THE BOWL
Dir. Peter Ward GB 80 mins DVD
Documentary/Comedy
Video/image : 780 x 480
Audio: 192kbps Lame MP3
Video Compression: XVID

The Bowl is a documentary film about Bradford but like none you have ever seen. The directors of the film have scoured this once great industrial landscape (now designated a 'UNESCO City of Film') in search of the garish oddities, unpleasant people and idiotic activities that make up 21st Century human life. While British documentary films recording the seedy underbelly of our capital city are now available on pristine DVD, The Bowl turns our attention towards the grim reality of the provinces. But unlike films about glamorous locations, where the new world thrusts and preens its modernity, The Bowl depicts the sadness inherent in the human condition. It's not all gloom though. For example, earlier films were in awe of the destructive power of the automobile and of the crazed behaviour of drivers. In The Bowl the good citizens of this Yorkshire city are instead trying to save the world from too-fast driving and speed camera abuse. Is The Bowl - as 'Pierce Brosnan' wonders at the end - real? As Shakespeare once noted: "there are more things in heaven and earth and between sunset and dawn than are dreamt of in your philosophy". Put another way: "there's nowt so queer as folk".