England, 1939. Beautiful summer days. Country mansions. Elegant picnics. Banter. But this is also a year when storm clouds are gathering on the horizon: war is imminent. Director Stephen Poliakoff creates a highly unusual and exceptionally intelligent portrait of what was going on in England during those fateful days, glimpsed and digested through the lens of a prominent family at the centre of events that could have fateful consequences for the future of the nation. What the story explores is the antithesis of all the familiar clichés of a brave, united country standing up to Hitler.
In ingenious and wonderfully ambitious fashion, Poliakoff disguises as much as he reveals until we are well into the film. At the core of Glorious 39 is a family drama, played out against the idyllic backdrop of rural England, where luxurious cars run people to country picnics. Anne (Romola Garai), an attractive young blond actress, is seemingly safe within the bosom of her adoring family. She is doted on by an affectionate father, a supportive brother and her loving boyfriend. But as tensions rise and the political crisis deepens, her father, a minister in the government, takes the family back to London. A sense of unease soon creeps over the film. One of Anne's best friends disappears, her boyfriend is called away to France and she subsequently finds herself in possession of some mysterious audio recordings. At the same time, the country begins to cope with the daily reality of being at war. No one knows what will happen, and Anne discovers that her cocooned life is about to change completely.
Poliakoff has concocted a wonderfully unsettling film that shows an England teetering on the edge of making fundamental decisions about its future. Supported by a superb cast of some of the finest English actors, he pries open his subject with a series of deft revelations, giving us a completely different sense of what was going on during the glorious year of 1939.
Piers Handling
Stephen Poliakoff was born in London and attended King's College at Cambridge University. He is a prolific playwright who has written over twenty plays. His filmography includes
Hidden City (87),
Close My Eyes (91) and
Century (94), and the acclaimed television dramas
Shooting the Past (99),
Perfect Strangers (01),
The Lost Prince (03),
Friends and Crocodiles (06),
Gideon's Daughter (06),
Joe's Palace (07) and
Capturing Mary (07).
Glorious 39 (09) is his most recent feature.