Madman Entertainment / Region 4 / Released November 10, 2010
A new Stephen Poliakoff production is always something to be savored and Glorious 39, which he directs as well as scripts is well up to his usual superb standard. It’s released this month on DVD.
Like so much of Poliakoff’s work it is the nature of memory that is at the heart of the drama; In 1939 the storm clouds of war are raging across Europe. Anne (the ethereal Romala Garai) is the adopted daughter of prominent policitician Bill Nighy and when she discovers recordings of secret meetings concerning plans to make a deal with Hitler she realises something highly sinister is going on. Then her close friend, MP Hector Haldane (a small role for former Doctor Who David Tennant) is found dead and Anne realises her own life may well be in danger.
A brilliant story with sumptuous production design and an all star cast that includes Garai in the lead as Anne, Bill Nighy, Julie Christie, Jenny Agutter, Christopher Lee, Hugh Bonneville, Eddie Redmayne and Juno Temple make Glorious 39 one of the films of the year.