Calendar of the Year

Directed by Evelyn Spice Cherry

United Kingdom, 1936 (documentary, 16 minutes, black and white, English)

Film Description:
"An impressionistic study of seasonal activities, showing how the Post Office is adapted to deal with them in transmission of radio and television, in the telephone service and in the collection and distribution of mail."
-- British Film Institute (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Cinematography:	F. Jones, H.E. Fowle
Music:	Benjamin Britten
Production Company:	GPO Film Unit

(sources)

Quotes about Calendar of the Year

"In spite of its [Calendar of the Year's] obvious goal of extolling the virtues of the GPO, the film's greater interest for audiences today lies in its depiction of assorted facets of British life, from the spring harvesting of flowers, to a day at the racetrack, to the laying of the first coaxial cables for television. The film's seasonal format would seem to have been ideally suited to Evelyn Spice's talents, with her directorial background in such films as Spring on the Farm (1933) and the critically acclaimed Weather Forecast (1934) with its emphasis on the importance of telecommunications in the life of the nation. In fact, a number of shots in Calendar of the Year appear to have been culled from earlier films directed by Spice and others."
-- Barbara Evans (source)

"Nicely edited and timed; and the introduction of passages of actual talk by characters portrayed is achieved with a good deal more smoothness on the whole than has been customary. The impressionistic effect of a background voice, declaiming messages supposed to be inscribed on post cards shown in a heap on the screen, is however forced. [...] It should be also remarked that the purpose of the film is likely to be far from plain to an average audience; the urge to mask the propaganda-element has been only too successful, and this lends the whole film a vague air of obscurity."
-- Monthly Film Bulletin (source)

"It was interesting one day to spend a December afternoon and evening in Whitely's huge departmental store while Evelyn Spice, formerly of Yorkton and the Leader-Post in Regina, and now with the G.P.O. films in London, took Christmas shots of her forthcoming picture, 'The Calendar of the Year.'"
-- Regina Leader-Post (source)

Bibliography for Calendar of the Year

Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites

Monthly Film Bulletin. "Calendar of the Year." Review of Calendar of the Year. Monthly Film Bulletin, vol. 4, no. 37, January 31, 1937.
Regina Leader-Post. "Movie shots in England interesting: Correspondent watches Canadian girl film producer taking pictures." Regina Leader-Post, February 29, 1936.

Web Sites about Calendar of the Year

Evans, Barbara. "BFI Screenonline: Calendar of the Year (1936)." British Film Institute. http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1356037/index.html.