British holiday films of the Mediterranean: At home and abroad with home movies, ca. 1925-1936

Film History: An International Journal

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 152-165

  Nicholson, Heather Norris ^a,b,c  

^a Centre for Mediterranean Studies

^b UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS   (United Kingdom)

^c MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 3442895362     PISSN: 08922160     EISSN: 15533905     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2979/FIL.2003.15.2.152     Document Type: Article

References (61)

1. See, for instance, other discussions of early amateur filmmaking in Britain in H. Norris Nicholson, 'Moving Memories: Image and Identity in Home Movies' in N. Kapstein (ed. ), The Jubilee Book. Essays on Amateur Film (Charleroi, Belgium: Association Européenedes Inédits, 1997): 35-44;
2. H. Norris Nicholson,' "As if by Magic": Authority, Aesthetics and Visions of the Work Place in Home Movies' in K. Ishizuka and P. Zimmermann (eds), Mining the Home Movie: Excavations into Historical and Cultural Memories (Berkeley: University of California Press, forthcoming).
3. See also an earlier discussion on travel-related footage by non-professional filmmakers in H. Norris Nicholson, 'Telling Travellers' Tales: Framing the World in Home Movies, ca. 1935-1967', in T. Cresswell and D. Dixon (eds), Engaging Film: Travel, Mobility and Identity (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Little-field, 2002): 47-66.
4. The project, Framing the Mediterranean in Peace-Time: Travel, Identity and Home-Movies c. 1925-1960 is funded by the British Academy and the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation, 2002-2003.
5. I wish to thank staff at the North West Film Archive, Manchester Metropolitan University, England (NWFA) for their support in making materials available for research. I also wish to acknowledge the personal encouragement offered by the late Curator, Maryann Gomes, who died three months after the start of this research. Her long commitment to the safeguarding of archival film by, for and about the lives of ordinary peoples has helped to develop a regional archive of national and international significance.
6. Thanks to the assistance of Olwen Terris, archivist at the British Film Institute, preliminary work has already identified a comparable grouping of footage that derives from holidays and other reasons for visiting the Mediterranean region.
7. Contacts supplied by Nick Gladden (NWFA). In July-August 2002, I corresponded with surviving family members or friends for all the filmmakers identified as part of this study. Their enthusiastic responses and willingness to share memories has contributed to the understanding of how early home movies were made and shown. To them all I extend many thanks.
8. Norris Nicholson, 2002.
9. J. Buzard, The Beaten Track. European Tourism, Literature and the Ways to Culture, 1800-1918 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993);
10. J. Pemble, The Mediterranean Passion: Victorians and Edwardians in the South (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).
11. See, for example, T. Cunliffe, Good Vibrations. Coast to Coast by Harley (Chichester: Summersdale Press, 2000);
12. M. Wallington, Travels with Boogie (London: Arrow, 1996);
13. T. Hawks, Round Ireland with a Fridge (London, Ebury Press, 1998).
14. See also P. Holland and G. Huggen, Tourists with Typewriters: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Travel Writing (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1998).
15. See for example J. Duncan and D. Gregory, 'Writes of Passage: reading travel writing' in J. Duncan and D. Gregory (eds), Writes of Passage (London: Rout-ledge): 1-13;
16. G. Pratt, Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation (London: Routledge, 1992).
17. A. Strasser, Amateur Films. Planning, Directing and Cutting, Trans. P. C. Smethurst (London: Link House Publications, 1936).
18. Personal details kindly supplied by family member, August 2002.
19. Accession nos. , 1172, 1178, 1182, 1892 and others, NWFA. Please note that filmmakers did not always title their own footage and, for brevity, catalogue titles are included only for cruise-related footage or topicals (see note 15). Reference to films titled for archival purposes is shown using brackets.
20. Nick Gladden, NWFA, and family correspondence, July and August 2002.
21. Family correspondence, August 2002.
22. The Preston brothers described their own material as topicals. I also acknowledge Maryann Gomes in using the term 'topical'. She defined 'topicals' as short films filmed, produced and screened by local cinema managers who realised that local people's interest in seeing themselves on screen was very effective in filling cinema seats for a film show.
23. Orient Line Cruise, Accession no. 1894, NWFA.
24. Royal Mail Cruise M. V. Asturias to Spain, Madeira and the Canaries, 1928, Accession no. 1964, NWFA.
25. Orient Line Cruise, Leaving Lisbon we arrive in Gibraltar, Accession no. 1956, NWFA.
26. J. Nelmes, 'Women and Film', in J. Nelmes (ed. ), An Introduction to Film Studies (2nd edn). (London: Routledge, 1999): 267-305.
27. For a detailed discussion of amateur films in relation to landscape interpretation, see H. Norris Nicholson, 'Picturing the Past: Archival Film and Historical Landscape Change', Landscapes 3. 1 (2002): 81-100.
28. M. Feifer, Tourism in History: From Imperial Rome to the Present Day (New York: Stein and Day, 1986).
