Testament of Youth at Thame Cinema 4 All

THE film version of Vera Brittain’s classic memoir of the same name – one of the few published accounts of the First World War written by a woman, is to shown at Thame Cinema 4 All on Friday, June 5.

It tells of the author’s experience of that brutal conflict and the forging of her pacifist politics. Keen to pursue her education in spite of her devoted father’s reservations, Vera takes up her place at Somerville College Oxford to read English. The year is 1914. Vera’s brother and her circle of close male acquaintances and lovers, once idealistic, impassioned and youthfully intense, volunteer to fight but return from the horrors of the front changed men.

It is not long before Vera herself sacrifices her hard won place at university to become a nurse on the Western Front, and so begins her narrative of appalling difficulty, devastating loss of innocence, and her genesis as a writer and outspoken social critic. Like so many of her generation, Vera would return from war with a bitter disdain for the old world and those who ran it, and her pacifism would extend from this global conflict to the next.

Vera is strident and tenacious and Vikander’s performance among an exceptional cast is captivating. Beautifully shot and powerfully moving, this is a film that was perhaps overshadowed on its release by other showy Oscar contenders, but is worth catching on our very own big screen.

Friday June 5 at 8pm (doors 7.30).

UK 2014, 129 minutes, 12A Certificate
Directed by James Kent, Starring Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, Dominic West, Emily Watson

To view a trailer of the film, and for ticket information and booking, visit the website: LINK