The White Bus

The short film, The White Bus, wanted to be an odd film instead turned into a tourist film. Honestly not much happens in the film. I have seen short films with better story lines and character development than the White Bus.

Though it was beautifully filmed.

If you are interested to see a film about Britain in the late 1960's then this film is for you.

This review is for Red, White and Zero. It's possible to reconstruct the facts around this film, but the IMDb listing is confusing. Lindsay Anderson's The White Bus was briefly and unsuccessfully released with two other shorts: a very short film by Peter Brook featuring Zero Mostel in a hurry (The Ride of the Valkyries - lots of frantic mugging), and Red and Blue by Tony Richardson. Only Lindsay Anderson's film seems to be readily available. (The others would make good Criterion extras.)

I saw Red, White and Zero on late night Australian television in 1984. The White Bus wasn't seen to best effect on the small screen - rather self-consciously poetic, but as an Anderson film it will obviously bear reseeing. Red and Blue was fascinating and not very good. Tony Richardson was in love with the Nouvelle Vague, and raided its box of tricks and its composers (Bassiak from Jules and Jim; Duhamel from Godard's Pierrot le Fou) in an imitation Demy/Moreau vehicle for Vanessa Redgrave! She fluted a song in English, and Kevin Brownlow provided the jumpcuts. (You can hear her singing Bassiak's Bonjour Papa on YouTube).

Most weirdly, the sex interests for the romantically-besieged Vanessa were provided by Douglas Fairbanks Jr, William Sylvester (the scientist from Kubrick's 2001), and Michael York. The sparks didn't exactly fly. Anyway, after 30 years, it's time to make this available again.

Cute, whacky and beautifully shot surrealistic short from Lindsay Anderson which clearly foreshadows if.... which followed a year later (plus O Lucky Man and Brittania Hospital too). The same cinematographer as on if.... plus the mix of black and white and colour shots.

Some key music sound cues from if... feature here for the first time plus the reading of the proverbs quote "wisdom is the principal thing..." which opens if....

There's also a bit of M Hulot's theme from Mon Oncle mixed in there plus some classic Tati-esque visual humor. I guess Mr Anderson had a whole lot of stuff already brewing that would come flowing out in force a little later.

Criterion definitely missed a trick not including this on the if.... DVD/Bluray - a little more relevant than the Oscar winning short about the deaf kids I'd say. All in all a charming, strange and chuckly way to spend forty minutes.

This is a rather confusing situation in that generally it is held that Red White and Zero was a three part film with the involvement of Peter Brook, Lindsay Anderson and Tony Richardson as directors with only Anderson's White Bus segment being completed. Yet here we have a BFI release claiming discovery of the completed portmanteau film yet there are clearly three senate films complete with individual credits. Be all that as may be the Brook segment featuring Zero Mostel is a very 60s slapstick/surreal effort that barely succeeds and the luscious looking short film featuring Vanessa Redgrave (sort of) singing and cavorting about is not terrible but cries out for the participation of Jeanne Moreau, for whom it was originally intended, before Richardson switched ladies. The White Bus remains the most competent and fine looking film displaying the wonders of industrial Manchester in a jokey visitor tour that ironically probably does take place today. As might be expected, as well as the splendid photography we get social comment and politics mixed in with a fondness for the English rural landscape and a humane picture of life of the common man (or woman as rather surprisingly here presented).

A strange, moody, yet captivating film that captures the atmosphere at a certain time in Britain. I love the images of the terrace houses, the back alleyways and bombed out areas. I grew up just off Holderness Road in Hull and the images gave me a flashback to that time. The air is heavy with coal smoke, the roads have few cars and kids are playing in the streets, whilst the people all look gray like in a Lowry painting. The silent parts are the best as the images speak for themselves.

The humour is nicely understated. My particular favorite is the scene with the lift and the security guard.

I not sure what messages the film is seeking to convey, but as an observation piece it is superb.