Yesterday I went to see Helvetica, a documentary well worth the price of admission just for quotes like Bad taste is ubiquitous and People confuse legibility with communication. Though there were also many voices in support of the font.
Earlier in the week I attended an Imperial War Museum screening of archival films under the title Occupation and Resistance. These were a mixed lot, with the perspectives of both sides represented, particularly the German occupation of the British Channel Islands.
The scenes of the evacuation of Strasbourg were eerie, the images of British police driving and saluting German command hilarious. Le Journal de la Resistance was on another level altogether, and should be screened more widely. It is a short film shot from behind the barricades (without staging) as the Resistance took back Paris.
The IMW version is narrated by Noel Coward and is simply stunning. Very few war films or documentaries capture the reality of the action in all the gritty small details. I started to cry in the opening credits and didn’t stop until I was out on the street.