Courtesy of Ealing Studios
Passport to Pimlico (1949)
Recently released on Blu-ray and DVD: Britt-Marie Was Here, Gregory’s Girl, Passport to Pimlico and Bonanza: The Official Tenth Season Vols. 1 and 2.
Britt-Marie Was Here (Cohen Media Group)
“How do you live a life?” is the recurring question in Britt-Marie Was Here (2019). For the title character of this bittersweet Swedish comedy, life is a tidy routine until she discovers her husband’s infidelity after decades of marriage. Will she be able to find a new life now that her familiar routine has been upended? Britt-Marie Was Here is a quirky character study of an older person finding the will to reinvent her life.
Gregory’s Girl (Film Movement)
When Dorothy tries out for her high-school soccer team, the coach is dismissive, insisting “This here is football—for boys!” But Dorothy doesn’t give up and soon enough shows her skills. It doesn’t hurt that her horny teammates fall instantly in lust. With his 1980 comedy Gregory’s Girl, British director Bill Forsyth expressed universal teenage themes in an acutely local setting (Glasgow). The film was truly indie, produced with locals on a nearly invisible budget.
Passport to Pimlico (Film Movement)
The everyday folks of a postwar London neighborhood, Pimlico, are making do despite bomb craters, ruins and rationing—until they discover a medieval treasure trove and a charter deeding the district to the Duke of Burgundy. Tired of privation, the locals declare allegiance to Burgundy in this 1949 comedy from Britain’s Ealing Studios. The gentle spoof of society and bureaucracy transpires in a loopy English deadpan as Pimlico struggles to find its place in the sun.
“Bonanza: The Official Tenth Season, Vols. 1 and 2”
Rivaled only by “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza” was a consistent presence year after year on prime-time television. Westerns were TV staples during the 1960s, but “Bonanza” stood apart as a single-parent family drama. The redoubtable Lorne Greene, as patriarch Ben Cartwright, and his three sons were endowed with unique personalities. “Bonanza” was among the first shows shot in color, taking advantage of the forested scenery of its Lake Tahoe location. Season 10 ran from 1968-1969.
