Postwar European Realism in 7 films
When the war ended, directors across Europe went into the ruins with their cameras to tell what had happened to children, soldiers and ordinary families. These films come from France, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy and Czechoslovakia.
- 1The Last Chance 1945Leopold Lindtberg · IMDb 6.5Swiss director Lindtberg follows soldiers and refugees on a journey over the Alps in 1943. It shared the Grand Prize at Cannes in 1946.
Next: The Red Meadows
From refugees crossing a mountain border, we move north to Denmark, where resistance fighters face the occupation from within. - 2The Red Meadows 1945Bodil Ipsen · IMDb 6.7A story of the Danish Resistance and the friendship of two men in it. One of the best-known Danish films of the war years.
Next: Men Without Wings
The occupation is now seen through a whole community, a Czech village, rather than through one friendship. - 3Men Without Wings 1946František Čáp · IMDb 6.3Čáp's film about the people of a Czech village under German occupation. It shared the Grand Prize at the first Cannes festival in 1946.
Next: Four in a Jeep
With the war over, the story moves to Vienna, where former allies share the streets and cannot quite trust each other. - 4Four in a Jeep 1951Leopold Lindtberg · IMDb 6.4Four soldiers from four armies patrol postwar Vienna together. A bitter look at the new Cold War.
Next: Forbidden Games
After soldiers and politics, the camera lowers to a child's eye view, where the damage of war shows up in play. - 5Forbidden Games 1952René Clément · IMDb 8.0Two children, one of them an orphan of the bombing, build a cemetery for animals. Clément's gentle and terrible film about what war does to the young.
Next: Two Cents Worth of Hope
After such sorrow, a lighter note: the poor south of Italy seen with humour, kindness and a little hope. - 6Two Cents Worth of Hope 1952Renato Castellani · IMDb 7.0A young man in a poor village near Naples searches for work, and a girl. Castellani's light and kindly view of life after the war.
Next: Gervaise
The same director who made the children's story closes the path with a nineteenth-century tale, reminding us that realism also draws on literature. - 7Gervaise 1956René Clément · IMDb 7.3Clément adapts Zola's novel L'Assommoir, the story of a washerwoman's hopes and her fall. A film of great sadness and care for detail.
