naive yet beautiful black and white footage of covent garden market from early in the morning when the fruit,flowers and vegetables are brought in from all over Britain to the late morning as the old ladies pick up the cheap bargains. distinctly of another era which in turn looks back to an older generation that is on the verge of extinction. i love the naivety of this short. the voice over is so patronising....but it cant be helped....this is a genuine, socially conscious middle class look at working class life.....with all the problems that brings....but you can suspend your belief easily by travelling to that time and place......and you are there....cause this is a documentary that wants to take you there....although it is in black and white and some of the footage is of brightly coloured flowers and fruit you can almost see the colours and smell the fruit.....we see local farmers and businesses flourishing....its a very positive look at the beauty and the pride of the small business........i find the insight fascinating and very warm....but i can see why some people might be appalled by the tone of the narrator.......it still has the tones of 'nightmail' from a few decades before...........but it was a new voice in cinema so we should listen! this was part of a series called 'free cinema' and included 2 other shorts....one called 'we are the lambeth boys' and the other called 'when Saturday comes'......the lambeth boys directed by Karel Reisz (Saturday night Sunday morning) i find just as charming (i'm not selling this well am i).....features around one of the very new 'youth clubs' in south London in the early 50s and celebrates the dawn of UK youth culture.....fantastic stuff this!!!.....east enders from the 50s.....great dance hall scenes....teddy boys jiving and all that stuff....gotta be of some interest to those rockabilly cats.........we follow the youth club cricket team as they travel to north London to play a charity cricket match with a boys public school team......again a very patronising tone to the narration but i can see past that to the footage that we're privileged to see.........the third short 'when Saturday comes' features a very young bobby Robson as we see the cut throat life of a footballer through the lives of contract players at west bromich Albion football club......again of great interest to football buffs.......both these 2 have killer soundtracks from UK jazz legend johnny dankworth.......and a few bass lines for the beat-heads....keep it on the low....shhhhhhhhhhhhh..............my favourite docs ever!!!!
