Lovely stuff ... I must have seen this Oscar winning BP film more often than any other film, even including Laurel & Hardy shorts and Tom & Jerry cartoons, but until tonight not since 24th August 1973. And tonight was the first time actually in colour! Apparently this was the last trade test colour film that UK BBC2 showed (I remember watching that day but couldn't recall which were on), one of over a hundred information/educational films multi-repeated throughout the 60's – Giuseppina was broadcast 158 times and was nowhere near the most frequently shown. They were virtually the only programmes on UK TV until teatime during school holidays during that supposed golden age.
I must have been as bored as the teenage girl Giuseppina was in this to see it so often – it's a languid tale of a slow sunny day at a small Italian BP garage, a couple of episodes involving passing good humoured eccentric customers enlivening the day for the family living at the garage. But all Giuseppina wanted was to be taken to the Fair. How could her philosophical father Rossi make a profit from such meagre trade? It struck me (many times) he even had time to oil the axles of a donkey cart squeaking by slowly. To paraphrase The Magnificent Ambersons, it seems we had time for everything back then – the faster we're carried, the less time we have to spare.
I wish the roads were as busy and full of people as pleasant now, and that short films could still be as inconsequential and entertaining as this was. Currently on youtube in 3 parts for anyone interested.
I must have been as bored as the teenage girl Giuseppina was in this to see it so often – it's a languid tale of a slow sunny day at a small Italian BP garage, a couple of episodes involving passing good humoured eccentric customers enlivening the day for the family living at the garage. But all Giuseppina wanted was to be taken to the Fair. How could her philosophical father Rossi make a profit from such meagre trade? It struck me (many times) he even had time to oil the axles of a donkey cart squeaking by slowly. To paraphrase The Magnificent Ambersons, it seems we had time for everything back then – the faster we're carried, the less time we have to spare.
I wish the roads were as busy and full of people as pleasant now, and that short films could still be as inconsequential and entertaining as this was. Currently on youtube in 3 parts for anyone interested.