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A period of history · Age

Films & Shows Set during the Interwar Years

Runs from1918193921 years wide

Shelfmark Liber LXII

World Wars Era

14
titles
13 films · 1 series (1 ep) · 2 through its sub-periods
3.8/5
average rating
across 14 rated titles
44%
of the span is tagged
12 of 27 titles set inside it

See the Interwar Years on the timelineEvery year from 1918 to 1939 the archive holds, and what is set in them

Compare the titles of the Interwar Years in the CanonsWhat every title on it shares, what two or three share, and what is proper to one

The Chronicle

The events and themes the archive follows through the Interwar Years, in the order they happened, each with the titles that depict it. Press a name to read about it in the threads below.

  1. 1877–1965
    Jim Crow LawsSocial
  2. 1916
    Easter RisingPolitical
  3. 1936–1937
    Abdication Crisis of Edward VIIIPolitical
  4. 1940
    Dunkirk EvacuationMilitary

    The surrounding and subsequent evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and allied forces from the town of Dunkirk in Northern France in 1940.

Sub-Periods

The periods the archive counts as part of the Interwar Years. Their titles are gathered on this page where they are set inside its boundaries. The number represents how many titles in these sub-periods are also directly attached to this period and how many are just inherited rather being directly tagged with the Interwar Years.

Cinematic Introduction

Every title set during the Interwar Years, by the decade it came out. A series is placed on the chart by its first season and counts as one title entity.

First on screen
Chariots of Fire1981
Most recent
Munich: The Edge of War2021

FilmsSeriesAt the archive’s paceeach bar is the titles released that decade

The median title about the Interwar Years came out in 2006; the median across the rest of the archive, in 2004, so this period’s titles run 2 years later. Most over-told: the 1980s, with 4 titles where about 0.9 would be expected.

The gold dashes are how many of this period’s 14 titles each decade would hold if they had been released at the same pace as the other 277 dated titles in the archive. That measures the archive’s own collecting, not the world’s film output, and at these sizes one title moves a bar by a whole step.

Historical Threads

A thread follows one event or historical theme across the archive, wherever and whenever it appears. Pick a tab to read one; they are in the order they are filed on the timeline. Pulling a thread opens up a narrowed timeline view filtered to every year that thread touches.

Dunkirk Evacuationpull it on the timeline

Event

The surrounding and subsequent evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and allied forces from the town of Dunkirk in Northern France in 1940. The evacuation cemented itself in the popular imagination with the mass deployment of British civilian craft to help rescue trapped soldiers as the German forces surrounding them closed their encirclement.

filed under 1940

Also runs throughWestern Front (World War II)3

Places Connected to this Period

Every place the archive’s titles set in this period name, with each one nested under the larger place it sits inside where that place is here too. The number is how many titles set here name it.

Saltiness Across the Period

No title set here has been given a saltiness score yet. That is unrated, which is not the same as accurate.

Archive Density

44%12 of the 27 titles the archive sets between 1918 and 1939 carry the Interwar Years tag.

52%With its sub-periods: 14 of the same 27 titles carry Interwar Years or one of Great Depression and Roaring Twenties.

This measure can help illustrate cinematic hotspots within a time period by comparing which years of the overarching, actual historical time period are backed up by a cinematic release.

  1. 19181 of 4
  2. 19192 of 5
  3. 19201 of 1
  4. 19211 of 1
  5. 19221 of 1
  6. 19230 of 1
  7. 19241 of 1
  8. 19251 of 1
  9. 19263 of 4
  10. 19271 of 1
  11. 19280 of 1
  12. 19291 of 3 · 2 with sub-periods
  13. 19300 of 1
  14. 19321 of 1
  15. 19341 of 1
  16. 19353 of 5 · 4 with sub-periods
  17. 19362 of 2
  18. 19371 of 2
  19. 19382 of 2
  20. 19392 of 5

20 years on the timeline fall inside the boundaries. The dark part of each bar is the share carrying this period; the lighter part beside it, the share carrying one of its sub-periods instead.

Share of the 32 genre taggings across 14 titles set in this period. A title filed under three genres is in three of these slices, so this is a share of taggings rather than of titles.

Credits

Directors

1Steven Spielberg3 titles4.0/5unsalted2Christian Schwochow1 title3.4/5unsalted3Denzel Washington1 title3.7/5unsalted4Hugh Hudson1 title3.5/5unsalted5Jocelyn Moorhouse1 title3.4/5unsalted6Joe Wright1 title4.0/5unsalted7John Musker1 title4.0/5unsalted8Martin Scorsese1 title3.8/5unsalted9Neil Jordan1 title3.5/5unsalted10Rob Marshall1 title3.6/5unsalted11Ron Clements1 title4.0/5unsalted12Tom Hooper1 title3.8/5unsalted

Films only. Co-directors are counted individually, so a director’s solo work and their collaborations are grouped together. Average saltiness ignores any title still unsalted.

Networks

1Das Erste1 title4.0/5unsalted

Series only, counted once each however many episodes carry the period. Average saltiness ignores any title still unsalted.

Also on the Timeline

Part of and part of it are declared by the archive: one period counted as belonging to another, whatever their dates. Periods overlap freely so concurrent means the two spans share years, and the shared stretch is named. Bounded means it lies wholly inside this one, beginning and ending more than 10 years within its boundaries. Before and after are the nearest periods lying outside this one, with the gap in years shown instead. A shared thread is what the two have in common besides the calendar, and a period lying wholly outside this one can still share one.

RelationPeriodRunsShared yearsShared threadsTitles
Part of itRoaring Twenties1920–19291920–1929none shared4
Part of itGreat Depression1929–19391929–1939none shared2
BeforeArab Revolt1916–19181918none shared1
BeforeRusso-Turkish Wars1568–19181918none shared1
BeforeWestern Front (World War I)1914–19181918none shared6
BeforeWorld War I1914–19181918Easter Rising11
ConcurrentCentury of Humiliation1839–19491918–1939none shared1
ConcurrentIndian Independence1885–19481918–1939none shared1
ConcurrentMexican Revolution1910–19201918–1920none shared1
ConcurrentIrish War of Independence1919–19211919–1921Easter Rising1
ConcurrentIrish Civil War1922–19231922–1923Easter Rising1
ConcurrentSecond Sino-Japanese War1937–19451937–1939none shared2
ConcurrentWorld War II1937–19451937–1939Abdication Crisis of Edward VIII47
AfterWestern Front (World War II)1939–19451939Dunkirk Evacuation12