A Sense of History

Written and acted by Jim Broadbent,

Directed by Mike Leigh

Hopscotch Films

This is one of those finely-tuned little pieces of subtle but savage British satire that creeps up on you. It’s a short film at 22 minutes, but is made in the style of a documentary narrated by the 23^rd Earl of Leete. He describes how his family has owned and farmed the estate for hundreds of years, and how he sees it as his duty to pass it on to his son and heir, slightly larger than it was when he received It from his wastrel father. He is making this documentary “to demonstrate that, at the very centre of my life, there has been a sense of history”.

As he shows us around the estate, it all seems pretty much what we would expect from the remaining landed gentry – a rather Victorian sense of pride in his family line, a touch of elitism, resentment at outside interference. Then it starts to go subtly wrong as he talks about clearing the woodland, introducing chemical fertilizers, and clearing the hedgerows so he can mechanize the farm.

His father sold off large tracts of the estate, and he sees it as his duty to enlarge it again. Unfortunately his elder brother, who would have inherited the title, was “a bit dim” and what is more he “was probably a homosexual”. The Earl describes how, aged just over seven, he realised that there was only one thing he could do – kill his brother. With the murder successfully accomplished he was sent off to school. When World War 2 broke out it was naturally assumed that he would enter the army and fight for King and Country, This did not happen. He professes his admiration for Mr Hitler who got a bankrupt country back on its feet again, and how he could not be expected to fight against a man he admired. Instead he spent the war buying up neighbouring properties and enlarging the estate.

He also married to gain more land and his wife bore him two children. Unfortunately she showed no understanding when he wanted to divorce her to marry a working girl. His homicidal tendencies took over again. It is around this point that we realise that, in spite of his touching and somewhat sad belief in the importance of family and history, that he is really stark raving mad.

He loses it briefly and rants on about “accountants, communists, the EuroBureaubrusselssprouts, motorway builders, golf course designers, property developers, parachutists, bloody Ramblers Association…” and all the others who have designs on his family’s lands.

The film is a satire on the traditional English attitudes of the rich, ruling class, and an excellent spoof on the documentaries that feature these attitudes. They may now be all but extinct, but Broadbent and Leigh recreate them for us in this marvelous satire that is as good as the finer moments of Michael Palin’s Ripping Yarns.

Jim Broadbent graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972. He quickly gained a reputation as a character actor, and although he appeared in a number of serious films and TV shows such as Moulin Rouge, he also had parts in Time Bandits and Brazil, both directed by Terry Gilliam. He also had the role of the voice of Vroomfondel in the radio adaptation of Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. It appears that in spite of his rather classical training, a sense of irreverent humour runs deep in his psyche as well. In his earlier periods he worked on two films with director Mike Leigh, and this film was the third. If you want to see a current work, watch for him in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

The film was originally made in 1992, but has been re-released as part of a Mike Leigh set. This is the only source from which it is currently available. Leigh was renowned for only directing his own work, so directing this work written by someone else shows how deep their friendship was.

Nominated for Best Short Film at the BAFTA Film Awards in 1993

Won the Audience Award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in the same year.

If you like British humour, this is one you must have.

This review will appear in Volume 2:1 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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