Review : Blitz – Cineuropa

In a conversation with critic Jonathan Rosenbaum in Toronto in 1996, Jean-Luc Godard bitterly described Jane Campion as a talented director “completely destroyed by money.” While this wasn’t Godard’s first provocative comment, we know that independent film productions can never have enough working capital and the sacrifices that have to be made for every extra penny. But what happens when a director accustomed to economic work is offered a Silicon Valley vault where every visual dream and impractical shot can be realized?

Now, in the era of Netflix and Apple “platform” films, where feature film budgets are inflated to attract potential, without dependence on box office receipts, we have Steve McQueen

‘s blitz (+also read:
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movie file)world premiere at the BFI in London. Academy Award-winning director Turner’s previous film Occupied city (+also read:
criticize
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movie file)provides a valuable comparison: both explore how London and Amsterdam respectively dealt with Nazi aggression during the Second World War, but while the documentary was demanding, precise and minimalist, the fiction gets out of control. If we draw an analogy with artistic ability, a great musician is no less if he cannot play the tuba as well as the piccolo.

McQueen flourished in formalist, Bressonian prison dramas (Hunger (+also read:
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interview: Laura Hastings-Smith Ro…
interview: Steve McQueen
movie file)), prime time television (Small Ax) and numerous shorter works presented in contemporary art spaces; why can’t he be given the chance to restore what the country mythologizes as one of its finest hours, enduring the Luftwaffe blitzkrieg between September 1940 and May 1941? He partially succeeds in this when developing blitz as a spiritual prequel to Small Axseeing how London’s black community actually dealt with the situation, and the discrimination it still faced at this triumphant moment, with suspicion and racial abuse rampant, and the glorification of slavery and the British Empire, like one of the murals in Covent -Garden, which was seen by the young protagonist George (Elliot Heffernan

) directly shows. But the resistance to this noble pedagogical impulse is pure spectacle: McQueen also plunges us into the fire and fury of aerial bombing, seeking catharsis in triumph over adversity, which he artlessly dramatizes, urging us to celebrate again and again Britain’s overall victory in the Second World War. like many British films of the past. When a water main burst rained down on civilians sheltering at London Bridge tube station during an overnight raid, it was hard not to reminisce about James Cameron. Titanicand suddenly the film seems like just a demonstration of technical prowess.

The main storyline is also overly manipulative: McQueen miscalculated in trying to make his great piece of national cinema acceptable to all ages. Dramatizing a colossal event that affected masses of the wartime population is a challenge that Hollywood screenwriters embrace, with huge potential dividends; McQueen makes us root for Saoirse RonanRita Hanway (referring thus to 1940s cinema; wasn’t Catherine Holborn available?) Reuniting with her dear George after he escaped to the train he reluctantly boarded that would evacuate him to the countryside terrain. George actually runs away back to London sooner than we expected and gets into some pretty incredible scrapes as a would-be Dickensian street urchin.

Narratives aimed at young children were vital in thoroughly introducing the concept of war to youth age groups, and children could indeed be shocked by family viewing when blitz will be released worldwide on Apple TV in late November. But more experienced people lack McQueen’s usual meticulousness and lack of sentimentality when considering events of this magnitude.

blitz is a UK and US production from New Regency Productions, Work Title Films, Lammas Park, Walden Media and Apple Studios. Apple TV+ is a global distributor.