‘Not until Peeping Tom (1960) over 30 years later did a British film so knowingly and so effectively turn its own camera on itself. It is a young man’s film, the first effort of someone representative of a new creative spirit in British film, and displays as much of the excitement of what the medium can do that characterises such notable debuts as Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941), À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) and Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992). If it is a lesser artistic work than such notable films, it nevertheless achieves the same goal of giving us the filmmaker’s eyes and looking at films as though for the first time.’ – Luke McKernan in Brian McFarlane, The Cinema of Britain and Ireland (2005)
It’s a brave man that compares any British silent film to Citizen Kane, but McKernan’s bold comparison hits the nail precisely on the head. Shooting Stars is very much the film of a young man who is shooting for the stars. It is clear from reading the original screenplay that the young Anthony Asquith’s intention was to go straight to the top with his first film, although technically the direction was given over to a responsible adult, A.V. Bramble. The script, co-written with John Orton, is so well thought through that there would have been relatively little for Bramble to do but supervise.
There are scenarists’ notes in an insistent tone, regarding photography: ‘The success of the production will depend to a great extent upon the excellence of the photography – very novel camera angles etc. Hence an expert cameraman is essential. The most modern form of technique is involved.’
Also, regarding interest to the audience: ‘The cinema public must be curious as to the inner workings of a film studio. Care has been exercised to show the process simply and lucidly. The contrast between “movie” life and “real” life may have additional value.’
Finally, regarding the scenario: ‘Designed to be “cast iron” the picture should be taken to the script exactly.’
There are detailed instructions as to the sets, the time frame within which the action is set, individual shots and even the studio where those shots are to be taken. Presumably, this latter instruction was to prevent any economising on the part of the studio over the touches that Asquith knew would make his name.
Asquith was right, as the enthusiastic reception of the film bears out. He received all of the credit, hailed as a wunderkind as Hitchcock had been. His name was above the title. It was ‘Anthony Asquith’s Shooting Stars’ and he never looked back, in a stellar career that lasted another 40 years. A thoroughly outshone Bramble left the company soon after.
So Asquith’s brave and brutal strategy worked, but it was a gamble. Picking the film world itself as a subject to lampoon was a risky strategy, a bit of bare-faced cheek unlikely to ingratiate him to the industry who might be protective of their trade secrets or to the fans who, as the film implies, lap up the shallow genre product of the studio system. But the choice was very suitable for the young Asquith. He was the perfect person to comment on the business of filmmaking. As the privileged younger son of a former prime minister, doors opened for him. He had visited Hollywood with his sister and watched Chaplin at work in his studio. He had been to Germany and seen, first hand, the latest developments in studio lighting and set design and he watched the latest and best art films at the Film Society. Like Hitchcock, he was aware that the British film industry needed to up its game; it needed to modernise, invest in studios and learn from the best filmmakers overseas.
Asquith was also fortunate in arriving at British Instructional as they decided to go into feature production, with the Quota Act of 1927 providing some financial confidence to the business. Asquith’s commitment to improving the British industry was apparent from the start. Filmmaking was becoming exponentially more expensive, complicated and the product of a large corpus of people. As Rachael Low says, by the late 1920s it was becoming ‘increasingly difficult to locate the dominant creative influence’. Not so with Asquith who despite not even ‘directing’ Shooting Stars, had enough personality, drive and imagination to break through the deadening influence of entrenched filmmaking practice.
As well as being a commentary on the superficiality of the studio system, Shooting Stars is, uniquely in British film, full of glorious detail about the work of the film studio in the 1920s. Not only that, the space of the fictional studio is authentic – it was shot, as revealed in the script, at Cricklewood, in North West London, an ex-aircraft factory covering over 20,000 square feet where five productions could be filming simultaneously. It had its own power plant, printing and developing labs, rooms for scene painting, editing, scenario work and financial planning, scenery lofts, dressing rooms, carpenters’ workshops and props departments, and, of course, the canteen. The film shows many of these functions and departments.
