Question 10: Choose a film and discuss it through illustration. How does its social, political and historical context influence the form and content? This Happy Breed (1944) by Noël Coward Introduction: British national cinema after the First World War was somewhat restrained compared to the fantastical images of the preceding peace period. British cinema of the 1940s is often referred to as a "golden age", during which British films were able to compete with Hollywood in domestic and international markets. This arthouse strategy challenged the Hollywood paradigm by "combining the objective mood and aesthetic of the documentary movement with the stars and resources of studio cinema", noted critic Richard Armstrong (Armstrong, 2012) . This artistic compromise suited both the bourgeois class of southeastern Britain, who favored educational films of great importance, and the working class, who favored traditional Hollywood genre films. Noël Coward's second collaboration with director David Lean, This Happy Breed (1944), follows the Gibbons family, led by patriarch Frank Gibbons (Robert Newton) over a twenty-year period beginning at the end of the Great War and ending in ending at the dawn of World War II. Coward presents the Gibbons' family life like any family, juxtaposing their love for each other with the trials and tribulations of life, particularly post-war life, and how the Gibbons family finds its way in a changing society. A fundamental characteristic of the difficult-to-define movement of cinematic realism is the representation of “certain aspects of life as it is lived” (Lay, Samantha, 2002: p 8). Lean shows exactly that by focusing on family trivialities, the idiosyncratic exchanges between Frank's recently widowed sister, Sylvia (Alison Leggat), ...... middle of paper ...... viewable at: http: //www.criterion.com/current/posts/2220-this-happy-breed-home-truths [Accessed March 8, 2014].Morley, S. (1985). A talent to amuse 1st ed. London: Pavilion uaVallance, T. (2005). Kay Walsh Obituary. The Independent [online] Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/kay-walsh-6147393.html [Accessed March 10, 2014]. Genaitay, S. (2008). ). BFI | Sight & Sound | David Lean [online] Old.bfi.org.uk Available at: http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49462 [Accessed 4 March 2014]. Feldman, R. (2014). Never Give In. [online] Winstonchurchill.org Available at: http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-churchill/103-never-give-. in [Accessed March 5, 2014].Screenonline.org.uk, (2014). BFI Screenonline: Social Realism [online] Available at: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1037898/ [ Accessed March 10. 2014].