Oct 18th  
Coastal Command*   
(GB 1942)   
Ministry of Information. 72m. bw

The plight of a Fleet Air Arm craft patrolling the convoy approaches from the Atlantic, encountering U-Boats and a German cruiser ship. Elementary documentary filmed drama with non-actor servicemen in the main roles, distinguished nowadays mainly for its sore (featured in honour of Vaughan-Williams' 150th birthday.)

p: Ian Dalrymple
d: J.B. Holmes
ph: Teddy Catford, Fred Gamage, Jonah Jones
m: Ralph Vaughan-Williams
ed: Michael Gordon

May 9th
How I Won the War   
(GB 1967)                  
United Artists/Petersham Pictures. 107m.

An enthusiastic but incompetent officer is captured by the Germans on the Rhine in 1945, and recollects his previous adventures with his unfortunate platoon.
Totally misdirected lampoon on World War II, where most of the satirical aspects of the story are lost in the surrealness.

Written by: Charles Wood, based on the novel by Patrick Ryan.
Producer/Director: Richard Lester.
Starring: Michael Crawford, John Lennon, Michael Hordern, Jack MacGowran, Lee Montague, Roy Kinnear, James Cossins, Jack Hedley, Karl Michael Vogler.
Photography: David Watkin.
Music: Ken Thorne.

 Apr 23rd 
Operation Mincemeat* (12A)  
(Curzon Colchester)                          

(GB/Spa 2021)
Warner Bros/C Media Group/See Saw. 128m. Panaflex

A branch of British Intelligence devises a means of distracting German attention from the invasion of Sicily by planting false papers on a dead man.
A more faithful to the record version of The Man Who Never Was(qv), although slightly overstylised and taking its liberties dramatically, trying to also reference future James Bond influences.

Written by: Michelle Ashford, from the book by Ben Macintyre.
Producers: Charles S. Cohen, Iain Canning.
Director: John Madden.
Starring: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Penelope Wilton, Johnny Flynn (as Ian Fleming), Jason Isaacs, Simon Russell Beale (as Churchill), Mark Gariss, Hattie Morahan, Alex Jennings, James Fleet.
Photography: Sebastian Blenkov.
Music: Thomas Newman.

Nov 7th 
Von Richtofen and Brown**
aka: The Red Baron
(GB 1971)     
United Artists/The Corman Company. 97m.

In World War I the aristocrat Mannfred Von Richtfen flies with distinction and kills many of the enemy, but the attrition of the war soon overwhelms honour, as espoused by his Canadian adversary Roy Brown.
Semi-apocryphal war drama with well shot airborne and clearly defined airborne sequences. On the ground level things are more uncertain with some variable moral sympathies, but Corman gets his anti-war point across.

Written by: John Carrington, Joyce Carrington.
Producer: Gene Corman.
Director: Roger Corman.
Starring: John Philip Law, Don Stroud, Corin Redgrave, Barry Primus (as Goering), Hurd Hatfield, Tom Adams, Maureen Cusack, Lorraine Rainer, Karen Huston.
Photography: Michael Reed.
Music: Hugo Friedhofer.                  
Editing: Alan Collins.

Preceded by:
Dream Flight
(US 2018. 11m.; On his flight home a man ruminates about being jilted at the altar - bizarrely, the whole experience truns out to be a dream after his successful wedding.; w: Ben Solenberger, Ari Schneider; d: Ann Hearn Tobolowsky; s: Ben Solenberger. Marguerite Moreau, George Wendt, Ari Schneider, Stephen Tobolowsky; ph: Dennis Zanatta; m: Robby Elfman.)

Sep 26th
Medal for the General**
(GB 1944)
Anglo-American/British National. 99m. bw

An old soldier is rejected from active service, but is helped to come around by the arrival of re-billeted evacuee children.
Sentimental wartime feelgood drama with an incidental propaganda message about post-war aspiration. Movingly acted.

Written by: Elizabeth Baron, from the novel by James Ronald.
Producer: Louis H. Jackson.
Director: Maurice Elvey.
Starring: Godfrey Tearle, Jeanne de Casalis, Morland Graham, John Laurie, Petula Clark (film debut), Thorley Walters, Irene Handl.
Photography: Arthur Grant, James Wilson.
Music: William Alwyn.

