Forty Years(Veertig Jaren)

Although the Dutch Veertig Jaren is a film by committee -- the Special National Committee, to be exact -- director Edmond T. Greville and his actors are able to maintain their individuality throughout. The film's English-language title is Forty Years, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the reign of Queen Wilhelmina. In the manner of Noel Coward's Cavalcade, the story recounts those four decades as experience by two "typical" Dutch families, one headed by an Amsterdam surgeon, the other by a rural factory owner. Historical events touched upon include the Boer War, the General Strike and WWI. Mercifully, Veertig Jaren was completed in 1938, two years before Queen Wilhelmina was forced to surrender the Netherlands to Hitler's Germany.