TREATMENTS OF WORLD WAR II IN FILM

Historical films often present their own views of the “facts” of an event, and none more commonly than films that depict World War II. The fictionalization of historical events in film is not necessarily against the spirit of historicism; Robert Rosenberg has noted that these films can “open up the possibilities of history itself” (Pingree 104). The motivation for historical revision may be to escape the terrible truths of the war and its unfathomable misery:

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I ALL ALONE BEWEEP MY OUTCAST STATE

Nicholas Ray’s films are a study of the plight of the troubled individual in conflict with society. They raise tough questions and often present disturbing conclusions through their cataclysmic endings. He was much respected by the French existentialist film critics under Andre Bazin (Naremore, 23), and his films personify the struggle of the existentialist anti-hero. In a Lonely Place is, with Rebel Without A Cause and On Dangerous Ground, one of Ray’s finest and most complex films.

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RAYMOND HAWKEY, DESIGNER

UPDATE: Raymond Hawkey died aged 80 on 30 August 2010. Read the obituaries at The Guardian and The Telegraph.

Len Deighton’s novels Berlin Game, Set and Match feature striking cover art; I remember being thrilled and slightly afraid of them when I first found them on my father’s bookshelves. They were designed by a colleague of Deighton’s from London’s Royal College of Art, Raymond Hawkey. His style is distinctive and influential: photographic elements, strong, blocky typefaces, simple and clean layouts.

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