Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema 1945-1960

‘Exactly what we’d want to know about the mood of the country is mirrored in the films – in the different studios, the genres, the use of child protagonists, the directors (male, female, exiles) and the attitude of the British toward their own cinema.’
– Alexander Payne

From its very first edition in 1946, Locarno showed a genuine interest in British films, with Hunted eventually winning the festival’s top prize in 1952. At Locarno’s 2025 edition, that tradition was revisited with a retrospective structured around the question of life in contemporary Britain as reflected in its postwar films. This season, a handpicked selection from that larger programme, traces different shades of popular cinema from a golden period; films grounded in reality yet shaped by distinct generic, authorial and formal convictions. Whether they’re a comedy or a crime film, the shadow of the war continues to loom over characters’ motives and scars the urban landscapes they inhabit – where life and its meagre joys remain rationed. The season also includes several rare gems, charting a nation’s rise from the ashes of conflict and its faltering steps toward reconstruction.

Ehsan Khoshbakht, season curator

With thanks to

Season programme

Hell Is a City

Stanley Baker’s brooding inspector shines darkly in an existentialist police procedure drama.

Hell Is a City + discussion with season curator Ehsan Khoshbakht, and James Bell and Josephine Botting, Curators, BFI National Archive

Stanley Baker’s brooding inspector shines darkly in an existentialist police procedure drama.

Hunted

A cinematic milestone blending the anguish of film noir with the pathos of neorealism.

Hunted + intro by season curator Ehsan Khoshbakht

A cinematic milestone blending the anguish of film noir with the pathos of neorealism.

The Three Weird Sisters

Dylan Thomas’s finest original screenplay is an eccentric blend of sharp wit and gothic shudder.

The Fallen Idol

A canonical classic from the team behind The Third Man.

Train of Events

One of the finest Ealing Studio portmanteau films, incorporating multiple mediums, including early references to television.

The Happiest Days of Your Life

Alastair Sim and Margaret Rutherford, in disarmingly excellent form, navigate the delicate predicament of gender mix-up.

The Happiest Days of Your Life + intro by script supervisor Angela Allen

Alastair Sim and Margaret Rutherford, in disarmingly excellent form, navigate the delicate predicament of gender mix-up.

Mandy

This shattering portrait of childhood is acted and directed with astonishing mastery.

Mandy + intro by Josephine Botting, Curator, BFI National Archive

This shattering portrait of childhood is acted and directed with astonishing mastery.

Turn the Key Softly

This gem of London films follows a trio of troubled women.

Turn the Key Softly + intro by professor Melanie Williams

This gem of London films follows a trio of troubled women.

The Yellow Balloon

The most thrilling entry in the cycle of ‘hunted children’ films in British cinema.

The Flying Scot

This is British low-budget crime cinema at its very best.

Time Without Pity

This is a key film that Hollywood blacklistee Joseph Losey shot during his British exile.

Never Let Go

A tough and psychologically nuanced British take on The Bicycle Thieves.

Never Let Go + intro by season curator Ehsan Khoshbakt

A tough and psychologically nuanced British take on The Bicycle Thieves.

Want more?

See the Projecting the Archive screening of The Woman with No Name.

See the screening of The Happy Family, part of the 75th Anniversary of the Festival of Britain.