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It is not easy to analyse in detail the niceties of idea and emotion conveyed by this passage. A sequence of this kind is made by the director to express the complex of thoughts and feelings in the manner it does, precisely because the same effect cannot be achieved in any other way : verbal description is therefore bound to fall short of capturing the complete meaning. The inter-weaving pattern of the continuity creates an effect which is not to be described in words, for the final impact on the spectator is more complex than the mere reception of two parallel events : the construction and timing of the images fuse the two events in the spectator's mind in a manner only possible in the cinema. The passage, in other words, is so purely cinematic that a description of the way it achieves its effect cannot begin to describe the effect itself. Bearing this in mind, we can merely analyse the form of the presentation without doing justice to the content.
Diary for Timothy sets out to portray and assess the various forces at play in war-time Britain, and a part of the intention of cross-cutting the stage performance of Hamlet with the scene in the canteen is to convey the simple fact that the two events occur simultaneously : side by side with the spirit of war-time Britain (manifested, in this case, by the man's ingenuous interest in the mechanics of destruction and apparent indifference to the actual physical danger) went a marked revival of interest in the arts. Jennings' intention in presenting the scenes in this way is, presumably, to suggest that the two things are not entirely unconnected.
But beside this surface connection, there is a deeper level of contact between the two streams of action. The Grave-digger's reference to England (" Why was he sent into England ? " " Why, because he was mad ; he shall recover his wits there ") is, one feels, a comment on the scene in the canteen.
Again, Hamlet's lines in shot 10 provide a poignant commentary on the events of shots 9 and 11 : the director's subtly nostalgic feeling towards the scene in the canteen — and, by implication, to the whole period — is made to reach the spectator in Hamlet's words.
To stress the unity of emotion between the two streams of action, the cuts are sometimes made to coincide with straight verbal links. For instance, the phrasing of the lines in shot 7 (" . . . D'you know ? ") is such that Hamlet appears to be answering the question in shot 8.
Similarly, the cut from 8 to 9 (" Alas, poor Yorick ! " . . . " Had to walk all the way home ") creates a verbal continuity with
f.e. — f 161