Secrets of Nature (1922 - 1933)

[antnield]

Confirmed in the latest BFI press release:

Launched in 1922, this series pioneered ground-breaking techniques of slow-motion, time-lapse and microscopic photography in films exploring the wondrous worlds of animal, plant and insect life.

Bit of info on two of the Secrets of Nature titles here and here.

[MichaelB]

This promises to be a really extraordinary collection - people like Percy Smith and Oliver Pike were the direct ancestors of David Attenborough, and while they obviously didn't have access to the same technology, they nonetheless managed to capture some amazing footage.

[MichaelB]

Play.com has this up for pre-order, and includes a glimpse of the cover art.

I can also confirm that the nineteen individual titles are as follows:

The Techniques
Fathoms Deep Beneath the Sea (1922)
The Plants of the Pantry (1927)
Magic Myxies (1931)
The World in a Wine-glass (1931)
Romance in a Pond (1932)
Brewster’s Magic (1933)

The Birds
The Cuckoo’s Secret (1922)
The White Owl (1922)
The Bittern (1931)
The Nightingale (1932)

The Insects
Skilled Insect Artisans (1922)
The Battle of the Ants (1922)
Busy Bees (1926)
The Aphis (1930)

The Plants
Floral Co-operative Societies (1927)
Peas and Cues (1930)
Scarlet Runner & Co (1930)
The Strangler (1930)
Gathering Moss (1933)

[MichaelB]

BFI Screenonline has just published an overview of the Secrets of Nature series, with a detailed look at ten films - all of which are on the DVD.

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

Secrets of Nature
Pioneering natural history films, 1922 - 1933

A captivating collection of 19 British films that used groundbreaking techniques to share the secrets of the natural world with cinema audiences.

The natural world has always inspired fascination. In 1922, Secrets of Nature, a pioneering series exploring animal, plant and insect life, made wondrous worlds and natural processes visible for the first time: sweet peas unfurl in the sunlight, white owls swoop on their prey, sea life lurks on the ocean floor and moths patiently spin their cocoons.

These rarely-seen films – now brought to DVD for the first time – were made by enterprising men and women such as Percy Smith and Mary Field, at the forefront of science and nature filmmaking, who developed groundbreaking techniques of time-lapse, microscopic and underwater cinematography.

Paving the way for the natural history programmes that millions know and love today, these Secrets, with intriguing titles like The Strangler, Magic Myxies and Floral Co-operative Societies, offer an entertaining, absorbing, and very special glimpse into the mysteries of the natural world.

All the films included here are now preserved by the BFI National Archive which celebrates its 75th Anniversary in July 2010: http://www.bfi.org.uk/archive75" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Special features

- All films have been digitally re-mastered
- Percy Smith with Herons (1921), an extract from the Urban Movie Chats series: one of nature filmmaking’s pioneers in the role of adoptive father
- 38-page illustrated booklet featuring newly commissioned essays by leading researchers and scholars including the Science Museum's Chief Curator Tim Boon (author of Films of Fact: A History of Science Documentary on Film and Television), film notes, photographs and illustrations

Release date: 19 July 2010
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIDVD861 / cert E
UK / 1922-1933 / black and white / mixed silent, and sound (English language) / 200 mins / DVD-9 / original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / Dolby Digital mono audio (320 kbps)

[MichaelB]

The Bioscope:

F. Percy Smith (1880-1945) was one of the greatest filmmakers of the silent film era. Doubt my word? Just take a look at the The Plants of the Pantry (1927). This extraordinary work of art and science, beautifully entwined, shows how mould grows on household food such as cheese. Combining stop motion photography with micro-cinematography and even animation sequences, Smith illustrates the mysteries of the unseen, portraying the reality while unveiling the abstract unreality. His work is as close to that of avant garde animators of the period – Walter Ruttman, Oskar Fischinger, Viktor Eggling or Fernand Leger – as it is to the plain exposition of science lecture. One is continually left open-mouthed in amazment at the quality of his images, which challenge our understanding of nature and reality. It is usual to point to the French filmmaker Jean Painlevé as someone who combined surrealism with science, but Smith was there first and was probably the superior filmmaker. He simply saw more than most.

