Welcome back to another look at an offering from a featured Letterboxd List! This time around we’re revisiting the Top 250 Short Films where we find A Sense of History.
Title: A Sense of History
Director: Mike Leigh
Released: September 12, 1992 (Theatrical – Canada)
Runtime: 26 minutes
The 23rd Earl of Leete (Jim Broadbent) is thrilled to share the story of his family’s history and their land. We hear about how much land his father acquired, and we see how much it bothers the Earl that he hasn’t been able to match that legacy.
Walking the grounds and talking to the camera, the Earl gets into his family history. He was a peculiar child who wasn’t necessarily loved by either parent. Anytime he tried to get close to his mother, he was told to refrain. Though I’m sure it didn’t help matters that he only wanted to get close to her because of her smell. A smell that was the result of her addiction to a cough medicine containing an opiate. His first marriage proved just as unhappy. And when he gets to what happened to his first wife and their two children, things take a turn.
A Sense of History plays like a Monty Python sketch filmed as a documentary, poking dry fun at the upper class and the format it’s parodying. Although it may seem a touch odd at first, the dark humor doesn’t waste much time showing up. When it does, the middle ground disappears. You’re either along for the ride or you’ll be considering tapping out entirely.
I, for one, was along for the ride. Broadbent is hilarious as the 23rd Earl of Leete. Every single line is delivered in a deadpan matter of fact way. This helps the absolute ridiculousness of what he reveals about his life land that much harder. The scene at the lake is easily my favorite. The reenactment that we get as he’s describing things made me audibly laugh.
The only real issue is that 26 minutes still manages to feel padded in places. The bit is thin and gets stretched a little too far. It doesn’t kill the experience, but it’s hard to ignore. That being said, A Sense of History is still worth checking out if you happen to come across it.