'The Story of David Lloyd George' review
Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 10:24 pm
I've been asked to post my review of a Maurice Elvey film, The
Story of David Lloyd George
Elvey's most interesting film at the 1997 Pordenone festival was a real curio, The Story of David Lloyd George (Ideal Film, 1918). Clocking in at a very long 172 minutes, the movie recounts the life and times of the British Liberal Prime minister Lloyd George who was in office at the time this film was shot. You know you are in for the complete story when the film
starts off by showing Lloyd George's birth certificate!
Elvey attempts to display Lloyd George's rise to power as a proletariat myth, a British version of Abraham Lincoln. I admired the technical polish of such an early film but the slavish uncritical worship of a sitting politician made the film look like a very grandiose bouquet of flowers from a gushing worshiper. Lloyd George himself may have become nervous about the film being seen and criticized as hagiography and election propaganda. For reasons still unclear, the film was pulled before it was finished, and had never been shown to an movie theater audience before the 1997 festival.
The one scene that really caught my eye was where the camera lingers on Lloyd George's secretary a little too long...just a beat longer than it needs to. I thought to myself: 'that means something.'
And it did. As I heard the story later, that woman was George's mistress.
Story of David Lloyd George
Elvey's most interesting film at the 1997 Pordenone festival was a real curio, The Story of David Lloyd George (Ideal Film, 1918). Clocking in at a very long 172 minutes, the movie recounts the life and times of the British Liberal Prime minister Lloyd George who was in office at the time this film was shot. You know you are in for the complete story when the film
starts off by showing Lloyd George's birth certificate!
Elvey attempts to display Lloyd George's rise to power as a proletariat myth, a British version of Abraham Lincoln. I admired the technical polish of such an early film but the slavish uncritical worship of a sitting politician made the film look like a very grandiose bouquet of flowers from a gushing worshiper. Lloyd George himself may have become nervous about the film being seen and criticized as hagiography and election propaganda. For reasons still unclear, the film was pulled before it was finished, and had never been shown to an movie theater audience before the 1997 festival.
The one scene that really caught my eye was where the camera lingers on Lloyd George's secretary a little too long...just a beat longer than it needs to. I thought to myself: 'that means something.'
And it did. As I heard the story later, that woman was George's mistress.
