THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY

UK, 2018, 124 minutes, Colour.
Lily James, Matthew Goode, Jessica Brown Findlay, Michiel Huisman, Katherine Parkinson, Tom Courtenay, Glen Powell, Penelope Wilton, Bronagh Gallagher.
Directed by Mike Newell.

With several Churchill films, with Dunkirk, with Their Finest, and with popular films for seniors like the Exotic Marigold hotel films, there seems to be a deep cinematic nostalgia in Britain. Which asks the question about Brexit and the U.K.’s focus on itself.

This film belongs to that group.

It is certainly a mouthful of a title. But it tells us that we are in the island of Guernsey, that there is a literary society, that has something to do with potatoes and potato peels. The setting is the island during World War II and the occupation by the Germans. There are also many sequences about the post-war life on the island, especially 1946.

The opening sets the tone. One night on the island during the occupation, a group of rowdy men and women come bumbling through the woods and are bailed up by German sentries. They have been enjoying an illicit dinner, consuming a pig that had been fostered in secret. A bit tipsy, they explain to the sentries that they are part of the society which gathers for reading. They are asked to register the next morning and realise that they had better keep up the pretence and make it a reality. For almost 4 years, they meet regularly, escaping from the occupation into the land of the imagination and literature.

After the war, a successful author, Juliet, played by Lily James, managed by Sydney, Matthew Goode, receives a request from Guernsey for a copy of Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare as well as a box of memorabilia from the island. As she goes through the material, she becomes more interested in the literary society and decides to go to investigate personally and use this as a basis for an article commissioned by The Times.

It doesn’t quite work out that way. Juliet experiences the hardships after the war, makes friends with the farmer who had the pig and the little girl that he looks after like a father, makes friends with the post office head and his grandson, enjoys the company of an island woman who makes complex gins. But she is received in quite a hostile way by an older woman who does not want the society to be written about, especially for the papers. A group of British character actors portrays this group, Michiel Hausman is the farmer, Tom Courtenay in the post office, Katherine Parkinson with her distillery, and Penelope Wilton is the hostile Eliza.

As she gets to know more about the members of the society, especially another woman, Elizabeth (Jessica Brown Findlay) who has disappeared from the island, the other members begin to fill in the background, the question of a relationship with a German soldier, with a child, with arrests and internment in concentration camps…

Juliet has accepted a proposal by an American soldier (Glen Powell) but, it is clear to us before it is clear to her, that she will be attracted by the farmer. The American is instrumental in finding out the fate of the woman who disappeared, a sad and generous fate, and comes to the island and immediately senses what has happened.

This is British nostalgia at its most attractive, dignifying of the past, wartime heroism, disappointments and oppression, and romance.

It would be surprising if this film is not a great hit with its target, older, audience.

1. The title? A mouthful – and a mouthful of potato peel pie?

2. The German occupation of Guernsey, the 1940s? 1946 in postwar? The island, the hills, the town, the mountains, the water and the cliffs, the beaches, the wharves, the homes, the war period, the post-war period and the differences? The musical score?

3. The introduction, the night, 1941, the group drinking, the joking, the curfew, the celebration with the pig, the secrecy, being stopped by the guards, talking, the vomiting, the registration, the joke having to be taken seriously, the Society meetings?

4. The theme of reading, classic books, the occupation, the islanders being confined, free in their imaginations, learning literature, the pleasure, schooling for the children? The meetings, the reading, the discussions?

5. Juliet and her story, the success of her book, Sidney as her agent, arranging the readings, the meetings? The readers and their comments? The past, her parents’ death, the possibility of buying the house, the balcony and her being saved from falling? The memories? Her articles, the Times, an article on reading? Her plans?

6. Dawsey, his letter, Lamb’s Tales, Juliet sending it with her book about Anne Brontë? Receiving the box of documents, going through the stories? The insertion of the flashbacks? Her interest? Her relationship with Mark, six months, American, his job? The ring, his proposal on the wharf, her acceptance?

7. Her going to Guernsey, the hill, the hotel, the tiles falling? Going to the Post Office, Eben and his grandson? Charlotte’s house, her crabby nature and remarks? Going to the meeting, her arrival, meeting everyone, the reading of her Anne Brontë, the discussion about her merits and Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights? Emilia and her hostility? Their not wanting her to write an article?

8. Dawsey, writing the letter, meeting Juliet, the accident with the tiles, the attraction, Lamb’s Tales, the meeting, his work on the farm, Kit, the pigs? The conversations with Juliet, confiding the stories of the past, information, getting Juliet to babysit Kit?

9. Isola, her personality and style, friendship, the gin, confiding in Juliet, the information and the past stories, expanding the story? Allowing Juliet to move in? The conversation about loneliness?

10. Elizabeth, her background in London, helping Emelia, the deaths, the pregnancy and the child dying? Her staying on the island? Her being the mother of Kit? Audience suspicions about her and the Germans? The news about her going to the concentration camp? Her appearances in the flashbacks, the meetings, in love with Christian, his helping with the birth of the cow, friendship with Dawsey, with everyone, Emilia and her love? Elizabeth pregnant, Kristian not knowing? The betrayal by the man in the village? His later being ostracised? Kristian being transferred, the suddenness, his not knowing about the baby, killed in the torpedo hit?

11. The flashback to the evacuation of the children before the Germans arrived? Eban and his grandson?

12. Elizabeth, the Polish boy, the slave work of the building of the fortresses on the cliffs? Dawsey warning her not to help? Her being caught, the boy being shot, her being deported? Juliet contacting Mark, getting the information about the camps, the news about helping people in the camp and her being shot?

13. Sidney, publisher, meetings, bookings, finance? Gay, willing to give her away in marriage?

14. Mark, his personality, the ring, the proposal, her acceptance, the phone calls, getting the information about Elizabeth? Arriving on the island, seeing Juliet and Dawsey, the issue of love in the engagement, the turning of the reading? Marriage called off?

15. Dawsey, the bond with Juliet, with kids? His disappointment, his distance of the farewell?

16. Juliet return, writing all night, completion of the book, her research? The package for Sidney? Posting it to Guernsey? The parcel, the meeting, the letter, reading it aloud?

17. Juliet going to visit Guernsey, Dawsey and his going to London, their meeting?

18. The book, Juliette being in debt to the group, loving Dawsey, loving Kit? The domestic sequences?

19. British history, patriotism, sentiment, nostalgia and memories?