CAVALCADE

US, 1933, 110 minutes, Black and white.
Diana Wynyard, Clive Brook, Una O’ Connor, Herbert Mundin, Beryl Mercer, Ursula Jeans, Margaret Lindsay.
Directed by Frank Lloyd.

Cavalcade is based on a play by Noel Coward, who during the 1920s and 1930s wrote a number of very popular plays like Private Lives, Hay Fever. He also wrote patriotic material – including This Happy Breed and dramas like Brief Encounter.

The film was directed by Frank Lloyd and won him an Oscar for best director. The film also won Oscars as best film of 1933 and for art direction. British star Diana Wynyard was nominated as best actress.

The film uses the motif of families, upstairs and downstairs families, in London to trace the history of England from 1899 to 1933. This meant that it gave an overview, from a British perspective, of the turn of the century, the end of the Victorian era, the Edwardian era, World War One and the 20s leading into the Depression.

The film was very popular at the time – and has been imitated in many films since – many directors collaborated in 1942 to produce a similar kind of film, covering a much wider range of years, to provide morale-boosting for the British. This was Forever and a Day.

1. The film received the Oscar for best picture of 1933. The merit of the film, its impact then and now? Does it have the atmosphere of a classic?

2. The techniques of early sound films? An American film on England? The English acting, the style of photography, sets? The technique of collages for the passing of time? The use of music, songs?

3. The image of the cavalcade as used? The pageant of English history? The film’s attitude to history and its visualizing? How well was this British history illustrated?

4. The attitude of the film-makers towards history? The historical events, the effects on countries and people, the unpredictability? The question of survival?

5. The optimistic tone of the film: the fact that people and families can keep going? The contrast with pessimism of wars, deaths, selfishness, change? The strong emphasis of twentieth century blues at the end of the film?

6. Trace the change in England from the late nineteenth century and the Boer War to the thirties. The varying influences? The styles of living? English tradition changing, being lost?

7. How much did Britain change in 35 years? Why?

8. The Marryot family as typical of the English of the time? Aristocracy, their values, interests, their way of life? How sympathetic? How well drawn were the individual characters?

9. The comparison of the Marryots with the Bridges? The 'upstairs/ downstairs' contrast? The characters of the Bridges and their relationship to their meters? The varying interplays of contact between the two? The Bridges emerging from a 'downstairs’ situation to independence? The irony of the later encounter between Joe and Fanny?

10. Comment on Noel Coward's outlook on aristocracy and the working classes, the impact of this distinction now? How did it change during the period of this cavalcade?

11. The strong presentation of the Boer War in the film? The sentiment as people went to the war? The music accompanying the going to war? The equalizing of upstairs and downstairs? Sharing; worry? The strong farewells? The children and their war-games? The siege of Mafeking? The theatre sequence and the good news about the siege? The impact of the return of all the soldiers? And their families?

12. The significance of the death of Queen Victoria? The and of the Victorian era? A new century? The visual details of the funeral and its mpact on people?

13. The film’s comments on the first decade of the twentieth century, ways of life in the two families, children growing up, social calls, visits, the life of the Bridges in the pub? The memories of the war?

14. The significance of the seaside episode? The meeting? Fanny and her dancing?

15. The use of the Titanic as a symbol of the Edwardian period? The marriage and its happiness? Disaster and the death of the technological development?

16. The dramatic impact of the collage of war? Its significance for the themes of the film?

17. Joe and Fanny in the war period? The change of style of life? Fanny as a showgirl? Joe as the soldier? The reaction of the parents and the past traditions?

18. The sour look at the twenties? The significance of the lyrics and music of the Twentieth Century Blues?

19. What prospects did the film hold for the thirties? For the future? The contrast decades later? Modern nostalgia about the past?

20. What is the value of looking at this kind of cavalcade? How much understanding of history and people?