Return to Waterloo/Come Dancing

Rating:
Summary: An interesting curio (3.5 stars closer to the mark)
Review: The film will not be to everyone's tastes, it is more an arthouse, fairly abstract short (60 mins.) number, shot in black and white. On the whole I enjoyed it; it has good tunes and some humorous moments, like the commuters doing song and dance routines.
However, I do have a few problems with it. The main one is that Davies, like in much of his music, has a tendency to moralise rather than just telling the story (unlike, e.g. Chris Difford of Squeeze). Furthermore, the themes covered (decline of old-fashioned values and customs) have been a part of his music way back to "Village Green Preservation Society", hence the sentiments often signal towards inflexibility and reluctance to adapt as opposed to just being wistful nostalgia. Another (slight) complaint is that the film sometimes veers off unnecessarily, and has perhaps a bit too much disturbing detail (although it is not really graphic in the usual sense).
The compilation of videos that follow (also in black and white) also reflect the well-known themes, and are made in an entertaining and humorous way, with Davies showing good camera presence.