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387:, and Tom has grown up hearing all sorts of stories from his grandfather. Everyone around him says what a good old boy his grandfather was, and remember the old days, but all Tom can hear is the words of his grandfather ringing in his ears. Now in 1974 he is making his own plans to get away, with or without his teacher girlfriend. The cycle goes round and round with the menace of poverty and entrapment grinning through the veil of rural beauty. Will Tom be defeated by the land and the hard work, just as his grandfather was?
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The central character Tom is a young man living in a cottage with his widowed mother in the 1970s, in a
Suffolk village (the fictitious Akenfield). The film depicts the few days surrounding the funeral of Tom's grandfather, who was born and grew up in the village in the early 1900s, experienced much
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Blythe had spent the winter of 1966–7 listening to three generations of his
Suffolk neighbours in the villages of Charsfield and Debach, recording their views on education, class, welfare, religion, farming and also death. Published in 1969, the book painted a picture of country living at a time of
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The actors in the film were non-professional, drawn from the local population, and therefore speak with authentic accents and play their parts in a manner unaffected by the habit of stage or screen performance. After making the film, most returned to usual rural occupations. Garrod Shand plays all
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as the vicar and all other parts are played by real-life villagers who improvised their own dialogue. There are no professional actors in the piece. Blythe's book is the distillation of interviews with local people. The film is a work of fiction, based on an 18-page story synopsis by Blythe.
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was translated into more than 20 languages. It became required reading in
American and Canadian high schools and universities. In 1999 Penguin re-published it as a Twentieth-Century Classic, which helped bring it to a new audience of readers.
747:
Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of
British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 357. Income is distributor's receipts, combined domestic and international, as at 31 December
572:. One of the major challenges of the filming was to recreate the sense of a rural economy based around horses; Blythe considered one of the best scenes the evocation of a harvest around 1911, complete with "Suffolk
523:. Most of the filming was done at weekends, when the cast was available, and shooting took almost a year – following the changing seasons in the process. The director's father, Reg Hall, a station master born in
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The preliminaries to filming were protracted, and Blythe had many reservations about the difficulties in making a film showing "three generations in terms of work, belief, education and climate. For this is what
550:. The film is a translation of this scholarly view into a portrait of a rural community told through the eyes of one of its members. In seeing through his eyes, we also see through the eyes of his ancestors.
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called it "a parochial drama-documentary" but "otherwise an impressive achievement as a portrait of a rural
Suffolk county". When the film was screened on UK television it attracted fifteen million viewers.
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is a gritty work of hard scholarship, rooted in detailed statistical data, presenting a very realistic grounded understanding of the economic and social life of a village. Life in Blythe's written
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A courtship scene in which the future bride steals the clothes of a young man while he is swimming in the river, and is then chased by him naked across the fields, is borrowed from
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for a job, took a wife in the village and lived in a tied cottage on the farmer's estate for the rest of his life. His son, Tom's father, was killed in the
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A scene in which the grandfather as a young man is reaping, and weeps when he accidentally crushes a bird's egg, is derived from a
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For East
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change – its stories told in the voices of the farmers and villagers themselves. Such was its power that
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three generations, grandfather, father and son. The voice of old Tom was by
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was made on location in the villages just west of
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in London and was also shown on television in the UK on the same date.
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The technique used in the film is somewhat echoed in the pioneering
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In discussions prior to filming Blythe and Hall talked about
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The film had its premiere as the opening night film of the
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on 18 November 1974. It opened on 26 January 1976 at the
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plays a major role in the emotional timbre of the film.
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Blythe, Ronald. Home move: the filming of
Akenfield.
483:, about ten miles north-east of Akenham. The film of
463:'Akenfield' is a made-up placename based partly upon
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808:PHS (19 November 1974). "The Times Diary".
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697:. This is a homage to the oral historian
355:Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village
155:Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village
109:Learn how and when to remove this message
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353:in 1974, based loosely upon the book
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906:Voices of Akenfield by Ronald Blythe
845:Barkham, Patrick (21 October 2011).