Asquith’s story takes us beyond the premises of the studio itself to create a picture of the business as a whole: we see the front office, the dressing rooms, the location shoot of the ‘Riviera’-set comedy (actually a freezing beach in Norfolk) some dramatic stunt work, a trip to the cinema in which we are treated to a ‘film within a film’, a hackneyed rescue scene from one of Julian and Mae’s romantic dramas. At the end of the film we return to the studio – life goes on and another film is in production. We see the camera crew and director on set and the studio canteen full of waiting extras leafing through Picturegoer and hoping to be called for a day’s work. This all builds up to the final scene.
It was important that Asquith got this right as trite Hollywood endings, then as now, were a main point of contention for the ‘art’ film. Again, the script offers an insight: ‘The ENDING, although a departure from the conventional – may be excused (if excuse is necessary) since the story is definitely contrasting conventional film stuff with more normal existence.’ So he had anticipated the reaction of the front office and made it impossible for them to compromise his vision. And it’s perfect. He was clearly concerned, as another note displays his anxiety: ‘This shot to be taken with great care for sake of surprise illusion’. But he needn’t have worried; it’s another beautifully executed cinematic trick by a master of the silent film art.
Bryony Dixon, extract from Shooting Stars DVD/Blu-ray booklet essay (BFI, 2016)
SHOOTING STARS
Directors: A.V. Bramble, Anthony Asquith *
Production Company: British Instructional Films
Producer: H. Bruce Woolfe
Scenario: John Orton, Anthony Asquith *
Story: Anthony Asquith *
Light: Karl Fischer
Photography: Stanley Rodwell, Henry Harris
Settings: Ian Campbell-Gray, Walter Murton
Cast
Annette Benson (Mae Feather)
Brian Aherne (Julian Gordon)
Donald Calthrop (Andy Wilks)
Chili Bouchier (Winnie)
Wally Patch (property man)
David Brooks (Turner)
Ella Daincourt (Asphodel Smythe)
Tubby Phillips (Fatty)
Ian Wilson (reporter)
Judd Green (lighting man)
Jack Rawl (hero)
UK 1928
101 mins
Digital
*Uncredited
With John Altman score (Mon 9 Sep). With live piano accompaniment by Neil Brand (Sun 1 Sep)
MARTIN SCORSESE SELECTS HIDDEN GEMS OF BRITISH CINEMA
Shooting Stars
Sun 1 Sep 11:30; Mon 9 Sep 20:40
Brief Ecstasy
Tue 3 Sep 18:30; Wed 11 Sep 20:35
The Man in Grey
Fri 6 Sep 18:10; Tue 17 Sep 20:40
This Happy Breed
Fri 6 Sep 20:40; Tue 24 Sep 18:00
The Seventh Veil
Sat 7 Sep 15:10; Wed 25 Sep 20:40
Green for Danger
Sun 8 Sep 15:40; Thu 26 Sep 20:55
It Always Rains on Sunday
Sun 8 Sep 18:10; Fri 27 Sep 20:50
Hue and Cry
Sat 14 Sep 20:30; Mon 30 Sep 18:15 (+ intro by Josephine Botting, Curator, BFI National Archive)
Uncle Silas
Sat 14 Sep 18:20
Terence Fisher Double Bill: To the Public Danger + Stolen Face
Sun 15 Sep 18:10; Tue 1 Oct 20:30
Mandy
Mon 16 Sep 18:35; Sat 28 Sep 12:20
Yield to the Night
Fri 20 Sep 18:00; Sat 28 Sep 15:10
The Flesh and the Fiends
Sat 21 Sep 14:50; Wed 2 Oct 20:40
The Damned
Sat 21 Sep 20:40; Fri 4 Oct 18:30
Station Six Sahara
Sun 22 Sep 12:30; Sat 5 Oct 16:00
The Mind Benders
Sun 22 Sep 18:00; Wed 2 Oct 18:20
Went the Day Well? + intro by James Bell, Senior Curator, BFI National Archive
Mon 23 Sep 18:20
The Pumpkin Eater
Fri 27 Sep 18:00; Sun 6 Oct 15:00
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Sat 28 Sep 18:10; Thu 3 Oct 18:15 + intro by Sam Clemens, son of Brian Clemens
The Legend of Hell House
Sat 28 Sep 20:40; Mon 7 Oct 18:20
Guns at Batasi
Sun 29 Sep 18:20; Sat 5 Oct 18:20
With thanks to
Martin Scorsese and Edgar Wright
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Programme notes and credits compiled by Sight and Sound and the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
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