BEFORE: For the past week, it's kind of like I had a romance-based time machine, one that's firmly planted in the U.K., and can move through time, but not space. So I've been bouncing back and forth between the decades of the 1800s and 1900s, starting with a focus on British literature, but now I'm ending with World War II, the greatest generation, the war to end all wars that weren't ended by the last war to end all wars. Umm, except for the wars that came later, of course, and now there seems to be a new one brewing in Ukraine, so this is timely perhaps. This is what we want to avoid, a war that starts in one country and then spreads across the globe - right? We don't want war, even though now it seems that one of our two major political parties in the U.S. finds themselves supporting Putin, a mad dictator, just because Trump kind of admires him? That's absolutely bonkers, it's like what if after Germany's invasion of Poland, Herbert Hoover spoke to the press and said, "You know, this Hitler chap's not so bad, I like the cut of his jib. We should let him invade any country he wants to in Europe, because he's very clever." That would have been madness, right? My point.
Eddie Marsan carries over from "Happy-Go-Lucky".
THE PLOT: A former secretary, newly appointed as a scriptwriter for propaganda films, joins the cast and crew of a major production while the Blitz rages around them.
AFTER: There was this thing back in World War II called the Blitz, it was a massive bombing campaign where Germany sent planes over to London, and it affected the whole way of life in London. And this was right around the time of the Dunkirk retreat, where hundreds of thousands of British soldiers were evacuated from France across the Channel, many by civilian boats. We've covered that event here in this space before, several times even. The time period for Dunkirk was late May/early June in 1940, so the U.S. was NOT part of the war effort at that time. (Pearl Harbor was a year and a half down the road.). But Brits were going through rationing, forced blackouts and SO much bombing, plus the angst of losing friends and relatives, combined with the fear of losing one's own life to a random bomb from the sky or a collapsing building. (As they said in "The Suicide Squad", try not to get too attached here.)
From the Brits' point of view, it was absolutely vital to get the Americans involved in the war, and they were RIGHT, only they didn't really know that for sure at the time. Because here's the funny thing, and perhaps this is relevant for Putin and today's news - Hitler wasn't going to stop with Poland, and he wasn't going to stop with France. He had a vision board, and it was basically a map of Europe with every country's name crossed out and Germany (sorry, Deutschland) written over it. But how to get the Yanks on board, prior to the Japanese bombing Hawaii? Somebody figured out that Americans LOVE movies (it's true), so why not channel their efforts into making movies that would show the devastation of the Blitz & Dunkirk, portray Nazis as villains and Americans as saviors/heroes, and also follow that blessed six-act structure and have an uplifiting ending at the same time? Sounds crazy, but it just might work.
Catrin Cole is a secretary "married" to an artist, one who served in the Spanish War so he's exempt from being called up for further military duty. Money's tight, and she's eager to get out of the house, so even though it calls her "husband's" masculinity into question, she takes a job writing propaganda screenplays for the Ministry of War. She's paired with Tom Buckley, a chap with specs who knows the Hollywood formula, and how to put it to use. If you want to know how we got to the point where a movie can say "Based on a true story" and still change reality around before it hits the screen, it's all thanks to guys like Buckley. Once you know the proper beats that a story needs to hit, it's just like MadLibs or plugging new names into the formula, and boom, you've got a hit movie. Maybe.
Catrin tracks down twin English girls who "borrowed" their father's boat while he was drunk, in order to sail over and rescue British soldiers at Dunkirk, only the engine gave out, and they had to be towed back by a tugboat, but technically they DID rescue a couple soldiers and a dog, they just needed a little help. Once the screenwriters get a hold of their story, their drunk father becomes a non-abusive Uncle who fell asleep on the boat somehow, and woke up halfway to Dunkirk with his nieces piloting the craft, and one of the soldiers they rescue is an American fighter pilot who joined the war early and falls in love with one of the sisters, even though she's promised to the other soldier. Because, as I've seen several times this week, what's a movie without a love triangle of some kind? By the time the writers are done fixing the story - the British government won't even let the boat's engine fail, because that messes with the image of British engineering being reliable - the only true part of the story that remains is the sisters' first names.
Catrin earns enough money to pay the rent, and her "husband" gives up his air raid warden duties to take a commission documenting the bomb damage to the northern provinces, and all this time apart is probably not good for the relationship, meanwhile Catrin's spending more and more time with Buckley, who counts on her to write the "slop", his term for the dialogue from the female characters. This is not as condescending as it sounds, except for the fact that it is. As the shooting of the Dunkirk movie begins, Catrin also has to convince an older, pre-washed up actor to take the younger American pilot hero under his wing, because it turns out he can't act at all. The shoot runs long, rewrites are needed, and Catrin misses her husband's gallery exhibition in London, then finally makes it back home, only later than expected, what could possibly go wrong with that? Umm, love triangle resolved, I guess? Except that it's never over.
With no clear road ahead of her, Catrin doesn't know where to turn - she's offered more work writing screenplays, and since she bonded with that older actor, he wants her to keep writing parts for him, but her heart's not in it - not until she goes to a cinema and watches the Dunkirk movie with a crowd. Screw the Americans, the film is a hit with British audiences, and both she and they find it very inspirational. OK, a bit of poetic license here, because I've always found that after working on a film's production, I can sort of no longer see it as a regular audience member would, I'm usually just too close to it. I can TRY to enjoy it in the cinema like any other film, but I really can't. So there's that.
I'm off tonight to work at a red carpet screening of "Cyrano", which was directed by Joe Wright, who also directed "The Darkest Hour", which was also about Dunkirk. That's a bit weird, but the connections are where you find them, I guess. "Cyrano" is also a romance story, but I checked the cast list, there's no way for me to connect that film into my chain - so for now, I'm still keeping my recreational movie watching habit separate from my work in a movie theater. It's not really a good place for me to watch movies, anyway, unless I come in on my day off and sneak into a show. Thursday I'm working a screening of "House of Gucci", starring Jack Huston, who is in "Their Finest", but even if I watch that one, there's still no way to re-connect, and I don't want to break the chain. So I'm sticking with the plan and I'm therefore not tempted to watch movies while at work, movies are still for late nights at home. I'll have to just put "Cyrano" and "House of Gucci" on my list and get to them when I get to them.
Also starring Gemma Arterton (last seen in "RocknRolla"), Sam Claflin (last seen in "Charlie's Angels" (2019)), Richard E. Grant (last seen in "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker"), Henry Goodman (last seen in "Hunter Killer"), Rachael Stirling (last seen in "The Young Victoria"), Jack Huston (last seen in "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse"), Bill Nighy (last seen in "The Bookshop"), Jeremy Irons (last seen in "Red Sparrow"), Jake Lacy (last seen in "Ode to Joy"), Amanda Root (last seen in "The Iron Lady"), Patrick Gibson (last seen in "Tolkien"), Darren Clarke, Ed Birch (last seen in "Gunpowder Milkshake"), Lissa Evans, Gaby Chiappe, Amanda Fairbank-Hynes (last seen in "An Education"), Lily Knight, Francesca Knight, Jay Simpson (last seen in "Rush" (2013)), Paul Ritter (last seen in "Greed"), Claudia Jessie, Stephanie Hyam (last seen in "Stan & Ollie"), Richard Syms (last seen in "Alice Through the Looking Glass"), Natalia Ryumina, Helen McCrory (last seen in "A Little Chaos"), Michael Marcus (last seen in "The Invisible Woman"), Rebecca Saire, Hubert Burton
RATING: 5 out of 10 Underground stations
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