A Cinematic Feast

Alone in Cheltenham for the weekend I have indulged on British films. Here are my recommendations... The Imitation Game Keira Knightly as Joan Clarke tells Alan Turing "Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine" in The Imitation Game. The film documents the race against time to crack the enigma code at Bletchley Park that occurred during the early 1940s, when a group of academics, linguists, chess champions and cross word enthusiasts headed by the mathematician Alan Turing achieve what was truly remarkable.  The film highlights the changes in social attitudes that have occurred in my lifetime and is a truly remarkable story.   It is a film about secrets and the sacrifices that have to be made in order to keep them.  The all-star cast is predictably excellent, particularly Benedict Cumberbatch's Alan Turing, although the dialogue was not entirely convincing and left me wanting more. Of course I loved all of the tweed and Fair Isle and the sets - filmed at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. [caption id="attachment_9043" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game[/caption] The park is open to the public and makes a great day out. You can visit the huts and see a reconstruction of Turing's cryptologic bomb, but be warned the catering is dreadful, it brings WW2 rationing to mind! www.bletchleypark.org.uk   Mr. Turner [caption id="attachment_9044" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Timothy Spall as Mr. Turner[/caption] My anticipation for Mr. Turner was great - I am obsessed with his paintings and expected to be inspired by the film in the same way. I hoped to be transported to the world of beauty and poetry I know from his work. But Mike Lee is not known for doing what you expect. Instead he has created a sensitive portrait of the ugliness of creation. The story is filled with grubby linen and gruff manners,  Timothy Spall and Dorothy Atkinson are masters of portraying the latter. Of course there are moments of beauty, the opening scene of the artist at work in a Dutch landscape and the paint store his father visits to replenish stocks are simply delicious. The vignettes of both John Ruskin, hilariously played by Joshua McGuire and John Constable by James Fleet are charming.  Technology appears here too in Turner's fascination with photography and the railways. This is a rambling film, but concentrate as the joy is in the detail. I noticed a tour of Sands Films  (The creators of those grubby linens) on the 2015 program for the Textile Society; if you are not a member it is worth joining for this alone. www.textilesociety.org.uk