This is a full-length documentary film of Queen Elizabeth II's 1953 coronation. Beautifully filmed in pin-sharp Technicolour, the film is book-ended by some general views of 1953 Britain followed by formal proclamations of the forthcoming coronation, and then condenses the 8-hour proceedings of the day into something over an hour. We see the coronation procession leave Buckingham Palace and make its way to Westminster Abbey, highlights of the coronation ceremony, and finally the return of the procession.
Visually, this film is sumptuous - the colour is absolutely gorgeous and it is a treat to fully appreciate the colours of the pageantry. The sound is less thrilling - key parts of the ceremony are synched to the contemporaneous sound recording, but all the music is newly recorded. The limited camera positions and editing mean that the presentation is somewhat stodgy and boring by comparison to current standards. And the commentary sounds as if writer Christopher Fry was desperately pursuing a knighthood, it is so pretentious and bombastically sycophantic - the colour is lush, but the narration is lurid. Sir Laurence Olivier had already been knighted 6 years earlier, of course, so he has no excuse for his dreadful delivery of Fry's purplest of prose. He is worse than the hammiest amateur dramatic performance.
Yet despite the criticism, it is wonderful that this record of that day exists - it brings the events to life far better than the more common monochrome TV recording.
Thanks to the Daily Mail for making this remastered version available as a freebie.
Visually, this film is sumptuous - the colour is absolutely gorgeous and it is a treat to fully appreciate the colours of the pageantry. The sound is less thrilling - key parts of the ceremony are synched to the contemporaneous sound recording, but all the music is newly recorded. The limited camera positions and editing mean that the presentation is somewhat stodgy and boring by comparison to current standards. And the commentary sounds as if writer Christopher Fry was desperately pursuing a knighthood, it is so pretentious and bombastically sycophantic - the colour is lush, but the narration is lurid. Sir Laurence Olivier had already been knighted 6 years earlier, of course, so he has no excuse for his dreadful delivery of Fry's purplest of prose. He is worse than the hammiest amateur dramatic performance.
Yet despite the criticism, it is wonderful that this record of that day exists - it brings the events to life far better than the more common monochrome TV recording.
Thanks to the Daily Mail for making this remastered version available as a freebie.