I needed to see this again - it was like therapy.
Noticed that Anton Walbrook is top billed. The Austrian was originally a stage actor, thus he has no trouble at all with the film's single takes. One of course, discussed before, is the key monologue of Emeric's about why he wanted to return to England. But the other, towards the end of the film, is also great, when he tells Blimp that his old-fashioned code of honour is no longer any use. It's a shaded screenplay in its depiction of Germans and Germany, seeing them as people like any other even in the midst of World War II. Quite remarkable. In fact quite remarkable that it was made at all (I guess they had 49th Parallel and the Oscar behind them). And remarkable that it was a hit - you would have thought Brits would have boycotted a film with a sympathetic German in it. But no - it was a big hit internationally.
It has a real sweetness, that 'generosity of spirit'. P&P catch the little looks between people brilliantly. And they do passage of time montages ever so well.
To paraphrase Ian Christie, it's something of an intimate epic.
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