Set in World War II, the narrative follows a newly formed SOE circuit near Lyon, where young recruits, often lacking experience, band together to resist the German occupation. Their journey highlights themes of bravery and friendship as they engage in dangerous missions, facing significant risks and sacrifices in their fight against tyranny.
Ian Aitken links the issue of cinematic realism to important questions concerning human experience, analysing the close similarity between the film image and visual perception, and how different theories of realism have sought to uncover the way film's relation to reality can be understood.
John Grierson and the Documentary Film Movement
Best known for his documentaries such as "Drifters", "North Sea", and "Housing Problems", John Grierson was regarded as one of the most important figures in the British documentary film movement and one of the most influential of British film theorists. Grierson's conception of film as an instrument of social persuasion was derived from an aesthetic tradition based on philosophical idealism, and his theory of documentary film indicates that aesthetics and social purpose should have equal status.Ian Aitken explains the synthesis of naturalism and modernism which characterizes the idealistic strain of Grierson's social commentary and compares it to such contemporary social reformists as the Next Five Years Group and the Mass Observation researchers. He also draws out aesthetic and intellectual similarities between Grierson, Orwell and Priestley. By underlining the link between film and reform, he clarifies the meaning and significance of Grierson's ideas and the historical role of the documentary film movement. This book should be of interest to students and teachers of film studies and media studies.