British pride prevails – released in 1942, this was an artful kind of propaganda film – but not before much violent conflict and loss. A little more soberly evocative of the English springtime is Alberto Cavalcanti’s wartime classic Went the Day Well? (on iTunes), in which a rural village is invaded one idyllic Whitsun weekend by German paratroopers.
The springtime setting of its soundstage-constructed Mayfair may be incidental to this petal-weight high society romcom, but it gives the whole enterprise a fleet-footed chirpiness: you can practically sense the blossomy atmosphere through the black-and-white cinematography. Staying in a wholesome vein, Spring in Park Lane (on Amazon) was a colossal popular smash in Britain in 1948, though you rarely hear it spoken of today. It’s a less opulent film than last year’s remake, but it couldn’t capture the nature-is-healing theme of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s book any more devotedly.
Still, Agnieszka Holland gave it a good go in her still-unmatched 1993 version of The Secret Garden (on Netflix), with its vivid time-lapse shots of blooms unfurling from wintry murk. The brief cycle of cherry blossom has rarely been given such delicate thematic purpose
