Went the Day Well? (Cavalcanti, 1942): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 6.20pm
Alberto Cavalcanti’s brilliant and often brutal thriller about a rural English village’s fightback against Nazi fifth columnists is part of the excellent Martin Scorsese's Hidden gems of British Cinema season at BFI Southbank. Details here. This screening is from a 35mm nitrate print.
Chicago Reader review:
Produced in 1942 at the Ealing Studios, this British drama was conceived
as anti-Nazi propaganda but has since been recognized as a brutal,
crafty thriller and a vivid portrait of ordinary Britons in World War
II. A company of royal engineers arrives at the tiny village of Bramley
End to prepare the residents for a possible invasion, but the local
vicar’s sharp-witted daughter (Valerie Taylor) begins to suspect that
the tight-lipped soldiers are actually German spies. The screenplay was
inspired by Graham Greene’s short story “The Lieutenant Died Last,” and
though most of the plot has been grafted onto his minimal tale, the
movie seizes on and amplifies his central moral concern, as an
assortment of simple, kindly folk must suddenly decide whether they’re
willing to die—and, even worse, kill—for their country.
JR Jones
Here (and above) us the trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment