The Colour Room

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I really enjoyed this film,knowing nothing about the character,or the biographical details.great cast well filmed should get a larger release,but alas bigger budgeted films get presidence at the multiplex.hopefully the more independent cinemas might give it a run if you haven't got the Netflix app.

I didn't know very much about how Clarice Cliff's pottery became so famous so this was a nice place to find out some of what happened. Like most bio-pics (is it a bio-pic?) you have to accept that for movie making purposes details are left out, things are sped up, events happen in a different order. Some people and situations are taken out entirely. But it was still a nice insight into Cliff's life and how she kept going with her ideas in spite of quite a lot of setback. The supporting cast are all good, particularly Clarice's mother and sister. Matthew Goode does another good turn as her boss, who in real life actually became her husband later down the line. I loved the visuals of the incredibly bright patterns and colours of the pottery against the fairly drab surroundings of 1920s Stoke on Trent. You can imagine that for many people of the time Clarice Cliff's designs would have been seen as bizarre or controversial along with the fact that it was a woman and she wasn't taking no for an answer. This film comes in under the two hour mark and goes along at a fair pace, though I did find the ending a little bit sudden. Very enjoyable little film.

When we meet her, Clarice Cliff is a young, ambitious pottery worker who flits from company to company in order to gain as much experience within different departments as possible - at the time it was not unusual for someone to specialise one particular task for their entire working life. Clarice is ambitious and talented, but her talent has yet to be discovered. Claire McCarthy's, The Colour Room is the story of the rise of Clarice and her struggle to have her talent recognised. She is ably played by Phoebe Dynevor, best known as one of the main characters in the Netflix hit, Bridgerton. Dynevor imbues Clarice with vivacity, wit and charm, and her ambition is portrayed as enthusiasm and passion. Opposite her, Matthew Goode gives us his generic but still very watchable posh chap in the part of factory owner and lover, Colley Short. Solid support comes from Kerry Fox as Clarice's mother and David Morrissey, rather underused as the company's art director who takes Clarice under his wing. The screenplay is by Claire Peate who takes some liberties with the story - five of Clarice's six siblings seem to have evaporated and the success of her first range of pottery, the famous 'Bizarre' ware, central to this story, was pretty much instant rather than the uphill struggle we see. However, Peate gives the story contemporary relevance by emphasising the struggle of a woman trying to break into man's world - one co-worker who is suspicious of her being brought in to apprentice in the all-male modelling department voices his misgivings with "What if she's one of them suffragettes?". This could be the story of any woman trying to break through the glass, or in this case, ceramic ceiling. Elsewhere, the adulterous nature of Clarice's relationship with Colley is rather played down, with Colley's wife scarcely making an appearance in case, one assumes, we start to develop any sympathies for her. The cinematography and art direction are attractive with Clarice presaging her later ceramics in the colours of her clothes. However, the CGI scenes of ranks of bottle kilns belching smoke into the sky are somewhat unconvincing. Undemanding, but with enough to keep the audience engaged, this straightforward biopic earns a respectable seven and makes for a decent, Sunday night movie to round off a weekend.

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source: The Colour Room

"No man can appreciate and produce beautiful things whose sense of color is outraged every day by the dirt and soot that covers everything" Pottery Gazette, 1919. "The Colour Room" chronicles the life and work of English potter Clarice Cliff. A period drama that links the "romantic" 1920s with the story of a woman capable of overcoming her ingenuity in the face of any adversity. Starring Phoebe Dynevor, in her film debut. "The color room", interposes Clarice's creativity, with the industrialized and misogynistic world of that time; Added to the charismatic performances, this film has all the nuances that are required to build a quite believable and entertaining story. "Because of the heart of the story and its loving interpretations, "The Colour Room" is a very fine piece of pottery"

The movie should have had the spirit of the end credits- it was dark and did not focus on the art and sunny personality that was the main attraction of this amazing personality- a shame.

Cliff had a fascinating life, and rather than a 90 minute film, it would have been ideal as a 'Season' on Netflix to give us the meat and bones of her journey to being one of the most famous designers in Pottery - (although clearly some had never heard of her !!) I thought Phoebe Dynevore was badly miscast - (a case of a young actress gaining fame in a fantasy period drama (Bridgerton), then being offered parts because of this). There was a lot of jumping and skipping about at the beginning, and no empathy at all when she caused the sacking of a colleague. Supporting actors were good - because they had experience - and Matthew Goode is always excellent - but again the background stories disappeared into the ether. This was a story set in the early 1920s so authenticity with regards set dressings and costume was highly regarded, however its hard to believe that a person of colour would have been employed as a Secretary in the owners office during that period of history. Colour blind casting can work in many instances, but in period dramas not so much.

We loved this movie about a true pottery pioneer who revolutionised the Potteries and also used to visit my granny every Sunday to grind coffee! Glad to see local landmarks and buildings were used Great acting by all the actors.