Lights Out in Europe

9/19/2020

In researching the work of Herbert Kline, I came across these excellent notes from a 2017 screening at "Cinema Rediscovered" in Bristol, England, which I reproduce here for preservation and to provide much needed information about this rarest of films. _Rarely seen since its initial 1940 release; Herbert Kline’s timely documentary traces the final months of an uneasy peace in 1939 and records a Europe on the brink of total war._ _Unlike many other documentaries made at the time, Kline’s incredible directing highlights the real people of the cities of London, Danzig and Warsaw and rarely mentions the international leaders involved in the summer of 1939. If anything, this beautifully shot film is about the people whose lives are about to change forever._ _On his first professional a