David (1951 film)

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David
David film Opening titles (1951).png
Directed byPaul Dickson
Written byPaul Dickson
Produced byJames Carr
StarringD.R. Griffiths
John Davies
Sam Jones
Rachel Thomas
Cinematography Ronald Anscombe
Edited byCatherine Morrison
Music by Grace Williams
Production
company
Regent Films
Release date
  • 1951 (1951)
Running time
38 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

David is a 1951 British short biographical film about the Welsh miner and poet David Rees Griffiths. [1] [2] It was directed by Paul Dickson, who also wrote the script, [3] shot by Ronald Anscombe, produced by James Carr, and distributed by Regent Films. Welsh composer Grace Williams wrote the score for the film. The film is 38 minutes long and was given a U certificate. It was the Welsh contribution to the Festival of Britain film festival. [4] [5]

Contents

Cast

Plot

The central character is a working man, David Griffiths, known in the film as "Dafydd Rhys", a school caretaker for decades and a former miner. [6] Dafydd's later years in Ammanford at Amman Valley Grammar School present an ordinary man with extraordinary virtues. His innate dignity is seen here as an inspiration to the film’s narrator Ifor Morgan, who recalls in adulthood his experiences as a school pupil under David’s wing.

The actual David Griffiths never achieved the fame of his brother, the miners' leader and first Welsh secretary Jim Griffiths, but here represents a traditional Welsh proletarian "type", who communicates a strong sense of his community's worth and retains a fierce loyalty to the memory of his fellow pitmen.

The film’s most poignant section deals with the impact on David of the death of his son, Gwilym, from tuberculosis, and the effect on Ifor and his fellow pupils of the caretaker's temporary estrangement from them as he retreats into himself and his memories. Dafydd is also shown leaving the Eisteddfod after his poem, an elegy to his dead son, has failed to win the coveted Chair. Amanwy did win several other chairs which can be found in church halls around South Wales, and in Ysgol Dyffryn Aman, as the former Amman Valley Grammar School is now called.

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Through the simple yet flexible narrative method – the reminiscences of the narrator, and of Dafydd himself – the film gives a remarkable impression of place, atmosphere and character. Dafydd is played by D. R. Griffiths, actual caretaker of the Ammanford school; his strong, dignified, sympathetic and completely natural personality gives the film a firm centre, so that the different episodes – the scenes in the mine, the Eistedfodd, the scenes of village life, such as the visit of the circus – are not, as so often, merely a series of disjointed impressions. Paul Dickson, who showed something of the same sympathetic sense of character in his prize-winning film The Undefeated, here gives expression to human qualities rare in present day British documentary. ... Where the film occasionally falls short it is not through lack of imagination, but through the attempt to encompass too much. The cross-cutting, for instance, between the mine disaster and the child birth scenes strikes an artificial note out of keeping with the rest, which combines intelligent shaping of the narrative with an unstrained naturalism." [7]

Variety wrote: "David is a slow-moving but impressive Welsh documentary made for the recently concluded Festival of Britain. Pic actually is a quasi-documentary since most of the yarn is recreated by professional actors. However, despite some artificiality in the story-telling and some too-evident artiness in the production technique, this short film registers with a moving sincerity. ... D. R. Griffiths, a real-life caretaker, plays the central character with an unwaveringly convincing performance. Other cast members are equally persuasive in contributing to this canvas of Welsh life." [8]

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References

  1. ↑ "David". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
  2. ↑ Biography of David Rees Griffiths
  3. ↑ BFI Screenonline. Accessed 2 February 2014
  4. ↑ BBC Wales - Arts. Accessed 2 February 2014
  5. ↑ Gomer Morgan Roberts. "GRIFFITHS, DAVID REES ('Amanwy'; 1882-1953), poet and writer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales . Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  6. ↑ Directory of World Cinema, ed. Emma Bell & Neil Mitchel, Intellect, 2012.
  7. ↑ "David" . The Monthly Film Bulletin . 18 (204): 283. 1 January 1951 – via ProQuest.
  8. ↑ "David" . Variety . 185 (9): 20. 6 February 1952 – via ProQuest.
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