Real to Reel: A Century of War Movies

The Battle of the Somme ©IWM (Q70164)

In the late summer and autumn of 1916, more than 20 million people flocked to cinemas across the United Kingdom to see the public information film, The Battle of the Somme.  Shot by just two cameramen, Geoffrey Mallins and J B McDowell, it marked a turning point in film making. The Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, had previously banned all photography and film from the front but gave in to pressure from the film industry, which was aware of the public appetite for real footage. The flickering images of brave soldiers in the build-up and opening stages of the battle (above) brought home to audiences for the first time the horror of industrial warfare. Many went hoping to perhaps catch a brief glimpse of a loved one; the government gambled that they would leave with a determination to see the conflict through to the end, and that it would boost recruitment. 

Short sequences from the 100-year-old film, which changed the way cinema and movies were perceived by society, open this new exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum. It goes on to explore how film-makers have found inspiration in personal stories and real events from wars in the succeeding years with a combination of film clips, costumes, props, scripts, sketches and designs.

©IWM (HU16541)

Among those featured is Violette Szabo (above), an undercover secret agent whose war work and eventual execution by the Nazis inspired the 1958 film, Carve her Name with Pride, starring Virginia McKenna.

The exhibits are many and varied. They include an evening gown Marlene Dietrich wore while entertaining troops on USO tours (above), a robe given to Lawrence of Arabia, a chair that was a prop in Rick’s cafe in Casablanca, a replica motorcycle ridden by Steve McQueen in The Great Escape and a Santa hat worn by Jake Gyllenhaal in Jarhead.

©Universal City Studios LLLP, photographed by Francois Duhamel

Some of the scenes in The Battle of the Somme had to be recreated behind the lines and the exhibition spells out the difficulties of capturing combat on camera. Below, Sergeant George Laws, cine cameraman and photographer with No 5 Army Film and Photographic unit, before leaving the North West European Theatre in June 1945.

©IWM (BU 8353)

This being the movies, romance is not forgotten. The instrument played by Nicholas Cage in Captain Corelli’s mandolin (below) is there, symbolising the tentative love that burgeoned when the Italian forces occupied the Greek island of Cephalonia during WW2;  Casablanca’s haunting theme tune, “As Time Goes by”, echoes round the exhibition’s final section. 

©Universal City Studios LLLP, photographed by Peter Mountain

While The Battle of the Somme was primarily a propaganda film, those that followed have presented a wide range of perspectives on conflict, many of them controversial. The exhibition considers why so many directors and producers tackle the topic of war and goes on to explore the response to their movies. It ends with a montage of final scenes and endings drawn from films across the century, all evoking very different impressions: unsettling, bittersweet, tragic and triumphant. Among them is the final sequence of Richard Attenborough’s 1969 film, Oh! What a Lovely War. Its panning shot of an ever-expanding field of white crosses provides a visual shock to today’s viewer just as powerful as The Battle of the Somme’s footage from 1916.

Real to Reel: A Century of War Movies is at the IWM, London, until January 8 2017. Adult tickets £10 (concessions apply)

www.IWM.org.uk

Fashion on the Ration: 1940s Street Style

Anyone who appreciates vintage fashion or is interested in social history will love this new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. It celebrates the inventiveness and adaptability of women during World War II and how they were determined not to let Hitler stop them being stylish.

The show ranges from the way practicalities changed how women dressed to rationing and the Make do and Mend culture. More than 300 exhibits have been brought together, including clothing, accessories, wartime letters, photographs and film.

There are six sections.

 

Into Uniform looks at how fashion was immediately influenced by the number of servicemen and women flooding the streets.  Their uniforms provoked pride and sometimes jealousy – the Wrens had a chic dark blue suit (left), whereas women in the Auxiliary Territorial Services had to make do with a khaki uniform that novelist Barbara Cartland described as ‘hideous’. Hats and suits inspired by uniforms soon appeared and by the spring of 1940 there were advertisements in Vogue for outfits “with a military touch".  

Functional Fashion explores the way the demands of wartime life changed the way civilians dressed, inspiring retailers to come up with innovative products such as gas-mask handbags, luminous buttons and siren suits – the ‘onesies’ of their day.

Rationing and Make do and Mend explains why clothes rationing was introduced in 1941 and how the nation’s shopping habits changed. People were encouraged to make clothes last longer by mending, altering, knitting and creating new outfits out of old materials. On display is for the first time is lingerie made from out-of-date RAF silk maps for Countess Mountbatten.

Utility Clothing was introduced in 1941 to standardise production. Although there were restrictions on the number of pleats and buttons, trouser turn-ups were forbidden and fabrics had to be durable, the outfits were designed by couturiers such as Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies. The stylish, simple lines of many of the clothes on display look just as good today.

Beauty as Duty examines the lengths to which many women went to maintain their personal appearance. Although items such as lipstick and face powder were still manufactured, they were in short supply. Magazines advised making lipsticks last longer by melting down the ends and packing the paste back into an empty case.  As a last resort, lips could be stained with beetroot juice. Patriotism also made its mark in the beauty world. Lipsticks had names like Regimental Red, and this novelty compact is in the form of a US officer's cap.

 

Peace and a new look covers the introduction in 1947 of Christian Dior’s “New Look” with its nipped-in waist and full skirt. Although it met with some initial disapproval (Picture Post ran the headline: “Paris Forgets this is 1947”) women whose clothes had patches on their patches were desperate for change. The new fashion soon made its way into high street shops and in 1949, clothes rationing ended.

There’s an excellent illustrated book to accompany the exhibition by social historian Julie Summers.She weaves together stories from ordinary lives and high society to provide a unique picture of life during the Second World War and concludes that if fashion did stagnate then, creativity did not. And creativity, she points out, is the spirit of fashion.

Fashion on the Ration: 1940s Street Style is at the Imperial War Museum until August 31.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/exhibitions/iwm-london/fashion-on-the-ration

Fashion on the Ration – Style in the Second World War by Julie Summers. Profile Books, £16.99