Around the Village Green: A quiet look at a changing world

Is it worth the watch?

Honestly, you probably only care about Around the Village Green if you have a thing for mid-century pastoral vibes or if you’re a total sucker for old footage of rural England. It’s not a thriller. It’s not going to keep you on the edge of your seat. If you need a fast-paced plot or anything resembling a traditional arc, you will definitely hate this.

It feels like stumbling onto someone’s home movie collection from a rainy Tuesday afternoon. There is something really comforting about the pace here, even if it feels a bit aimless sometimes.

The slow fade of the quiet life

The whole thing is basically about how the village is changing because, well, cars exist now. And people want houses. Evelyn Cherry and Marion Taylor wander through these scenes, and it feels very natural, almost like they forgot the camera was even there. The shift from country estates to housing developments is framed with this weird, understated melancholy.

I found myself staring at the background extras more than the main subjects. There is this one shot of a man just leaning against a gate that goes on for way longer than it needs to. It’s not profound, it’s just... a guy leaning on a gate. But in this movie, that’s a whole mood.

Tiny observations

• The sound design is just pure wind and birds. It’s surprisingly relaxing.
• The housing developments look so stark compared to the old stone cottages. The contrast is barely even subtle.
• I’m not sure if the script was trying to say something deep or if they just liked filming the grass.
• The transition between scenes feels like it was edited by someone who just got distracted by a nice tree.

It’s funny to compare this kind of quiet documentation to something like The Ghost Goes West, which has so much more, well, stuff happening. This movie is just happy to let a scene breathe until it’s basically snoring. 😴

I suppose you could argue it’s a critique of urban sprawl, but that feels like giving it too much credit. It’s more like a shrug at the inevitable. The camera lingers on the village green as if it’s waiting for the ghost of the old way of life to show up. It never really does.

Anyway, watch it if you want to feel like you’re sitting in a dusty chair in a library in 1950. It’s fine. It’s more than fine, actually. It’s just very, very small.