I missed this series on Sky Arts when it was first shown in 2020. So I was grateful when the three episodes were recently repeated. Narrated again by Jonathon Kydd, he tells us that for the first time, films were being made at the same time as the conflict they represented.
Ian Nathan talked about the background with references to World War 1 and 1930's All Quiet on the Western Front. Regular presenters Simon Heffer and Derek Malcolm made contributions, the latter about the age of the boys pitched into that awful war.
Interestingly, we see the German (Nazi) film The Triumph of the Will from 1935 being used as a tool for power. The rallies shown on the film were from different cities, all edited together. So it was actually a documentary. Olympiad (or Olympia) was also a documentary filmed by Leni Riefenstahl in 1936. In France, Jean Renoir made La Grande Illusion in 1937. Bonnie Greer told us it was about World War 1 and how France was a tired nation in the 1930's after that war.
THE PROPOGANDA WAR
At the outbreak of war, America was trying to stay neutral. Hollywood had "The Motion Picture Production Code" that was there to stop upsetting any nation. That was until came 1939's Confessions of a Nazi Spy starring Edward G Robinson. The film showed how the Nazi Party had infiltrated the country. Somehow Jack Warner got the picture made. Then Charlie Chaplin made The Great Dictator in 1940 which was an amazing Hitler satire. Derek Malcolm said this was a highly risky project.
The same year came Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent. The director filmed a different ending after the film was finished, to show the trauma of bombs falling on London. Carol Reed's Night Train to Munich also in 1940 showed two Englishmen on a train travelling through Germany in the early days of the war.
DUNKIRK
At the outbreak of war, Alexander Corda promised Churchill that he would get a propaganda movie made as quickly as possible. The Lion has Wings was released in late 1939 and starred Merle Oberon and Ralph Richardson as a pilot. More like a documentary but now a historical piece. Leslie Howard starred in 1941's Pimpernel Smith. Howard was a huge star in America and came back to the UK to make British movies for far less money that he would get in Hollywood. Also in 1941 he made The 49th Parallel with Laurence Olivier and other big stars to persuade America to join the war.
We then see a clip from a much more modern movie in 2017's The Darkest Hour with that amazing performance from Gary Oldman as Churchill. The programme then compares the 1958 version of Dunkirk (it took all that time for a film of that retreat to be made) and Christopher Nolan's 2017 film of the same name. Simon Heffer tells us it turns a defeat to "a tremendous victory for the British people".
BRITAIN FIGHTS BACK
Leslie Howard was back in 1942, producing, directing and starring in The First of the Few. Released in America as Spitfire. Simon Heffer said "it was truly inspirational". The aircraft was a feat of British engineering. However, Howard was killed in 1943 when the plane he was travelling in was shot down. In 1942 came William Wyler's big Hollywood movie Mrs Miniver starring Greer Garson, that combined the war with romance. Derek Malcolm said it showed those who were not involved in the fighting, but who were affected by it. Ian Nathan said the country loved the film and no wonder. That last scene where the congregation sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" in a bombed out church is ended with "Land of Hope and Glory". Stirring stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment