Jul 21: The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) dir. Val Guest

I remember watching this film when I was about 12 or 13, and it had an impact on me then.

The film came back to mind yesterday as the temperatures soared across the UK, with records being broken, and temperatures soaring.

The plot harks back to the cold war.

When the USA and Russia simultaneously test atomic bombs, the earth is knocked off its axis and set on a collision course with the sun. As the planet inexorably heats up and society slowly breaks down, a reporter breaks the story and sets about investigating the government cover-up around the changes that are happening to the climate. Water rationing is introduced and normal life begins to break down, although you can still buy a paper...

At the same time, many people carried on as normal - partying as some 

There are links to Saffron O Neill's paper in this area, which was certainly relevant as papers continued to use imagery of ice creams and people on the beach.

Not so much yesterday following the fires in numerous locations including some close to where my wife works in Brancaster.

Some of the film's themes are explored in this review by Mark Kermode.

I have a BFI restored version on BluRay, which is a good print of the film with plenty of extras.

Here is a full version of the film if you wanted to catch up with this classic of the genre - it's the BFI version so may not be around for too long:

Films I watched today:

Boiling Point (2021) dir. Philip Barantini

One-take kitchen drama with Stephen Graham as a chef whose life is falling apart a little... excellent.