Went the Day Well?: Alberto Cavalcanti

Watching Alberto Cavalcanti's WENT THE DAY WELL? (1942). I love how the opening scenes where the Germans plan machine gun placements and barricades are shot like a relaxed domestic drama. It's totally devoid of traditional tension.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) September 18, 2018

Amazing. The first thing the villagers pick up on to suggest the soldiers might be Nazis are their "Continental handwriting."

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) September 18, 2018

✊✊✊✊✊ pic.twitter.com/v8dmInNrFt

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) September 18, 2018

So many of these suspense beats are pure Hitchcock in their design--the message on the egg, the scribbled note placed in the pocket, the disconnected telegram line. The difference, I think, is the absence of the voyeuristic element.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) September 18, 2018

I don't think I like this movie. It's an exploitation film--the Nazis are subhuman child-killing, priest-murdering monsters who're defeated by a good dosage of British stiff upper lip. The problem is it takes itself too seriously and doesn't have fun with the suspense elements.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) September 18, 2018

In summation, this film feels like the kind of thing Powell & Pressburger's THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP was specifically designed to counter.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) September 18, 2018

Rating: 5/10