Rattigan’s post-war drama highlights the voracious nature of woman’s passion, and his use of language brilliantly conveys the unsaid, which lies behind the politesse of formal speech. Hester’s desire for Freddie has no reason to it, other than itself, the force of her passion is an ind in itself, serving no purpose than to blaze and consume. Freddie’s desire for Hester does not come across; he is merely portrayed as a shallow and inconsequential fellow who has no purpose in his life since the end of the war. Lost in peacetime he has turned to drink and playing golf as escape mechanisms for his inability to ‘live’. As a result, his character fails to engage. In strong comparison, Hester’s veers from ladylike self-control to almost demented frenzy and back again. Her physical pain comes close to the primitive, and the conflict between the primitive and the civilized is wonderfully captured. There are times when her focus on the need for Freddie in order to be able to live seems like weakness of character, but that would be to fail to understand the very primitive nature of such strong desire. It is an emotion that cannot be civilized. It needs to be repressed in order for Hester to survive the ordeal of life, which she ultimately does. Love is simply not enough. Would woman choose steady, gentle love and affection before experiencing a collision with her spiritual equal? I think not. She seeks solace after the fire and torment of such meteoric explosion. Hester decides to return to her art studies and finds the strength to let Freddie go, and she forces herself to access the strength to do so. Freddie is the weaker half of the pairing, and one wonders how he will fare. Hester is to be admired for her commitment to him, despite the sense of it, as she is following her instincts and her heart, but surviving such an ordeal will leave her tempered, not happier, or even fulfilled, merely able to exist. Thought provoking.
Glorious 39 strips away illusions. Poliakoff presents the apparent idyll of an English aristocratic family headed by genteel patriarch Lord Keyes (Bill Nighy). He presides over a country estate in Norfolk and his elegant townhouse in London – a world of golden light, romantic ruins, servants, house parties and happy children. But this is 1939, a mere 21 years since the Great War, the war to end all wars, in which millions died, Britain was crippled with war debt, and the English country house system which he so values was almost annihilated. There are many references to the ancientness of his family and tradition, but now, few male servants remained alive or unmaimed to work the English landscape or to be in service to the old families. Fearing domestic and political upheaval, appeasers such as Keyes sought to prevent Churchill leading the country and taking Britan to war, and to buy off Hitler to preserve British cultural and national identity. Nighty is excellent, contro...
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