Victory and Peace

1918
Silent
118m

One reel of a feature imagining a German invasion of Britain during WWI.

Soldiers in the trenches open parcels and a child dies in an air raid. This is may be the only surviving reel of a feature film directed by Irish-born actor-director Herbert Brenon.

Brenon gained a reputation in Britain for his confidence with spectacular material, including a 1913 adaptation of Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, before leaving Europe for greater success in Hollywood during the later silent era. But his career tailed off after the arrival of the talkies.

Propaganda drama. The Germans have invaded Britain, and young men are fighting and dying in the trenches, as their wives and mothers at home try to cope with the suspense and the arrival of bad news.

The First World War: Remembrance

These poignant films return us to a time when the war was still fresh.

The First World War came to an end at 11am on 11 November 1918 - the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month - a day that was immediately commemorated as Armistice Day (Remembrance Sunday was an innovation of the Second World War). The annual parades and wreath laying became a staple of the newsreels, and subsequently television.

But the act of remembrance began long before the guns stopped firing. During the war, cinemas across the country regularly screened 'Roll of Honour' films, paying tribute to members of the local community who had been killed, captured or wounded in the conflict. And of course, while the war itself faded into history, filmmakers would revisit those world-shattering years for generations after.