MovieChat Forums > The Seventh Veil (1946) Discussion > Puzzling Time Frame

Puzzling Time Frame

posted 9 years ago by jononfire
1 reply | jump to latest

There is much still to recommend in this classic British drama, which I've just caught up with again after having seen it at a much younger age when I wasn't prone to such questioning, but....Made in 1945, and its present tense seemingly being contemporaneous with that year, its many flashbacks span a period of more than seven years, from Francesca (Todd) being younger than 17 to her being into maturity and at least 24. That span would encompass more than the whole duration of WWII, and yet the characters and events of the film, travelling from Britain throughout Europe during those years, seem to be wholly unaffected and unretarded by any wartime conditions. Was this irregularity even contemplated by the film's makers?

[–] Midgegirl 8 years ago

Since it raised morale so effectively, the film industry was highly thought of by the government at the time -and I read once that some actors were excused military service for that very reason- and ticket sales were higher during the war than at any other time before or since. Whilst many films were indeed about the war itself (albeit idealised) many others were pure escapism and never mentioned it. In other words- there was something for everyone. I can imagine going for a night out and having the war mentioned every time it was set in contemporary Britain would have been pretty wearying at the time.

Plus it would quickly date the film which, if it wasn't specifically about the war, would be unhelpful for re-releases that films often had back then.