The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1943)

Powell and Pressburger could do no wrong in the '40s, and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is the peak of their insouciance, being filmed in the middle of the war and containing barbs at the establishment and war heroism in no uncertain terms. It follows the life of a career soldier over forty years, starting in jaunty screwball mode in the years before the Great War and gradually progressing to a wistful ending as he finds himself to be a man out of his time. Sentimentality does creep in strongly and the prevailing environment in which it was made colours the message propagandistically, but at the same time no film until the 'fifties dared suggest the notion of a good German, and the nominal hero is by no means a paragon of virtue either in his beliefs and actions. Mannered dialogue and comic national stereotyping may have dated aspects of it, but the humanistic heart lingers on.

7/10