The Jealous God (2005)

Interesting facts

The Jealous God is a 2005 feature film set in the 1960s by British writer-director Steven Woodcock. It is based on the 1964 novel by John Braine, its opening scenes filmed in a Bradford grammar school where he once studied.

Production and reception

While Woodcock's movie Between Two Women was cinematic and intellectual in tone The Jealous God, set in the early 1960s, is more commercially retro-styled, like an actual 1960s melodrama. The poster that promoted the film outside British movie houses was painted by New York City magazine artist Basil Gogos to look like a 1960s movie poster. Film critic Rich Cline was one of the few reviewers who perceived:

"The story is filmed in a straightforward style with as few frills as possible. Woodcock immaculately recreates 1960s-style filmmaking, right down to a prudish tone that avoids actually mentioning any shocking issues by name and pans to the wallpaper when things get remotely steamy. The camera work is like a TV show - lots of moody close-ups and almost no stylistic flourishes besides a gritty recreation of the period.

Critic Michael Brooke, who had also read the source novel, saw it differently:

"Woodcock takes a selfconsciously ‘heritage cinema’ approach, best illustrated by a railway station featuring immaculately restored trains courtesy of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. Although the period detail is convincing, this fetishising of surface elements arguably does Braine a disservice. His novel was a sincere attempt at capturing the (then) here and now, but Woodcock's reconstruction too often feels preserved in aspic."

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