- Directors: Patrick Keiller
- Format: Color, Full Screen, NTSC
- Language: English
- Subtitles: English
- Region: (US and Canada This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- MPAA Rating:
- Studio: Facets Video
- Release Date: April 26 2005
- Run Time: 78 minutes
- ASIN: B0007TKHT8
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #61,381 in DVD (See Top 100 in DVD)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From the Studio
Architect-turned-filmmaker Patrick Keiller expands and inventively redefines the documentary format in this unique "travelogue" of England. Using immaculately composed shots, he presents the country's familiar historic landmarks and grand estates, but also the suburban malls, industrial parks, landfills, factories, and phone booths choking the landscape. A bit of witty and droll humor is introduced through the commentary of the offscreen narrator (veteran actor Paul Scofield), who travels, explores, and examines the country with his friend, Robinson. "Robinson advances Keiller's claim to be the liveliest spark of the British independent scene, and the wittiest filmessayist since the early Peter Greenaway" (The Times). Patrick Keiller---Great Britain---1997---78 mins.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
From DeFoe's Legacy to Orwell's Prophecy, Nov 15 2006
By R. Epstein "asanisimasa" - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: Robinson In Space (DVD)
This cerebral made-for-Brit-TV documentary is a travelogue of England as seen through the eyes of one who is sort of touring with the ghost of Robinson Crusoe, following the cities and villages that Daniel Defoe had either lived in or set his stories in. It's cinematography is stupendous, not just in terms of its use of light (which becomes more and more surreal as we get heavier into industrial territory), but in its sense of composition. The camera rarely pans. It sits statically on whatever its subject is, allowing only what comes into the camera's view to give us a sense of context with the surroundings. In some shots it's people who pass by, in others, it's cars that whiz by, and in others still, it's tankers or enormous cranes that sluggishly churn across the frame as if they're being driven by doddering old ghosts on Prozac. Keiller also uses a natural soundtrack to give us context and fix us in the reality. Early in the film, England almost seems like a giant aviary; the air is filled with the tweeting and warbling of birds. Little by little, their twitter is overrun by the drone of cars and trucks and the screeching and metallic whizzing of heavy machinery. It's hard to say what the saddest sights are: the factories spewing a haze of ashen smoke into an already dingy sky, the proliferation of Americanized strip malls, the olde English villages dotted with Pizza Huts, or the seemingly infinite highways that have invaded the serene rolling countryside. No, what's worst is what this film shows us most eloquently: the layers of history that have at best, become a sideshow of British culture, and at worst, are rotting away in a forlorn state that's imposed by the indifference of the culture as a whole. There's a surprising shot later in the film where we see the queen's convoy as it rolls along a super-highway. She's old enough to remember olde England. What does she think now? I wonder... does she look out the window? Does anybody?
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