O Thou Transcendent - The Life of Vaughan Williams
Tony Palmer
Tony Palmer Films TPDVD106
Release date January 2008
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It is Tony Palmer’s intention in this documentary of the life and works of Ralph Vaughan Williams to challenge what he considers to be the current perception of this composer “…to explode forever the image of a cuddly old Uncle, endlessly recycling English folk songs…” The film’s timely release coincides with the 50th anniversary of RVW’s death. Palmer uses archival footage, interviews with family, friends and colleagues, the voice of the great man himself taken from radio broadcasts and, of course, musical excerpts (filmed especially) to illustrate the life of RVW. The film begins with an excerpt of Nicola Benedetti playing The Lark Ascending to demonstrate the ‘lighter’ side of his work and ends in the turmoil of the 9th Symphony with a great deal of thought provoking imagery and fascinating commentary from some of the people who knew him best. The film is a story of what is behind Vaughan Williams’ music and emphasis is placed on the fact that he had witnessed much atrocity in his life and that some of this anguish, to a greater or lesser degree, transpires through his work with particular weight given to the symphonies. (Vaughan Williams worked for the Ambulance Corps in the First World War and he also cared for - and was devoted to - his first wife, who suffered from a chronic illness and was wheelchair bound for most of their 54 years of marriage). I found this film, particularly the interviews with his former secretary, with Adrian Boult and Imogen Holst (I hadn’t realised the extent of the relationship RVW had with Gustav Holst) gripping - the two and a half hours flew by and I came away wanting to listen further. My one grudge would be that Palmer could perhaps be accused of labouring the connections with war in the overuse of a particularly graphic image (taken presumably from the aftermath of a bombing in the recent Iraq war). Whilst I’m not sure that Vaughan Williams would have approved, this did not take away from my enjoyment of this powerful and surprisingly emotive film.
Reviewed by Dawn Cooke