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Alan Crawford,
Sunday Herald, 24 October 2004 Feature
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… seminal movie … Akenfield achieved the holy grail of TV success by attracting critical and popular acclaim in equal measure … a model of filming – part documentary, part fiction- which has a place in TV and cinema history |
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Krishan Arora,
BBC Television, 24 October 2004
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Akenfield is a film with enduring values of Britain and the countryside that just struck a chord This was a time when there were only three channels and we all gathered around for big television events, and this was one of them |
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Dick Fiddy,
The British Film Institute, 24 October 2004
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| Akenfield was beautiful and elegiac |
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The British
Film Institute, 20 November 2004 TV Festival programme
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Thirty years ago, Akenfield made history … This screening … offers a chance to rediscover, or to experience for the first time, a true TV masterpiece … |
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Sir Peter Hall,
The Guardian, 20 November 2004 Feature
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| Akenfield … is the most personal piece of work I have ever done |
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The Guardian,
20 November 2004 Watch This
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Peter Hall took the tradition of naturalistic theatre in to film… … turning the stories of people's lives into drama Hailed as a masterpiece on its release, the film cuts to the heart of a side of British life that has since almost entirely died out … innovative film |
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Roger Clarke,
The Independent, 20 November 2004 Films of the Week ****
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| Alexander Walker called this fascinating docu-drama , which uses a largely non-professional cast, “one of the best films … made in and about England”; it's certainly of its time |
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Daily Mail,
20 November 2004 Choice
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Simon Wardell,
The Sunday Times, 21 November 2004 Best Film of Week
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Peter Hall's unique film… The photography by Ivan Strasburg recalls painters such as Constable and gives the film a very English flavour – nostalgic but with an awareness of how tough rural life can be … every scene is grounded in the land the performers live on and has a sure sense of place |
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Philip French,
The Observer, 21 November 2004 Film of the Day
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| It looks beautiful, has a soaring score by Michael Tippett … |
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Geoff Ellis, Radio
Times, 25 November 2004 Today's Choice
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A beautiful portrait of English rural life … was a real one-off Nostalgic and beguiling it may be, but cosy it isn't |
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Stephen Dalton,
The Times, 25 November 2004 Film Choice
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| A beautifully composed living tableaux |
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Matt Brerton,
The Scotsman, 25 November 2004 TV Choice
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Legendry theatre director Sir Peter Hall adapts Ronald Blythe's testimonial memoir … The largely non-professional cast give the film an ultra-realistic feel … |
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Gerard O'Donovan,
The Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2004 Review
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How lovely to see BBC4 showing Peter Hall's 1974 film Akenfield There are many reasons why Akenfield is regarded as a landmark in British film-making … its television broadcast, which drew 14 million viewers. An extraordinary number for a film of this type … it was highly experimental, blurring fiction and reality in its evocation of 100 years … … it captured beautifully and forever a rural lifestyle and tradition … The integrity of its account was sealed by Hall's insistence of using only local people for his “actors” … … the cinematography, much of it reminiscent of Constable, remains breathtaking … For all concerned it's a legacy
of which they can feel justly proud |
AKENFIELD Revisited (documentary)
National Press Reviews 2004 (in date order)
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Simon Horsford,
The Daily Telegraph, 20 November 2004 Pick of the Day
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In 1974, Peter Hall made a now famous drama/documentary about a small Suffolk village … Akenfield Revisited looks back to how this nostalgic, informal film was made (the use of non-professional cast made it all the more personal) … |
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Daily Mail,
20 November 2004 Pick of the Day ****
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Hall's ground-breaking idea … Peter Hall's innovative film |
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The Sunday Times,
21 November 2004 Pick of the Week
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| (Akenfield) is credited with influencing British indie cinema |
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Karl French, The
Financial Times, 25 November 2004 Television Preview
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| Thirty years ago director Peter Hall, producer Rex Pyke and writer Ronald Blythe set out on an ambitious mission to adapt “Akenfield”, the book that Blythe himself had deemed unfilmable |
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Mail on Sunday,
25 November 2004 Choice
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