Jun 9th    
The Man Who Never Was**  
(GB 1955)
Twentieth Century Fox/Sumar. 103m. Cinemascope

The true story of how in 1943 British Naval Intelligence devised a means of distracting enemy attention from the invasion of Sicily by planting false information on a fictitious soldier 'Major William Martin'.
The subsequent espionage intrigue involving a German agent is the only fictionalisation in an otherwise interesting, slightly solemn war drama (in unison with the gravity of its subject matter), lacking a certain amount of British self-deprecation or humour, but certainly a pleasantly unusual item to have come out from a Hollywood studio only ten years after the war itself.

Written by: Nigel Balchin, based on the book by Ewen Montagu.
Producer: Andre Hakim.
Director: Ronald Neame.
Starring: Clifton Webb, Robert Flemyng, Gloria Grahame, Stephen Boyd, Josephine Griffin, Laurence Naismith, William Russell, Andre Morell, William Squire, Moultrie Kelsall, Cyril Cusack.
Photography: Oswald Morris.
Music: Alan Rawsthorne.

+ the voice of Winston Churchill is provided by an uncredited Peter Sellers

May 8th 
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp**  
(GB 1943)                     
Rank/GFD. 163m.

During World War II a retired officer reflects on life and loves of his past youth, including his platonic kinship with a benevolent German officer.
A sprawling and quite bold Technicolor war romance (particularly for its time) cleverly spanning 40 years, and only vaguely anything to do with the satirical Colonel Blimp cartoons, from which Churchill and others got totally the wrong impression. For modern audiences, it is a moving wallow in one man's personal nostalgia, even if the imagery of hunting animals nowadays is politically incorrect.

Written, Produced and Directed by: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger.
Starring: Roger Livesey, Anton Walbrook, Deborah Kerr, James McKechnie, Ursula Jeans, Roland Culver, John Laurie, Arthur Wontner, Albert Lieven, Eric Maturin, A.E. Matthews.
Photography: Georges Perinal, Jack Cardiff, Geoffrey Unsworth, Harold Haysom. 
Music: Allan Gray.
Production Design: Alfred Junge.
Make-up: George Blackler, Dorrie Hamilton, Stuart Freeborn.

Mar 31st 
Kajaki: The True Story*   
(GB 2014)                     
Alchemy/Pukka Films. 108m. ws

In 2006 British paratroops serving in Afghanistan have a fight for survival when they find themselves stranded in a minefield.
Candid, unfussy depiction of real-life events, with slightly unintelligible and mostly foul-mouthed dialogue, but with opening and closing moments of art, and successfully conveying the comradeship of war in extreme situations.

Written by: Tom Williams.
Producers: Paul Katis, Andrew de Lotbiniere.
Director: Paul Katis.
Starring: David Elliot, Mark Stanley, Scott Kyle, Benjamin O'Mahony, Bryan Parry.
Photography: Chris Goodger.
Music: Phoebe Katis.

Mar 6th  
Military Wives* (12A)
(Vue Carlisle)

(GB 2019)               
Ingenious/Embankment/42/Tempo. 112m.

Wives and girlfriends at a Yorkshire barracks set up a choir to take their minds off their loved ones stationed in Afghanistan, but ultimately also to honour them.
Formulaic and easily sentimental comedy drama, contrived dramatically as an all-girls rags-to-riches story (from the director of the similar Full Monty), with a moving finale where film and history marry together successfully.

Written by: Rachel Tunnard, Rosanne Flynn.
Producers: Ben Pugh, Piers Tempest, Rory Aitken.
Director: Peter Chelson.
Starring: Kristin Scott-Thomas, Sharon Horgan, Jason Flemyng, Greg Wise, Gaby French, Emma Lowndes.
Photography: Hubert Taczanowski.
Music: Lorne Balfe.

Jan 23rd
1917** (15) 
(Curzon Colchester)                                               

(GB/US 2019)
Dreamworks/Reliance/New Republic/Mogambo/Neal Street. 119m. ws

In WWI two soldiers face a perilous journey across the battlefields to warn their fellow soldiers about a planned offensive that is walking into a trap.
A 100-year old war given a 21st century perspective; capably made with some vivid scenes, and a few judicious uses of passing bushes and people to smother the effect of an attempted single take 2-hour film. The story and performances ultimately overcome the technique.

Written by: Sam Mendes, Krysty Wilson-Cairns.
Producers: Sam Mendes, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, Callum McDougall, Brian Oliver.
Director: Sam Mendes.
Starring: Dean-Charles Chapman, George McKay, Colin Firth, Andrew Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Dubocq, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden.
Photography: Roger Deakins.
Music: Thomas Newman.
Production Design: Dennis Gassner.

