Heart of an Empire (1935)

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The British Council Film Collection is an archive of more than 120 short documentary films made by the British Council during the 1940s designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played. Preserved by the BFI National Film Archive and digitised by means of a generous donation by Google, the films are now yours to view, to download and to play with for the first time.
The film focuses on the urban landscape of the country's capital city with a particular emphasis on famous historical landmarks, including some of the buildings that surround the headquarters of the British Council.
As the title suggests, this film gloriously frames the city of London, and all of its bustling activity, as The Heart of an Empire. Littered with iconic urban imagery, such as Downing Street and No. 10, Buckingham Palace and Carlton House Terraces, the film visually depicts the workings of the city and how each separate element comes together to form the empire's nexus.
The film discusses British heritage but also refers to the many different dominions of the empire at the time; offering footage of their London buildings. As the narrator states, these dominions are also represented in London by their goods and commodities, which are imported and marketed. In addition, the film documents the King's Birthday Parade of the mid 1930s, boasting footage of the Red London Guards at the ceremony.
The film drives home the notion that at The Heart of an Empire the British people really have their "fingers on the pulse of world affairs".
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