Terminus (Short 1961)

Terminus: Directed by John Schlesinger. With Margaret Ashcroft, Gertrude Dickin, Margaret Lacey, Matthew Perry. The movie follows the routine of a busy train station – London’s Waterloo Station – making a brief yet important cultural portrait of 1960s England, mixing reality and fiction.

“This documentary, from the very first shot of the bee keeper on the roof of Waterloo station, gives a riveting, imaginative and very witty picture of a typical day in the life of a large railway station, but itu0026#39;s main value in the insight it gives into human nature – by simply looking at people going about their daily business the camera paints a many-layered picture of the human psyche. Always fascinating, often funny and sometimes frightening, this film must be one of the greats of documentary cinema. I hope the sad death of John Schlesinger will prompt a revival of his early – and definitely his greatest – films.”