La famiglia Gibson

This British Technicolor domestic drama from Eagle-Lion and director David Lean charts 20 years in the life of the Gibbons family, from 1919 to 1939. Husband Frank (Robert Newton) has just returned from fighting in WW1, and he and his wife Ethel (Celia Johnson) are moving into a new home in a crowded working class neighborhood. We follow them as they have children, raise them, and deal with the various ups and downs of family life, all leading up to the outbreak of WW2. Also featuring John Mills, Kay Walsh, Stanley Holloway, Eileen Erskine, John Blythe, Amy Veness, Alison Leggatt, and the voice of Laurence Olivier.

Based on a play by Noel Coward, this bears some thematic similarities to 1933's Cavalcade. This is more accessible though, and certainly much better made. Technically the movie is a marvel, with perhaps the best looking color cinematography, courtesy of Ronald Neame, up to this point in film. Lean's direction is also very admirable, with interesting and innovative camera movement. There's one truly outstanding scene wherein a person who has bad news to share exits out of the back door into a garden to relay the message, only the camera stays inside the house, moving a bit, looking out into the backyard but not seeing the news being delivered, all the while loud, upbeat music is blaring from a radio. It's a shattering scene that depicts the often banal setting for life-changing developments. Unfortunately I found much of the rest of the movie uninvolving. The acting is good, very natural and played in the medium to low register. I just couldn't bring myself to get emotionally connected with much of it.