Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 5638 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| B-DAY | c.1965 | 1962-01-01 |
|
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 2 mins 52 secs Subject: Travel |
| Summary This comical short film sees the filmmaker, Yorkshireman Eric Hall, baffled by an unusual bathroom fixture in his French hotel room. After some deliberation, however, he learns to appreciate the bidet. |
|
Description
This comical short film sees the filmmaker, Yorkshireman Eric Hall, baffled by an unusual bathroom fixture in his French hotel room. After some deliberation, however, he learns to appreciate the bidet.
Title – B-Day
Title – A British assault on a French installation
Eric Hall, the filmmaker, enters a hotel carrying a suitcase. On entering his room, he notices a bidet in the corner and bends down to turn the tap but stops, shaking his head in confusion.
He sits on a chair, removes his...
This comical short film sees the filmmaker, Yorkshireman Eric Hall, baffled by an unusual bathroom fixture in his French hotel room. After some deliberation, however, he learns to appreciate the bidet.
Title – B-Day
Title – A British assault on a French installation
Eric Hall, the filmmaker, enters a hotel carrying a suitcase. On entering his room, he notices a bidet in the corner and bends down to turn the tap but stops, shaking his head in confusion.
He sits on a chair, removes his shoes and socks, rolls up his trousers and proceeds to stand in the bidet, apparently attempting to wash his feet. When this fails, he sits down on the edge.
Realising the function of the ‘French installation’, he exclaims “I see!” He then takes his trousers down, sits on the bidet and turns the tap.
His face appears alarmed, then simply perplexed, turning finally to a smile of relief and enjoyment.
Title – Operation concluded
Title – By J. Eric Hall
Context
An experience many of us will be able to relate to, though there wouldn’t have been someone around to film the comic consequences.
We are all so continentally savvy now, but back in the early days of holidaying abroad there would have been many a puzzling encounter with some foreign custom. Here Bingley amateur filmmaker Eric Hall has just such an experience with a bidet while in France in 1965. Rather like the Francophile Tony Hancock, Hall brings some English humour to the occasion....
An experience many of us will be able to relate to, though there wouldn’t have been someone around to film the comic consequences.
We are all so continentally savvy now, but back in the early days of holidaying abroad there would have been many a puzzling encounter with some foreign custom. Here Bingley amateur filmmaker Eric Hall has just such an experience with a bidet while in France in 1965. Rather like the Francophile Tony Hancock, Hall brings some English humour to the occasion. Eric Hall was a dedicated filmmaker who clearly loved making films, counting both travelogues and comedies to his extensive oeuvre, from the 1930s through to 1980. He was President of the Bradford Cine Circle and for a while Chairman of the North East Region of the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers. The earliest records for bidets date from early 18th Century France; the word means pony, hence to ride one. Although bidets are common in many countries, they are still struggling to get a foothold in Britain. Perhaps they are still seen as a bit embarrassing, which might explain their continued source as an object for comedy: there is a Citizens Bidet in the Carry On film ‘Don't Lose Your Head’, made in 1966. |
