Snow (1963)

I love snow. Don't see enough of it in Southampton, but I do love it all the same. When I lived in Farnborough, it would snow every year, but not so in Southampton. Quite often I would be on the train leaving Farnborough in a bizzard, only to find that it had disappeared by Winchester. Quite often work wouldn't believe me that I was blocked in by the white stuff.

But there is nothing more fun than snow, and todays BFI film is fun, since it's about snow. It's also 1963, where steam and diesel are having to work together, and a lot is still done by hand. 

The Film owes it's existence to a somewhat happy twist of fate, as the director, Geoffery Jones, was originally researching for a film about something else, and based on the footage he had, decided to create a separate film. What he came up with was a film that contrasts the comfort of the passengers with the often Herculean efforts of the workmen to keep the trains going in hazardous conditions.

Viewing the film can be a hypnotic experience. It begins with a slow military throb, with the railway station and tracks all but buried beneath a mountain of snow and ice. The pace increases with the workmen's clearing of the tracks, and while the trains barrel through the snow-covered countryside, the music accelerates. The percussive editing between trains and environment reaches a joyous crescendo with a rapid succession of pounding snow, churning pistons, fields of livestock and the ever-present tracks, ending in a wild flourish of percussion.

Enough to say for now - Enjoy