29. Buzard, 41.
30. These routes are based upon evidence from film footage at the NWFA. For further discussion of cruises, see J. Boone, 'Vacation Cruises or the Ho-moerotics of Orientalism', Public Modern Language Association 110 (1995): 89-107.
31. S. Day, At Home in Carthage. The British in Tunisia (Tunis: Trustees of St. George Church, 1992): 52-54.
32. The titles and inter-titles of some holiday footage indicate such attitudes: for example, Sunshine, Sea Breezes and Strange Places is a cruise-related film made in the early 1930s by G. Warburton, the son of a large family-owned regional bakery (Accession no. 1019, RR178/18, NWFA). The caption,'Tangier-The fancy dress town of Morocco' introduces extensive North African footage made by Dr. John Barker Scarr, from near Rochdale, Lancashire during his film, Mediterranean Cruise SSArandora Star, May 1933, Accession no. 3804 229/14, NWFA.
33. Many traditional garments show slight variations and changes of name across the countries of the Maghreb (a name used to group together the countries of North Africa). Terms used in the text refer to garments typical of Morocco since the focus is on material by the Prestons. Comparable footage from other amateur filmmakers during visits to Tunisia and Algeria record evidence of similar garments worn by men and women. For instance, many men tend to wear the djellaba, kaftan or kachabia undera burnous and a scarf, fez or Chechia in Algeria and Tunisia while women tend to wear the haik in Algeria and the safsari in Tunisia.
34. S. Santelli, Medinas: Traditional Architecture of Tunisia (Tunis: Dar Asraf Editions, 1992);
35. A. Daoulatli, 'L'expérience de Tunis', in B. Magritte, et al. Les SecteursSauvegardées (Paris: Ministèrede L'Equipment, 1994): 34-39;
36. P. Lowy, 'Evolution des grands médinastunisiennnes', in URBAMA, Pfésentet Avenir des Médinas de Marrakech à Alep (Tours: Université Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches, 1982): 103-120.
37. Lowy, 103;
38. F. Bejaoui, 'Le Projet "Oukalas": Renaissance d'une Médina', in Architecture méditer-ranéenne: Tunisie (Marseilles: Revue Internationale d'Architecture, 1997): n. p.
39. Orient Line Tetuan and Ceuta, Accession no. 1961D, NWFA.
40. Orient Line Tetuan and Ceuta, Accession no. 1943D, NWFA.
41. C. Spencer, 'The Spanish Protectorate and the Occupation of Tangier in 1940', in G. Joffe, North Africa: Nation, State and Region (London: Routledge, 1993): 91-107.
42. Orient Line Cruise on SS Orama, Accession no 1894, NWFA.
43. B. Behncke, 'Vesuvius: Eruptive history', in Italy's Volcanoes. The Cradle of Volcanology, 1997. Available at www. geo. mtu,edu/∼boris/VESUVIUS- erupt. html (Accessed 9 March 2002).
44. Orient Line Cruise on SS Orama, Accession no. 1894, NWFA.
45. The Preston Family Visit Naples and Pompeii, Accession no. 1944D, NWFA.
46. Glengarry Cinema Topical News No. 7, Accession no. 1155, NWFA.
47. D. K. Chester, et al. , 'Mascali, Mount Etna Region, Sicily: An Example of Fascist Planning during the 1928 Eruption and Its Continuing Legacy', Natural Hazards 19 (1999): 29-46;
48. A. M. Duncan, et al. , 'The 1928 Eruption of Mount Etna Volcano, Sicily, and the Destruction of the Town of Mascali', Disasters 20 (1996): 1-20.
49. [Palma and Mallorca], Accession No. 1958D, NWFA.
50. [Preston Family-Cruise Holiday], Accession no. 1187D;
51. [The Preston Family Visit Naples and Pompeii], Accession no. 1944D;
52. [P & O Cruise of the Mediterranean May/June 1932], Accession no. 1945D;
53. Royal Mail Line Cruise. M. V. Asturias (22500 tonnes) to Spain, Madeira and the Canaries, Accession no. 1964D: Orient Line SS Orama Cruising Lisbon, Accession no. 1960D, NWFA.
54. [The Preston Family Visit Naples and Pompeii], Accession no. 1944D.
55. Dutch filmmaker Hans Keller is quoted in B. Ho-genkamp and M. Lauwers, 'In Pursuit of Happiness? A Search for the Definition of Amateur Film', in N. Kapstein (ed. ), Jubilee Book: Essays on Amateur Film (Charleroi, Belgium: Association Européenne Inédits, 1997): 107-116.
56. The Association Europeénne Inédits was established in 1991 and adopted the term 'inédits' for all films produced outside professional production circuits. AEI's commitment to bringing together international archival, academic and producers' interests in inédits led to a conference and follow up publication, Wijk, P. van (ed. ), You Can't See What You Don't Know: Colloquium Reader of the Association Européenne Inédits (Charleroi, Belgium: AEI/Amster-dam: Stichting Film en Wetenschap, 1994).
57. For discussions of AEI's early activities, see J. P. Art, 'Introduction', in N. Kapstein, 5-10.
58. N. Denzin, The Cinematic Society: The Voyeur's Gaze (London: Sage, 1995).
59. John Barker Scarr, Mediterranean Cruise SS Arandora Star May 1933(2), Accession no. 3803 NWFA;
60. G. Warburton, Sunshine, Sea Breezes and Strange Places, Accession no. 1019 RR 178/9. The Prestons did not film at night on the Mediterranean cruises although in 1931 they recorded the illuminations at Blackpool for Glengarry Cinema Topical News No. 8, Accession no. 1168 NWFA. On the Banks of the River Aude (Accession no. 759/RR 315) is a true orphan film in that although, attributed to Reginald Rigby, it has now been identified by his daughter, as the work of an unknown fellow member of the Photographic section of Preston Scientific Society. Family correspondence, September 2002.
61. P. Stead, 'Hollywood's Message to the World', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 1 (1981): 19-32.