[MichaelB]

Beaver - the review is a tad skimpy, but the framegrabs give a very good idea of what you're in for.

[MichaelB]

David Shepard (via Amazon). The first of four paragraphs:

This awe-inspiring DVD presents 19 of the 144 "Secrets of Nature" theatrical short films made by British Instructional Pictures with great care and intelligence between 1922 and 1933. Each is transferred in high definition from the vintage nitrate or best preservation element in the BFI National Film and Television Archive, and the stunning image quality does justice to the breathtaking black-and-white photography of the original works. The series was designed to serve as popular entertainment, an intention especially apparent in the narrations of the early talkies, and achieved this so well that they were satirized by cartoons in "Punch;" however, the standard of production is very high and the editorial organization is a model of lucidity. Presented without ruffles or flourishes, the films frequently attain the eloquence of real visual poetry.

[MichaelB]

Peas and Cues has just been published on YouTube in its entirety.

Anyone intrigued by Luke McKernan's comment that "[Percy Smith's] work is as close to that of avant garde animators of the period – Walter Ruttman, Oskar Fischinger, Viktor Eggling or Fernand Leger – as it is to the plain exposition of science lecture. One is continually left open-mouthed in amazment at the quality of his images, which challenge our understanding of nature and reality." should hopefully understand what he's talking about, though you might have to tune out the rather archaic commentary first.

[MichaelB]

The review doesn't seem to be available online, but the DVD is the Pick of the Month in the current issue of the BBC's Wildlife magazine.

[ellipsis7]

Feature article on the SECRETS OF NATURE films in The Guardian....

[MichaelB]

I love his take on Romance in a Pond (which is pretty much spot on):

Romance in a Pond (1932), for instance, appears to have been co-scripted by Gussie Fink-Nottle, the fish-faced newt-fancier of PG Wodehouse's Jeeves stories, and Molesworth's sissy nature-loving chum, Basil Fotherington-Thomas. The film concerns the common newt (Lissotriton vulgaris). Its opening shot shows a stone sitting rather still on some grass. A hand enters the frame from the right (tweed sleeve, well-pressed starchy cuff) and lifts the stone, revealing a newt that is clearly trying to sleep. "When the spring-time comes, the newt wakes up," declaims the voice-over, "and feels the call to life and romance" (the voice-over is delivered in a light, firm baritone, with the kind of RP accent that requires extreme laryngeal fitness to manage its sharp corners and steep inclines; "newt" is pronounced "nee-oot" throughout.) This nee-oot, however, shows no sign of waking up and feeling the call to life. So the hand puts the stone down to one side, extends a finger and gives the nee-oot a hefty nudge. Duly awoken, it crawls reluctantly off in search of "romance".

Pastoral establishing shots then shift us to a willow-lined English pond in springtime, before the film cuts to an underwater sequence in which the "gentlemen" newts are compared to the "owners of eastern harems", admiring "a tendency to plumpness" in their females. One can't imagine sneaking that line past the BBC compliance unit these days. A female newt appears, chomping enthusiastically on something. "She is certainly leaving no worm unswallowed in an attempt to achieve sex-appeal," chuckles the voice-over, lubriciously. Gentlemen and lady newts become increasingly intimate, though the actual act of newt-procreation is euphemistically glossed over ("Marriage is brief and divorce certain"). The film then ends with a swerve into Bildungsroman, as baby newts are shown hatching, growing up and eventually leaving the pond in search of "adventure". The whole thing is gloriously daft – and succeeds precisely because of its sustained commitment to silliness.

Amid all the period folderol, however, it can be easy to lose sight of how technically remarkable the footage is. The segue to the underwater sequence is superbly done: the newts slip into the pond down a gravel slope, their images doubled in the reflective under-surface of the water. Most astonishing of all are the brightly backlit shots of a newt's translucent foot, so crisply magnified that you can see the blood circulating through the tips of its toes.

[MichaelB]

Absolutely superb review by Anthony Nield on The Digital Fix.