Orwell Goes to the Pictures

The Orwell Diaries is a project that reprints George Orwell's diaries as if he were writing a blog. The day and month are correct, but the year is off by seventy. He doesn't write every day, but he travels a bit, and is quite observant (as to be expected) of both the banal and the important.

He is aboard the Yaskunimaru right now, crossing the Bay of Biscay, and on his way back to London. Before he departed, he went to the movies in Casablanca:

In Casablanca went to the pictures, & saw films making it virtually certain that the French Gov.t expects war. The first a film on the life of a soldier, following up all the different branches & with some very good shots of the inner arrangement of the Maginot line. This film had evidently been hurriedly constructed & went into much greater detail than is normal in films of this kind. The other was the Pathé news gazette, in which the announcer gave what was practically a political speech denouncing Germany. Then more shots of British & French troops etc. The significant point was the attitude of the audience – utterly unenthusiastic, hardly a clap, & a few hostile comments.
This time all French people are convinced it is war. A number began talking to us spontaneously about it, all deploring the prospect (eg. in one or two cases, “It does no good to us, it’s only the rich who profit out of it”, etc., etc.), though sometimes describing Hitler as a “salaud.”
A.R.P. (ie F.A.P.A.C.) notices, calling for volunteer helpers, posted in Marrakech for the first time about 20th March. According to Madame M., whose son is at St Cyr, even the cadets there do not want war, though ready for it, of course.

Its fascinating to read about how the war was anticipated and regarded before the fact. And not a little bit morbid to read all of this knowing that war is indeed imminent and that Orwell and his wife are headed to London and the Blitz, which will begin in about a year-and-a-half.