon pier.

M

[Hugh Weldon]

Martin

I still think film makers patronise the working class

I think this applies to Ken Loach too, not all the time, but I found that film about the guy who keeps seeing Cantona irritating beyond belief.

[Adam Blake]

I still think film makers patronise the working class. Mike Leigh in particular makes me fume.

Thank you, Martin. I would have walked out on "Vera Drake" if I hadn't been with a bunch of people. And then to have to put up with everyone going on and on about how brilliant it was...

[Martin Owen]

I would have walked out on "Vera Drake" if I hadn't been with a bunch of people. And then to have to put up with everyone going on and on about how brilliant it was...

I could have been ostracised by the Bristol Watershed Cinephiles for the same reason.

I have been re-visiting the 60's realists - only to be upset the fact that Stan Barstow wrote "Saturday Night Sunday Morning" in Robert Graves's garden in Majorca - ho hum.