Jan 18th
Jojo Rabbit** (12A)

(Curzon Colchester)

(US/Czech/New Zealand 2019)
Fox Searchlight/TSG/Defender Films/Piki Films. 108m.

A misfit Hitler Youth (with his own Adolf for imaginary best friend) comes to terms with his feisty mother hiding a Jewish child as the war clouds darken.
Generally winning mixture of satire and sentiment, ultimately a rather touching study of a 10 year old's innocent perspective, taken a good part in style from The Great Dictator, and one or two others, but generally slicker. In the current climate of Trump's America, an interesting observation of fanaticism from within, whilst also leaving time to have a more detached humanist perspective.

Written and Directed by: Taika Waititi.
Producers: Cathew Neal, Taiki Waititi, Chelsea Winstanley.
Starring: Roman Griffin Davis, Taiki Waititi, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Thomasin McKenzie, Stephen Merchant, Rebel Wilson, Archie Yates.
Photography: Mihai Malaimare Jnr.
Music: Michael Giacchino.

+ closing quote: "Let everything happen to you. Beauty and terror, just keep going. No feeling is final." (Rilke)

                           

Dec 17th  
49th Parallel**      
(GB 1941)
                               
Rank/GFD. 123m. bw

The survivors of a U-Boat crew attempt to infiltrate Canada to escape across to the still neutral United States.
Rambling propaganda WWII drama which looks pretty ropy nowadays, with variable writing and performances, but individual cameos are compelling and with a splendidly scenic documentary depiction of Canada, and also nurturing talent which went on to bigger things subsequently.

Written by: Rodney Ackland, Emeric Pressburger.
Producer/Director: Michael Powell.
Starring: Eric Portman, Laurence Olivier, Anton Walbrook, Leslie Howard, Raymond Massey, Glynis Johns, Finlay Currie, Raymond Lovell, Niall MacGinnis, Frederick Piper.
Photography: Frederick A. Young.
Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Editing: David Lean.

                 

Nov 11th  
Journey's End** 
(GB/US 1930)                                       
Gaumont British. 120m.

A young officer is successfully posted on the same billet as his hero and mentor from public school, shortly before the last major German offensive in 1918.
For Armistice Day a chance to include this first film version of Sherriff's definitive drama about life for British officers on the Western Front, primitive in some of its theatricality and use of early sound, but the most moving moments of the play still resonate. The director and star were good enough to stay on in America a while longer to make Frankenstein.

Written by: Joseph Moncure March, Gareth Gundrey, from the play by R.C. Sherriff.
Producer: George Pearson.
Director: James Whale.
Starring: Colin Clive, David Manners, Ian MacLaren, Anthony Bushell, Billy Bevan, Charles Gerrard.
Photography: Benjamin Kline.

Aug 7th  
The Sea Shall Not Have Them*     
(GB 1954)                                                 

In 1944 the Air Sea rescue tries to recover a crashed RAF bomber crew returning to England.
Rather routinely filmed WWII drama, with standard cliches as well as requisite stiff upper lips. An impressive cast just about manages to do it justice.

Written by: Lewis Gilbert, Vernon Harris, from the novel by John Harris.
Producer: Daniel M. Angel.
Director: Lewis Gilbert.
Starring: Michael Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde, Anthony Steel, Nigel Patrick, Bonar Colleano, Griffith Jones, Sydney Tafler, Jack Watling, Guy Middleton, Ian Whittaker, Antony Diffring, Joan Sims.
Photography: Stephen Dade.
Music: Malcolm Arnold.

THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM. Joan Sims considers the responsibilities of being a Air Sea Rescue man's wife with her husband's commanding officer (Griffith Jones) at Felixstowe station.

May 14th  
Conspiracy of Hearts**         
(GB 1960)

In occupied Italy in 1943, a convent endangers itself by assisting Jewish refugee children to escape the Nazis.
Easily sentimental but still surprisingly sharp ecclesiastical war drama, on British stiff upper-lip lines, but nicely filmed in scenic locations. Any potential harrowing moments are usually superseded by sentiment.

Written by: Robert Presnell Jnr, Adrian Scott.
Producer: Betty E. Box.
Director: Ralph Thomas.
Starring: Lilli Palmer, Yvonne Mitchell, Sylvia Syms, Ronald Lewis, Albert Lieven, Peter Arne, Nora Swinburne, Megs Jenkins, Michael Goodliffe, George Coulouris, David Kossoff.
Photography: Ernest Steward.
Music: Angelo Lavagnino.

