THE COLOUR ROOM

Review: Clarice Cliff is a vivacious young factory worker who breaks the glass ceiling and revolutionizes the workplace at a pottery factory in the British midlands of the 1920’s. She fights her way through to design the unprecedented Art Deco ‘Bizarre’ range and ensures the factory’s survival and her future.
Director: Claire McCarthy
Actors: Matthew Goode, Phoebe Dynevor, Rachel Shenton, David Morrissey, Kerry Fox, Bronwyn James, Darci Shaw, Tony Pitts, Luke Norris, Carla Woodcock, Oliver Huntingdon, Safia Oakley-Green, Sarah Lambie, Ernest Vernon, Shelley Draper, Adrian Rawlins and Laura White
Year: 2021
Genre: Drama
Conclusion: 3/5
I have to say that I knew nothing about Clarice Cliff before watching this film. This is a film that I have been looking forward to ever since the project was announced. I have to start off by saying what a fantastic cast list it is, with the likes of Matthew Goode, Phoebe Dynevor, David Morrissey and Luke Norris. I don’t think they could have done this film without Phoebe Dynevor and I felt that she held the whole film together. After her breakthrough role in Bridgerton, it was brilliant to see her taking on such a different character. I always feel that when David Morrissey is on the screen you feel like you are in a safe pair of hands. He always gives a fantastic performance. My only reservation about this film was that I did feel that the script could have been worked on a bit more. There were scenes that I thought weren’t properly explained and we were then just rushed onto the next scene. I would have liked them to explain a bit more about how the pottery industry worked in the 1920s. I would also have liked to have learned the full story of how Clarice Cliff actually developed her industry properly after the early success. I do feel very much like this was made for the tv rather than the cinema. I found this to be a wonderful and uplifting film and I thought that Clarice Cliff’s story really deserves to be better known. I have strong family connections with the Potteries and I really enjoyed seeing the Potteries feature in a serious film. In my opinion on the whole the Potteries accent, which is quite difficult to get right, was very well done, especially by Phoebe Dynevor. The film features some great location filming and it was lovely to see the likes of the Gladstone and Middleport potteries brought to life. The Middleport site has been producing pottery continuously since the 18th century. Watching this film however has made me want to go up to Stoke-on-Trent and see and explore more of the pottery industry and also to learn more about Clarice Cliff.