Popular reviews

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★ 2

  20th Review for The Collab Weekly Movie Watch

  As I've mentioned so many times before to the point I feel like I'm repeating myself, there are certain films that even though their narratives never quite hook me, the visuals and camerawork are captivating enough to keep me engaged right up until the end.

  First of all, I enjoyed the way the film reads almost like a docudrama. In spite of the fact that the performances feel wooden, you can actually get sucked deeper into this alternate world due to all the technical work. Cinematography is superb, and the way the camera is placed in some of the scenes, especially at the end when it shows the Nazis meeting at night,…

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  Review by Ziglet_mir ★★½ 2

  Viewed with the Amazing Edith’s *Collab Film Group*.

  My rating may be a smidge unfair as I’ve had a recent (and loose) dive into the zeitgeist of WWII and the Holocaust. Just since October I’ve viewed Schindler’s List, Shoah, The Great Dictator, and A Hidden Life—more or less for different reasons, but certainly because they are all somewhat landmark features and tackle the material in unique ways. Kevin Brownlow’s and Andrew Mollo’s passion project (which apparently took somewhere around 10 years to manifest) is undeniably unique in its scope yet underwhelming in its execution. I am certainly for alt-historic examples parsing out the numerous possibilities and “what-ifs” of their time though. The “cheap” acting and discombobulated story progression (of what little…

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  Review by Dr. Ethan Lyon ★★★★ 13

  4th Kevin Brownlow (after Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow and D.W. Griffith: The Father of Film), 1st Andrew Mollo

  Kevin Brownlow is one of the three directors I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. It was 2016, and the BFI restoration of Gance’s Napoleon was getting its first run at the Southbank. Brownlow had been working on the project since he discovered a set of 9.5mm reels of the film in a flea market as a teen (for context, he’s now in his eighties) and was in NFT1 giving a talk on the long and arduous process it took to get the film to its current state. At the end of the talk, I…

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  Review by Graham ★★★½

  It Happened Here tells a version of history that might have been. A version where the Nazi war machine invaded Britain and National Socialism took hold, with its citizens caught on two sides of the Reich: Shut up and comply for a quiet life or resist and face the consequences.

  "The appalling thing about fascism is that you've got to use fascist methods to get rid of it."

  It's a well directed and interesting piece that captures a mostly sombre mood through the use of visuals that stitch together archive footage and filmed content in what often feels like a documentary retelling. With a narrative packed full of well constructed dialogue based on this twisted view of the past, it certainly makes you think.

  Watched with the rousing resistance fighters of the Collab Film Club

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  Review by Joshua Dysart ★★★½ 3

  As a vehicle to explore rhetorics and allegiances and the complicated nature of fighting extremism (the oft held notion that one must engage, to some degree, in extremism themselves), the role of propaganda, the potential inherent fascism that’s down deep in every human, and what it means to serve a country or a people or an idea... this is a total mid-60’s English independent film banger.

  It’s leanly told, with certain story beats barely sketched out. Mostly because it was made on a micro-budget. Sometimes these story jumps can be quite artful, like the smash cut from our protagonist's realization at the true purpose of a seemingly ideal country hospital, to her suddenly arrested and cuffed to a national socialist…

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  Review by louferrigno ★★★½ 5

  History and the arduous reconstruction of the past plays a vital role in nearly every aspect of It Happened Here, where the theorizing of an alternate outcome for WWII is merely supported by the extensive legs that held it together in spite of rocky terrain. Kevin Brownlow was a young lad on the cusp of adulthood interested in the preservation of silent film even at an early age, and when he approached Andrew Mollo, a strapping bloke who stored a rich profusion of history in his teenaged years, Brownlow didn't expect that Mollo would take enough interest to help beyond just building costumes and sets, nor did the two realize it would take eight years for the film to approach…

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  Review by Daniel Shillito ★★★★

  I have the utmost respect for Kevin Brownlow. The man spent nearly 50 years of his life piecing together Abel Gance's Napoleon, a film which would have otherwise have been left mutilated and forgotten to time had it not been for his passion for silent cinema. That respect in turn extends to the eight-year production that befell It Happened Here, a production that saw Brownlow and co-director Andrew Mollo start as amateurs with no money; end as semi-professionals. Also with no money. A showcase of brutality on both sides, the film is a chilling reminder of what might have been, one that is exceptionally chilling in its meticulous authenticity with an ambitious neorealist edge. The acting is beautifully natural and…

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  Review by Remobo ★★★ 3

  Any film where Darth Vader gives an impassioned speech against fascism is A-OK in my book.

  
  
  

  
  An impressive film, selected by THE COLLAB..most impressive. 

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  Review by Christian Ryan ★★★½ 7

  Now look, before I get into my hot little take here, it is imperative that you understand a universal truth:

  The Rinster Order (IV, V, I, II, III, VI) is the ONLY logical way to experience George Lucas's Star Wars saga. (Sorry Disney, you're not invited to this party.) Besides smoothing the otherwise jarring tonal shifts between eras and striking the most structurally sound (and sophisticated) balance, it is the only order in which every secret, and the FULL SATISFACTION of every arc, is preserved (or markedly - i.e., the reveal of Luke and Leia's relationship - improved upon). I'm not going to get into the details here, but if you wish to stubbornly challenge this IRREFUTABLE FACT, I invite…

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  Review by Stephen M ★★★½ 4

  COLLAB FILM CLUB

  A documentary-like depiction of what would have happened had Hitler invaded and occupied England, making it a fascist state adhering to National Socialist values.

  Consider that this was made by two fledgling filmmakers Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo who began working on it while still in their teens. It was also less than 20 years since WWII ended, when followers of Oswald Mosley were still around. So it's quite a feat. Shot on 16mm film, it's grainy and choppy and don't even try to use the captioning option on YouTube (the only other place it's available is archives.org). And the first 20 minutes are confusing with much shot in the murky dark. But when it takes off…

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  Review by MushiMinion ★★★

  If we're being brutally honest here, It Happened Here is an Ed Wood movie. It's much more competently made and with a clearer purpose, but this follows a similar principal: film the cheap stuff around the stock footage that makes up the expensive bits that would otherwise require rehearsals and shooting permits and coordinating extras and technical expertise. You won't see Bela Lugosi wrestling a rubber tentacle, but you will find peasant women walking down completely empty streets that occasionally cut to a Nazi parade they're supposedly observing. Ribbing aside, this splicing together of historical footage with freshly filmed bits was done remarkably well when you consider their resources and provided a suitable documentary vibe that I'm sure allowed It…

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  Review by Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸 ★★★★

  Inspiration came to the 17 year old Kevin Brownlow in 1956, thanks to Orwell's classic novel, 1984 and A Paris, sous les bottes des Nazis, the collection of photographs of Nazi occupied France. Working as a trainee assistant editor, he borrowed a 16mm camera and headed down to Trafalgar Square and the 30,000 strong crowd gathered to celebrate the May Day rally, with two friends dressed in Nazi uniform.

  What sounds like a stunt was merely the start of an eight year long production that saw Brownlow, and subsequently his creative partner 16 year old historian Andrew Mollo, work as writer, director, producer, editor and cinematographer on their debut film, It Happened Here, an alt-reality story about what would have…