And once they did, and when the bombs did start falling and the fears of an invasion weren't a joke, the art produced earlier and often published now seemed... cheap, and they hated it because it made them hate themselves.

I knew about the phony war (yet another historical concept first encountered in A Tale of Time City), but not about the art it produced. Thank you. I will probably avoid the stuff that fell flat, but I'll definitely check out the Orwell.

I think Foreign Correspondent must have been made right at the point where the phony war was starting to turn into the real thing, because one of its motifs is the place where irony runs out—I suspect its outbreak of hostilities is more than a little alt-historical, but it doesn't end like The Lady Vanishes with a bowtie of romance and restored coziness, crisis averted, world saved. Things are not going to be all right. I was very struck by that.

It is also possible that I am not familiar enough with the Second World War to make this assessment accurately, so if you ever happen to see the film, I'd love to know what you think.