collection Archives - Jeremy C. Processing

Exhibition on Screen
James McNeill Whistler

Exhibition on Screen: James McNeill Whistler

Director – David Bickerstaff – 2026 – UK – Cert. U – 90m

*****

A look at the work of 19th Century painter Whistler, seen through the lens of the 2026 Tate Britain exhibition – out in UK cinemas from Tuesday, 15th September

Before watching this latest Exhibition on Screen feature, I was able to visit Tate Britain’s stunning James McNeill Whistler show, which sits very much at the film’s core. The film had the effect of making me want to go back for further visits.

It opens with shots of a Victorian concert hall interior where the unseen Whistler (voice: Bret Jones) is addressing the room with his spoken lecture on art, something the film will return to towards its close. After a montage of brushes, painting surfaces and palettes, establishing shots of Tate Britain take us straight into the current Whistler show. “People sometimes think of Whistler as being based in French art, and sometimes as being based in British art,” explains Carol Jacobi, Curator of British Art 1850-1915, Tate Britain, “whereas…he was very much an independent…and very much leading the avant-garde in both those countries.”

Susan Grace Galassi, Curator Emeritas, The Frick Collection, New York, who considers Whistler one of the greatest American artists, notes that he didn’t distinguish between fine or applied art, that he was as great a painter as he was a printmaker.… Read the rest

The Extraordinary
Miss Flower

Directors – Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard – 2024 – UK – Cert. 12a – 73m

****

A suitcase containing love letters, telexes and photographs found after her death, which inspired songs from singer Emilíana Torrini, becomes the key to a woman’s interior life – out in UK cinemas on Friday, May 9th

Every so often, a feature film turns up that doesn’t really fit the obvious categories, and this is one of those. It might be described as a cross between a documentary, a music promo and a home movie. Yet, none of those makeshift, pressed-into-service labels quite do it justice.

It’s a documentary because its starting point is a collection of personal items – love letters, telexes and photographs – kept in a suitcase by a woman named Geraldine Flower and subsequently found by her daughter Zoe some time after Geraldine’s death. Which is to say, found by her daughter Zoe, Zoe’s musician husband Simon Byrd and their friend the singer Emilíana Torrini. The latter had recorded some four albums and had come to a sort of creative impasse where she wanted to make another album but just couldn’t find the right creative spark. And then, the contents of Geraldine’s rediscovered case provided that impetus.… Read the rest