Preceded by:
Tom and Jerry in 
Baby Puss*
(US 1946. 7m.; Tom is belittled for being treated like a baby. Cheerfully silly cartoon musical spoof, generally more in the style of the plotless Silly Symphonies or Looney Tunes than Tom and Jerry.; d: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera; p: Fred Quimby.)

Apr 29th 
Downfall**        
(Ger/Austria/Russia 2004)

The last days of the Third Reich in WWII, mainly from the perspectives of a Berlin SS doctor and Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge.
Probably the definitive account of the final days in Hitler's bunker, an overdue German catharsis of the subject (previously covered in Der Letzte Akt in 1955), conveying as much of the horror of Hitler's decaying empire as well as his own flawed humanity amidst the monster. It drags only in its later stages.

Written/Produced by: Bernd Eichinger, based on books by Jachim Fest, Traudl Junge and Melissa Muller.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel.
Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Christian Berkel, Juliane Kohler (as Eva Braun), Ulrich Mathes, Corinna Harfouch, Heino Ferch, Matthias Habich, Thomas Kretschmann.
Photography: Rainer Klausman.
Music: Stephen Zacharias.

Nov 19th
Born on the Fourth of July**           

(US 1989)
Universal/Ixtlan. 145m. Panavision

The active life of Ron Kovic, shot in Vietnam and paralysed, to his first public protest against the war.
Overblown, subjective and powerfully made biopic with the director pulling out all the stops, leaving little to the imagination, and making good use of his iconic star. The second of Stone's Vietnam "trilogy" of sorts, begun with Platoon.

Written by: Oliver Stone, Ron Kovic, form his book.
Producers: A. Kitman Ho, Oliver Stone.
Director: Oliver Stone.
Starring: Tom Cruise, Kyra Sedgwick, Willem Dafoe, Caroline Kava, Raymond J. Barry, Frank Whaley, Jerry Levine, Tom Berenger, Lili Taylor.
Photography: Robert Richardson.
Music: John Williams.
Production Design: Bruno Rubeo.

Oliver Stone, Tom Cruise, and the myths about Born of the Fourth of July

Jun 9th 

Red Tails** (12A) 
(Cineworld Ipswich)

Episodes in combat of the US Army Air Corps 51st all Negro squadron, who battle their way out of obscurity in Italy to the front line against the Germans in 1944.
Quite industriously made variation on Glory (combined with elements of  Top Gun and Journey's End), with the wider issues of racism commendably restrained without being too overstated, in between some impressive action, where for once Lucasfilm manage to combine both good CGI and strong performances.

d:Anthony Hemingway
s: Nate Parker, David Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding Jnr, Terrence Howard, Tristan Wilds, Ne-Yo, Elijah Kelley, Daniela Ruah

Roger Ebert review

RED TAILS. Where once George Lucas had the Rebel Alliance and X-wings fighting the evil Empire, now he has the Tuskegee Airmen and B51s fighting the evil Nazis - complete with their own Darth Vader/Red Baron figure (Lars van Riesen).

May 17th

They Who Dare*                           

(GB 1953)
 British Lion/Mayflower. 107m.

In 1942 British commandos and Greek patriots attempt to sabotage the German-occupied airfields on the island of Rhodes.
Proficient, slightly studio-bound WWII adventure with added melodramatics, the Technicolor looking unsuitable for the grittiness of the subject.

Written by: Robert Westerby.
Producers: Maxwell Sefton, Audrey Baring.
Director: Lewis Milestone.
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Denholm Elliott, Akim Tamiroff, Eric Pohlmann, Gerard Oury, Alec Mango, David Peel, Peter Burton, Sam Kydd.
Photography: Wilkie Cooper.
Music: Robert Gill.

Apr 28th 

In Darkness** (15)                                
(Ipswich Film Theatre)

Ger/Pol/Can 2011. Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv/The Film Works/Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej. 145m.

In Lvov in World War II, a Polish sewer worker is paid to bring food and supplies to Jews hiding underground, and gradually becomes sympathetic to their plight.
A slightly grittier, more harrowing variation on Schindler's List, a little hard to follow in the darkness of the sewers, and a little overlong, but powerfully evoked and performed.

Written by: David F. Shamoom, from the book "In the Sewers of Lvov" by Robert Marshall.
Producers: Wohciech Danowski, Leander Carell, Patrick Knippel, Juliusz Machulski, Steffen Reuter.
Director: Agnieska Holland.
Starring: Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Furmann, Agnieszka Grochowska, Kinga Preiss, Krzysztof Skonieczny, Maria Schrader.
Photography: Jolanta Dylewska.
Music: Antoni Lazarkiewicz.