Window into the Past - Brighton Beach, 1896
Vložit
- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- I've been poking round CZcams yesterday and for no particular reason, I searched 'old film' and turned up this glimpse into the life of ordinary people in late C19 England.
The footage shows average people doing a variety of everyday activities as they stroll along Brighton Beach in 1896.
The myriad of separate impressions registering in my brain provoked questions about these folk, and imaginings about their lives.
A young woman on the left in a white blouse trying to control the extraordinary floral construction of her late Victorian hat. Is it a windy day?
Office workers, in suits with bowler hats in hand, walking self-consciously towards and past the camera.
Two middle-aged women arm-in-arm slowly ambling along, probably happily gossiping. Long black dresses sweeping the sand.
Small children digging animatedly in the sand, again on the left.
A working-class man bending over to gently and caringly take the hand of a tiny son.
Periodic parasols, unfurled. Is it a sunny day?
A man in a white jacket with a white suitcase who has been chatting to a group of women and then walks away down the beach. Has he been trying to sell them something? Wonder what? Some artificial flowers? A wooden toy for a child? Did he mange a sale?
And, at the end, two smiling pre-teenage girls flitting across the foreground, quite close-up.
I'd love to be able to hop into my trusty old imaginary tardis and be on Brighton Beach way back when, as much as anything to see if my fanciful imaginings had any match in reality!
Enjoy!
thank you for re-uploading.
this video has mesmerizing quality as many tableaux of Vermeer. very small moments of ordinary people cut out into eternity and make us very inquisitive and intorspective at the same time.
Wonderful view into the past !
Way before our time ;-)
Thanks for sharing, Alex :-)
Irene.
absolutely, your notes here is inspirational.
and thanks for your in depth explanation of my internal mumbling. sometines you can see the most universal thing through the most ordinary. that is the incredible beauty of the combination of this rare footage and sublime adagietto.
hi Irene
isn't it - i'm not sure quite why this footage is so fascinating - maybe it people just going about their daily business, as we do - perhaps this is what makes it seem timeless.
yes, way before our grandparents' time too i suspect!
glad you liked this one.
Alex (the relief of being me! thanks for noticing this in the notes - appreciated!)
no, truly the mumbling was coming from this end - very loud and very clear - LOL!
and you are absolutely right, the transcendental adagietto improves us - even dragging me up of my low level!
The chain pier, visible in the background, is intact in this film. It was destroyed in a storm in 1896, so this film must be earlier that year.
pleasure - i know what you mean - i'm not sure why but this footage mesmerizes me too - which is why i spent time talking about it in the 'notes'.
i know what you mean about Vermeer in this context - it's the calm quiet loveliness of ordinary but universal things - yes, that leads back onto the viewer and into introspection about one'sown life and where it sits in things
i've watched a lot of old footage but very little affects like this.
were you wearing a top hat or a bowler?!
Hi Alex,
Yes, fortunately, most of them are :-)
The other ones, we simply ignore, LOL !!
Have a nice day !
Irene.
i'm surprised no one took your photo with all that magnificence! don't you agree Bnesque?
hi Irene
very nice to know Irene is your real name and thanks for understanding my initial hesitation about mine
in fact my first YT channel was under my own name and some very strange characters googled my email address and wrote saying my interest in ballet was unnatural and that i should be concerned with more important matters - and some were just rude attacks. i was flabbergast! so 'nick'came about and i wasn't bothered by strange people any more. just wonderful contact with great people
What do you mean by "this film turned up on CZcams" (?). Have you redirected a film to your own chamnel? Where is the "original" in that case?
i yes!!! i remember you there now! and i think you had spats on too! and were you carrying a silver topped walking stick, of a very elegant design? LOL
Yes thats me in the white coat LOL
now, do you recall the colour?
Hi Alex,
Yes, I think so, too, because, it`s about ordinary people !
You`re most welcome !
Irene is my real name :-)
yes tall leather spats
no no probabily l was just arriving with train from victoria station.
maybe a couple of years before our time?
or are we deluding ourselves!
LOL!!!
hi Irene
i'm sure everyone has their share of add visits to their channels but most people are really great - and of course that's the main thing
'unnatural' indeed - 'peculiar', 'strange' - the list goes on! LOL
Alex
You`re welcome, Alex !
Yes, there are some weird people wandering around,
on the internet, I got my share, too !
Well, THEY are the unnatural ones, LOL !!
Irene.
alright.
BRIGHTON place of OUR prime LOL
rendigote top hat and gaiters.
sincearly l was magnificent looking with my gaiters.
LOL!