DRAWN TO WAR

The first week's bookings for Margy Kinmonth's new feature-length documentary about Eric Ravilious have way exceeded expectations, and this carefully crafted, poignant movie will be showing in cinemas around the country, throughout the summer.

Rather like Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, the film starts with its ending: it's no spoiler to reveal that Ravilious was killed in an air crash in September 1942, whilst working as a war artist in Iceland, and the opening credits are embedded within a dramatic reenactment of the accident.

The rest of the film looks at Ravilious's life: how the Eastbourne-and-bred son of an antiques shop owner became one of the country's most original artists, whose reputation grows year on year as his work becomes recognised beyond his native Sussex. Ravilious is best known for his watercolour landscapes, and the prodigious number of paintings he produced during WW2, but he was also a skilled engraver and designer, who always had to work hard for his living.

Kinmonth has dug deep for material to bring the story alive, sourcing letters to and from the artist to drive the narrative, and discussing Ravilious' legacy with his daughter, as well as celebrity fans, such as Alan Bennett, Grayson Perry, and, rather strangely, Ai Weiwei. The film is no hagiography: it examines the pain caused to his wife Tirzah Garwood – herself an artist – by his little-disguised affairs. Though you do get the impression – if, as Tirzah did, you forgive him his indiscretions – that Eric R was a thoroughly decent fellow.