An interesting documentary this one that manages more than it really seems to try to do. Although it doesn't really touch on modern shopping and consumerism culture, the film assumes we know what it is all about and focuses on the formative stages in the UK, thus letting us make the links and see the trends ourselves. The film starts in Edwardian England where shops displayed very little, had male escorts for every shopper and had never heard the phrase "I'm just browsing". In to this world came Selfridges and Woolworths two large shops opened by Americans in London and Liverpool respectively which changed how shopping was viewed as well as other, more important social opinions.
At face value I wasn't sure if this film would appeal to me or not as I'm not really a shopper and, although I like "nice things", I don't really browse or get the newest gadgets and I certainly am not part of the current consumer culture that wants what they want, even if it means it is all on plastic. However I do recognise this culture as topical so for me what I found the film to do really well to draw me in was show me where all this came from. Like I said, it doesn't make these connections in your face but by simply presenting the change in Edwardian times, you can see how it knocks across the generations into what we have now.
We have too many professors in all sorts of soft subjects nowadays, but Mica Nava is impressive as she presents the material. Obviously the only contributions she gets is from old newspapers and grandchildren but the film has worked this history so that it does feel fresh and alive and never like we are hearing it all via the generational grapevine. Editor Harris deserves credit along with director Harvey for making the documentary as tight and as relevant as it is and I liked that they made it look easy even though they were dealing with the history of a department store.
Overall then an interesting and accessible documentary that makes for engaging viewing because it fills out the history while also making it relevant to the modern viewer.
At face value I wasn't sure if this film would appeal to me or not as I'm not really a shopper and, although I like "nice things", I don't really browse or get the newest gadgets and I certainly am not part of the current consumer culture that wants what they want, even if it means it is all on plastic. However I do recognise this culture as topical so for me what I found the film to do really well to draw me in was show me where all this came from. Like I said, it doesn't make these connections in your face but by simply presenting the change in Edwardian times, you can see how it knocks across the generations into what we have now.
We have too many professors in all sorts of soft subjects nowadays, but Mica Nava is impressive as she presents the material. Obviously the only contributions she gets is from old newspapers and grandchildren but the film has worked this history so that it does feel fresh and alive and never like we are hearing it all via the generational grapevine. Editor Harris deserves credit along with director Harvey for making the documentary as tight and as relevant as it is and I liked that they made it look easy even though they were dealing with the history of a department store.
Overall then an interesting and accessible documentary that makes for engaging viewing because it fills out the history while also making it relevant to the modern viewer.
