The book series I recently reread follows generations of three families from the 1770s to the 1940s. The characters are schoolteachers, journalists, lawyers, writers, entertainers, soldiers, and impoverished to aristocratic, and the books’ timelines encompass the American Revolution, the American Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II.
As many times as I’ve read them (and in recent years, acknowledged what makes them problematic to today’s readers), this time, they hit differently, most particularly the years leading up to the second world war. The rise of fascism, the marginalization and annihilation of “the other,” the lust for power and greed that allowed atrocities, division, and propaganda to replace reason, decency, and diplomacy–these all had a too-familiar feel in today’s world. I felt numbing sadness from the invasion and occupation of nations from 1939 to 1941: Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia, and Greece. And because of the first book in the series, in which Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, appears as a fictionalized character, I thought many times of Colonel Charles E. Stanton’s famous quote as he stood in front of Lafayette’s tomb on July 4, 1917: “Lafayette, we are here.” The date marked the arrival of the U.S. Army to assist France in World War I as repayment for the valuable help of the young marquis during the American Revolution. And of course, my own father helped repay that debt to France when he landed at Normandy on D Day in the next world war, and he served in France, Holland, and Germany.
The sadness from the books lingered as I began viewing a set of movies included in British Cinema Collection: 8 Acclaimed Films. This collection was released in 2014, and I probably bought it then or shortly thereafter, but I’ve never even removed its cellophane until now. There are eight movies on two disks.
I’ve been watching them in order, and I think I’ve seen only two of them before (I haven’t finished, and I may have seen one of the films that remain) (ETA: I had not seen a third film from this collection). I began with 1995’s A Month By The Lake, with Vanessa Redgrave, Edward Fox, and Uma Thurman. All three actors are wonderful in their roles. Set in Italy in 1937 at Lake Como, it’s described as a “delightfully sexy comedy.” I agree, but it also has a bittersweet tone because of the looming war (when Italy would ally itself with Germany and Japan). The movie continued the reflective mood I’ve been in since finishing my book series reread.
In 1999’s My Life So Far, Fraser Pettigrew (played by Robert Norman), ten years old, lives on a Scottish estate with his large family that includes his parents, grandmother, siblings, and a variety of other family members and new acquaintances who come to visit. I very much enjoyed this movie and its great cast (led by Colin Firth, Rosemary Harris, Irène Jacob, Mary Mastrantonio, and Roddy McDowell). It’s set in 1927, a time of ongoing recovery from World War I and with World War II looming on the distant horizon. On a personal note, possibly only Colin Firth could begin by playing a character I like, then turn really despicable, and somehow manage to charm me again at the end of the film.
I’d seen 1995’s The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain before, but I enjoyed the rewatch. Great cast, including Hugh Grant, Tara Fitzgerald, Colm Meany, Kenneth Griffith, Ian Hart, and Ian McNeice, among others. Two cartographers are sent to a small town in Wales in 1917 to measure the height of a mountain that may qualify as only a hill. Again, I experienced a bittersweet sensation. Set while World War I is still raging in Europe, two of the characters are former soldiers, a man from the town who’s shell-shocked, and one of the cartographers, who, when questioned about why he isn’t serving at the front like all the men missing from their village, admits that he did serve but was discharged after experiencing the same shell-shocked symptoms. There’s abundant humor and some romance, but its biggest attraction for me is how this town of elderly inhabitants, along with women, children, contentious, quirky, and not entirely able-bodied people, work together to defend their mountain’s honor and their village’s pride.
The fourth movie on this disk, 1998’s Sweet Revenge, isn’t the kind of movie I generally watch. Though it’s described as quirky, mean people behaving badly will never be my chosen genre. I did appreciate the excellent cast (Sam Neill, Helena Bonham Carter, and Kristin Scott Thomas in the lead roles, with an equally talented supporting cast), and I think people who like black comedy would enjoy the movie. Two people driven to consider ending their lives due to the impact of horrible people (one a boss; the other, a lover), encounter each other on a bridge. One of them comes up with a revenge plan that the other reluctantly agrees to. Chaos ensues.