N or NW, 1937

N. or N.W., 1937, 7 mins

When Lye was commissioned by the GPO Film Unit to make a live-action film about the need to be careful in addressing letters, he decided to make it an experiment in subverting the orthodox language of film editing. His approach turned a simple story about a lovers’ quarrel into a montage of bizarre camera angles and point-of-view shots, accompanied by lively jazz music. Lye’s favourite sequence (showing the young woman getting dressed and going for a walk) was so extreme that the GPO Film Unit removed it and sadly it has since been lost (though Lye documented it in the Summer 1939 issue of Sight and Sound). Sponsored by the British Post Office, the surviving seven minutes of the film are still astonishing. N. or N.W. ends with a tongue-in-cheek treatment of the sponsor’s message.