Film
The Magic Box
- Director
- John Boulting
- Certificate
- U
- Running Time
- 118 mins
Robert Donat stars as Bristol’s very own cinema pioneer William Friese-Greene in this Technicolor biopic which was made for the 1951 Festival of Britain. The claim was that it boasted “60 film stars”. You can certainly spot the likes of Laurence Olivier, Joyce Grenfell, Richard Attenborough, Peter Ustinov, Margaret Rutherford and, erm, Sid James. It’s also been alleged that one of the extras is a teenage Ronnie Kray. The result is a fairly stodgy and reverential portrait of the single-minded inventor who vied with Thomas Edison to produce the first movie camera. “Patriotic, sentimental, overlong and faintly embarrassing” was Time Out‘s verdict. The film was much loved by Martin Scorsese, but typical of its cavalier approach to historical fact is a scene where Friese-Greene is depicted having an earnest conversation with photographic pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot, when in reality the two men never met.
This screening is part of Bristol Ideas’ #BristolFilm2021 in collaboration with South West Silents as part of Cinema Rediscovered. It includes a pre-recorded introduction by film director and historian Peter Domankiewicz. Stick around afterwards for the Who Was William Friese-Greene? event at 2pm, in which Friese-Greene scholar Peter will be discussing his discoveries with writer and commentator Sir Christopher Frayling.
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