Tag: Industrial Revolution

Exhibition on Screen
Turner & Constable

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 9 March 2026
No Comments on Exhibition on Screen
Turner & Constable
Sticky post

Director – David Bickerstaff – 2026 – UK – Cert. U – 93m

****

A journey through the current Tate Britain show and art history about the two rival landscape painters – out in UK cinemas from Tuesday, March 10th

This latest Exhibition on Screen entry kicks off in uncharacteristic fashion with photographic shots of landscape (typical of views that used by painters Turner and Constable) accompanied by an excerpt from the poem Richmond by James Thomson (1834-1882), a favourite of both painters whose work will be similarly deployed (voiced by Robert Lindsay) at appropriate intervals throughout this documentary.

However, the film soon moves into more familiar territory with shots of present day London and of the Tate Britain’s current Turner & Constable exhibition, with visitors admiring some of the paintings on display. Amy Concannon, Manton Senior Curator, Historic British Art, Tate Britain, notes that this show represents the first time the two painters have been displays side by side on such a vast scale. Turner & Constable were born within a year of one another, which became a catalyst for the current show’s displaying them together.

Artist, writer and broadcaster Lachlan Goudie talks about the “dazzling” influence of both artists on the likes of Delacroix.… Read the rest

Tags 1768, 1802, 1806, 1815, 1819, 1820s, 1832, Alps, Amy Concannon, art, art exhibition, art historian, artist, artists’ sketchbook, bought and sold, British artist, British national consciousness, broadcaster, brushstroke, business, canal, castle, child prodigy, Claude Lorrain, commerce, Constable, Constable clouds, country, country boy, countryside, Covent Garden, critical attention, Curator of British Art 1790-1850, David Bickerstaff, declaration of peace, Delacroix. Nicola Moorby, drawing, East Anglia, Exhibition On Screen, fields and skies, France and England, French Revolution, grain exportation, grand scenery, hairdressing, hanging committee, Historic British Art, Impressionism, Industrial Revolution, inflections of light, Italy, James Thomson, Lachlan Goudie, landscape, landscape painting, light and shade, llandscape, lock gate, London, make money, Manton Senior Curator, milling, mountains, Napoleonic Wars, national consciousness, National Gallery, notes would enable him to construct artist’s studio, observer, oil painting, open fields, paint, painter, painting, painting in the studio, painting outdoors, plein air, political system, print shop, pub, RA, RA member, radical, railway engine, red light district, representation of light, Richard Johns, rival landscape painters, rivalry, River Stour, Robert Lindsay, Royal Academy, rural, science and technology, shop window, shop window display, sketchbook, social injustice, Somerset House, Suffolk, Tate Britain, the Lake District, the Louvre, theatre, tourist locations, travel, travel restriction, treaty, Turner, Turner & Constable, Turner’s sunsets, UK, University of York, upheaval, upward mobility, urban, urban type, viaduct, visual, visual research, Wales, war and peace, watercolour, well-heeled, wig-making, writer, yellow, yellow paint

Dance Features Live Action Movies Music

The Testament
of Ann Lee

Director – Mona Fastvold – 2025 – US, UK – Cert. 15 – 130m

****

In the mid-eighteenth century, wishing to preach her unique take on the Christian Gospel, Ann Lee crosses the Atlantic with a small party from from Manchester, England, to establish a Shaker community in America – unlikely religious musical is out in UK cinemas on Friday, February 20th

This review is written after seeing this film for a second time. On my first viewing, I went in cold, knowing a great deal about both Christian history and the Quakers, but nothing about the Shakers (‘the Shaking Quakers’) around whom the historical side of this film is based. As far as I can tell, the historical portrayals of the Shakers here, and their leader Mother Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried in a career-defining role), are pretty accurate.

This is to leave aside the fact that this is also a musical, the genre in which people suddenly burst into song, and we somehow accept it. In real life, people generally don’t burst into song in the ordinary run of things. And yet, it’s a genre convention we accept, and as a genre the musical has a perfectly respectable history. That said, if you’ve been brought up within any sort of English protestant Christian church tradition, from C of E to house churches, you’ll be familiar with people singing hymns as part of their religious worship.… Read the rest

Tags all sex is abuse, all welcome, Amanda Seyfried, America, and Shelley Hirsch, Ann Lee, authorities, believe, Biblical tableaux, building, building burned down, C of E, celibacy, charismatic house church, childbirth, Christian church tradition, Christian Gospel, Christian history, Christian tradition, Christopher Abbot, church tradition, community, community building, confess sin, conscription, corporal punishment, cross the Atlantic, dance and music, dancer, Daniel Blumberg, David Cale, England, English protestant tradition, factory, female preachers, financial backing, followers, free religious expression, furniture-making, genre, Godliness, hard work and chastity, history, hospital, house churches, house meetings of James and Jane Wardley, Hudson River, imprisonment, Industrial Revolution, infant mortality, jazz voice improviser, Jesus’ second coming, land to settle, Maggie Nichols, Manchester, marriage, marriage is sinful, Methodist, mid-eighteenth century, miscarriage, Mona Fastvold, mortification of the flesh, Mother Ann Lee, music, musical, musician, New York State, Niskayuna, performance, Phil Minton, preach, prison cell, Quakers, raids, religious worship, S&M, Scott Handey, sea voyage, second coming, sex is sinful, sexual sin, Shakers, singer, singing hymns, song, song and dance, soundscape, spiritual longing, Stacy Martin, storm at sea, the Shaking Quakers, The Testament of Ann Lee, Thomasin McKenzie, UK, US, visions, war, witchcraft, worship songs

Animation Features Live Action Movies

Capital
In The
21st Century

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 23 September 2020
No Comments on Capital
In The
21st Century

Director – Justin Pemberton – 2019 – France, New Zealand – Cert. 12 – 103m

*****

An adaptation of Thomas Piketty’s controversial economic treatise Capital In The 21st Century – in cinemas from Friday, September 25th

The content of French economist Thomas Piketty’s eponymous book couldn’t be more relevant. Far from being dry economics, Piketty’s thesis begins that there has always been a minority of wealthy people whose wealth derives from nothing more than being born into wealth. They have done nothing to merit wealth. They do not own it because of any sort of achievement.

The industrial revolution, he argues, gave those with capital (financial assets) the means to substantially increase the amount of capital they own.

Throughout history, the rich have not looked after the whole of society but rather have merely defended their own interests, i.e. maintaining and if possible increasing their position of wealth. They have shown a disdain for the other 99% of people. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, society was broken into those two groups, wealthy and poor.

The rise of the middle class after World War One changed everything, with middle class people wanting their say in how things were run. Changes since the 1970s however threaten the power of the middle class and we may be seeing a return to a majority of very poor people beholden to a wealthy minority – unless we take the action necessary to prevent it.… Read the rest