The Stalls of Barchester (1971)
- Directed by
- Lawrence Gordon Clark
- Genre
- tv movie, horror
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Runtime
- 45 min
- Rating
- 6.4 of 10 from 21 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
A scholar investigates the mysterious death of an archdeacon 50 years earlier in a cathedral. The story unfolds through documents and supernatural hints from the past.
atmosphericslow-burnunsettlinggothiceeriequietscholarlymelancholic
What happens
The Stalls of Barchester is a short film which serves as the first of the British supernatural anthology series A Ghost Story for Christmas. Written, produced, and directed by the series' creator Lawrence Gordon Clark, it is based on the ghost story "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" by M. R. James, first published in the collection More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911). It stars Robert Hardy as Archdeacon Haynes of the fictional Barchester Cathedral, whose mysterious death is investigated 50 years later by the scholar Dr. Black (Clive Swift), and first aired on BBC1 on 24 December 1971. Clark was inspired to initiate the series by Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968), based on a James story and directed by Jonathan Miller for the BBC documentary strand Omnibus, and the oral tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas of which James' stories were a part. It was commissioned by Paul Fox and, like Miller's film, produced by the BBC Documentary Unit; Clark's approach was likewise inspired by his background as a documentarian, particularly his insistence on location shooting at Norwich Cathedral on colour 16mm film, which would become hallmarks of the series' original run. Since airing, the film has received praise as a work of supernatural television and horror cinema, and as a strong inaugural instalment of what would become a long-running strand. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
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Burke & Hare (1971)
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Black Noon (1971)
Die Frau in Weiß (1971)
Blood on Satan's Claw (1971)
The Devils (1971)
See No Evil (1971)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.