Snow (1963)

(Viewers are advised to use the 'watch in high quality' option for this video). 'Snow' is available to buy as part of the BFI DVD 'Geoffrey Jones: The Rhythm of Film' - http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/...

Comprising train and track footage quickly shot just before a heavy winter's snowfall was melting, the award-winning classic that emerged from the cutting-room compresses British Rail's dedication to blizzard-battling into a thrilling eight-minute montage cut to music. Tough-as-boots workers struggling to keep the line clear are counterpointed with passengers' buffet-car comforts.

In a mere half-dozen films released between 1959 and 1975, director Geoffrey Jones revealed himself as an outstanding talent, embracing industrial filmmaking as consistent with a personal style, blending movement and sound into a joyous, rhythmic whole. Brilliantly aided by Wolfgang Suschitzky's shimmering camerawork, the Oscar-nominated 'Snow' is Jones' masterpiece. It's crisply invigorating enough to induce brief amnesia about our trains' notorious inability to cope with the white stuff - then and now. (Patrick Russell)

For more information about 'Snow' see http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/i...

All titles on the BFI Films channel are preserved in the vast collections of the BFI National Archive. To find out more about the Archive visit http://www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collect...

• Category

  Autos & Vehicles

[Henry Taysom]

My wife and I lived in an isolated cottage adjacent to the main Midland line within a few yards of Westerleigh South signal box. We were frozen in for eleven weeks. Our only neighbour, some two hundred yards away, telephoned our local co-op in Bristol and arrangements were made for a supply of groceries and parafin to be brought up to us on the footplate of a loco set for Westerleigh yard. He stopped at the bottom of our garden, off loaded our goods and 1/2 ton of coal from his tender. Marvelous

[stuart clark]

he did a great job on this film :) and fab music to go with it !

[Harrison1420]

Great film quality.

[Axel Campbell]

The Rhythm of Film is awesome. Your father was a very talented man. I love his films.

[c0ckpisspartridge]

i've learned a lot from reading the racist comments. i used to think it was dr beeching and margaret thatcher who messed up this country. now i know it was winifred atwell and kenny lynch. thanks.

[c0ckpisspartridge]

i like a bit of ted music myself, but maybe you're right. vivian ellis' "coronation scot" might have been a bit nearer the mark.

[Kenny Palmer]

Not to mention no 1 willing to make a decision in caseit goes wrong and they would have to take responsibility OR it offends a minority group

[Simon Barnes]

I watched this and wonder at how Network Rail and the TOCs as soon as the first flake falls introduce an Emergency Timetable which consists of cancelling virtually all the trains along the Brighton Main Line

[Chafford1]

I'm afraid it's par for the course on You Tube!