47:adding citations to reliable sources
847:"A life in writing: Ronald Blythe"
728:at the National Theatre in 2011.
566:'s films of French rural life and
427:Mary Hammond as young Dulcie Rouse
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781:Hall, Peter (20 November 2004).
403:Barbara Tilney as Jean Quantrill
322:made use of a scene depicted in
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709:(Faber and Faber, London 1956).
707:Ask the Fellows Who Cut The Hay
467:(a small village just north of
439:Ethel Branton as Mrs. Quantrill
34:needs additional citations for
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888:at the British Film Institute
406:Lyn Brooks as Charlotte Rouse
361:(1969). Blythe himself has a
1072:1970s English-language films
901:Peter Hall on Web of Stories
445:Reg Hall - village policeman
460:is really concerned with".
442:Stanley Baxter - blacksmith
336:finds he has just killed a
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955:Work Is a Four-Letter Word
418:Charlie Whiting as Charlie
415:Charlie Cornish as Charlie
400:Peggy Cole as Dulcie Rouse
329:A History of British Birds
236:18 November 1974
963:A Midsummer Night's Dream
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475:) and probably partly on
421:Robin Buckingham as Robin
397:Garrow Shand as Tom Rouse
251:26 January 1976
768:, Summer 1973, p113-121.
694:History of British Birds
1019:Never Talk to Strangers
971:Three into Two Won't Go
648:The New Suffolk Garland
433:F.O. Staddon - minister
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430:Ronald Blythe - vicar
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1067:Films set in Suffolk
670:' Uncle Silas story
641:Literary environment
621:Paris Pullman Cinema
617:London Film Festival
409:Ida Page as Aunt Ida
340:sitting on her nest.
246:London Film Festival
43:improve this article
1077:1970s British films
1047:British drama films
783:"My Dirty Weekends"
722:style developed in
436:Bob Wilson - farmer
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699:George Ewart Evans
349:is a film made by
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41:Please help
36:verification
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725:London Road
687:tail-piece
668:H. E. Bates
655:T. S. Eliot
569:Man of Aran
424:Alan Wright
223:Angle Films
214:Angle Films
163:Produced by
131:Directed by
58:"Akenfield"
1042:1974 films
1036:Categories
943:Peter Hall
732:References
689:(pictured)
660:East Coker
540:John Moore
513:Pettistree
501:Dallinghoo
477:Charsfield
451:Background
363:cameo role
351:Peter Hall
316:Peter Hall
300:Box office
271:95 minutes
255:1976-01-26
240:1974-11-18
207:Production
169:Peter Hall
135:Peter Hall
69:newspapers
995:Akenfield
894:Akenfield
886:Akenfield
880:film site
878:Akenfield
811:The Times
793:11 August
627:Reception
556:Akenfield
536:Akenfield
532:Akenfield
485:Akenfield
458:Akenfield
381:Newmarket
346:Akenfield
338:partridge
320:Akenfield
188:Edited by
126:Akenfield
16:1974 film
703:Blaxhall
680:, 1939).
544:Brensham
497:Monewden
326:'s 1797
318:'s film
295:£120,094
284:Language
196:Music by
191:Rex Pyke
172:Rex Pyke
151:Based on
99:May 2017
896:on IMDB
858:10 July
831:Variety
691:in his
633:Variety
611:Release
578:punches
574:waggons
548:Elmbury
473:Suffolk
469:Ipswich
465:Akenham
287:English
276:Country
253: (
238: (
209:company
83:scholar
1022:(1995)
1014:(1994)
1006:(1989)
998:(1974)
990:(1973)
982:(1970)
974:(1969)
966:(1968)
958:(1968)
714:Legacy
493:Debach
334:reaper
292:Budget
244: (
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78:
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1011:Jacob
748:1978.
509:Burgh
90:JSTOR
76:books
860:2022
795:2010
511:and
391:Cast
370:Plot
332:: a
303:£931
62:news
701:of
657:in
546:or
542:'s
489:Hoo
357:by
45:by
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