British film written and directed by Humphrey Jennings, filmed in documentary style showing the lives of firefighters through the Blitz in World War II.
Direction
Jennings turns documentary into elegy, no sentimentality.
Cinematography
Fire as abstract art — flames like Turner's nightmares.
Sound
Silence, then chaos. The air raid siren still haunts.
Director
Humphrey Jennings
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Jennings was a surrealist painter before the Crown Film Unit, which explains why burning buildings look like abstract canvases.
The 'Fires Were Started' title came from official government reports — bureaucratic language transformed into poetry.
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