Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

When the Wind Blows

Peach Pie

14:00 / 21.07.07

Have always wanted to see this film, but it never seems to be shown on network. It is now available online here.

I can't remember the last time a script affected me so much. The two-hander between two very unassuming and particularly characters contains much incidental speech, the man often going off at a tangent. Yet there is little dialogue that fails to add to some aspect of the film, whether the characterisation, irony, bathos, humour or tragedy.

There's so much poignancy throughout. The couple reminisce about WW2, with the expectation that nuclear war will be the same.

Has anyone else seen this film?

sleazenation

14:19 / 21.07.07

Or, indeed, read the Graphic Novel by Raymond Briggs on which it is based...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:42 / 21.07.07

Radio 4 also did a stunning adaptation of it, back when it came out.

It really upset me. "The cakes will be burned..."

Funny and tragic, Briggs really outdid himself with that one.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

18:58 / 21.07.07

I read the graphic novel in the library when I was about 11 I guess, and I have to say it fucked me up good and proper. I've never read it again or watched the film, and I'm not really sure I could.

I spent months after, worrying about the approaching nuclear war, and thinking about me and everyone I'd ever known dying so horribly pointlessly for months, and refusing to tell my parents why I was upset, because my Mom had told me I shouldn't read the thing yet, having quite wisely decided I wasn't ready for it, and I thought I'd be in trouble for doing so while she wasn't watching.

Really, really powerful stuff, and probably worth a look or read, but I'd highly recommend having loved ones and nice things around to ease the sense of horror afterwards.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

20:28 / 21.07.07

Oh wow! Talk about Barbelith digging up memories!

I remember seeing this in school when I was a kid. I also remember being very upset by it. I used to have lots of nuclear winter nightmares when I was young. I expect the general osmosis of the nightly news talking about it didn't help either. I am almost tempted to watch it, but know I would just end up in tears.

Peach Pie

11:16 / 22.07.07

my Mom had told me I shouldn't read the thing yet, having quite wisely decided I wasn't ready for it

Yes... God. There were tiny little bits I must have watched before. One of the things that struck me is the moment where they're embracing and Jim suddenly looks surprised. So many little touches like that are heartwrenching.

I am almost tempted to watch it, but know I would just end up in tears.

Difficult dilemma. If it weren't so upsetting it wouldn't be important.

Looked up it's IMDB reviews page - only seven reviews had been submitted. I can't understand why it fails to receive more publicity. Look at the music crew alone - Bowie, Genesis and Roger Waters. Is it my imagination, or does Bowie reference "From Russia with Love", in the opening credits.

All Acting Regiment

09:41 / 23.07.07

I adore this and also consider Raymond Briggs to be one of the best ever writers of children's books.

Mourne Kransky

18:51 / 30.07.07

I had the experience of going to the cinema to see this, as Cold War / Nuclear Holocaust paranoia wave was cresting, when it was on general release in the 80s. Accomplished and purposeful pathos. I seem to recall Sir John Mills and Dame Peggy Ashcroft voicing the roles of the oldies. It's wonderfully bleak and unrelenting. Admirably so. Can't think why people didn't go to see it in droves...

Happy Dave Has Left

19:24 / 30.07.07

I can remember vividly reading this book in my library at the very tail end of the Cold War, when I was just really becoming conscious of the weight of nuclear paranoia that my parents had grown up enduring. A deeply affecting, beautiful book - I'll be checking out the film.

Spatula Clarke

19:56 / 30.07.07

There's an additional bit of power in there, in that jim and Hilda are based on Briggs' own parents. So the guy's basically imagined his mum and dad in that situation - scared, lonely, bewildered, poisoned and dying. Slowly and painfully.

He'd also written them into a book previously, Gentleman Jim, so even if - as a kid - you didn't get the link to his parents, chances were that you'd read that and already had some relationship with the characters yourself.

That Protect and Survive pamphlet, btw, really existed. The Government withdrew it from circulation fairly sharpish, as I remember it, because of the satirical and angry reaction it generated.

Wonder why?

Add Your Reply