Editing Passport to Pimlico (section)

==Themes==
''Passport to Pimlico'' contains numerous references to the Second World War and [[Labour Government 1945-1951|the postwar Labour Government]] to accentuate the spirit within the small Burgundian enclave. The scholar of [[film studies]], Charles Barr, in his examination of the Ealing films, observes that in opposing the British government, the Burgundians "recover the spirit, the resilience and local autonomy and ''unity'' of wartime London".{{sfn|Barr|1977|p=103}} Barr suggests the actions "re-enact,&nbsp;... in miniature, the war experience of Britain itself".{{sfn|Barr|1977|p=104}} The film historian Mark Duguid, writing for the [[British Film Institute]], considers that the opposition is a "yearning nostalgia for the social unity of the war years".<ref name=screenonline>{{cite web|last=Duguid|first=Mark|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/441383/|title=Passport to Pimlico (1949)|publisher=[[British Film Institute]]|work=[[Screenonline]]|access-date=5 October 2016}}</ref>

The film historians Anthony Aldgate and Jeffrey Richards describe ''Passport to Pimlico'' as a progressive comedy because it upsets the established social order to promote the well-being of a community.{{sfn|Aldgate|Richards|1999|p=155}} The view of the community put forward in the film has been criticised as being anachronistic, as the wartime unity had already passed by 1949.{{sfn|Geraghty|2002|p=57}} According to Aldgate and Richards, the welcome return to the ration books at the end of the film signifies an acceptance that the measures of the British government are in the best interests of the people.{{sfn|Aldgate|Richards|1999|p=155}}

The device of pitting a small group of British against a series of changes to the ''status quo'' from an external agent leads the British Film Institute to consider ''Passport to Pimlico'', along with other of the Ealing comedies, as "conservative, but 'mildly anarchic' daydreams, fantasies".{{sfn|Duguid|Freeman|Johnston|Williams|2012|p=137}} At the close of the story, when the summer heatwave turns to a torrential downpour, the film has "something of the quality of a fever-dream", according to Aldgate and Richards.{{sfn|Aldgate|Richards|1999|p=155}}

According to the film historian [[Robert Sellers]], ''Passport to Pimlico'' "captures the most quintessential English traits of individualism, tolerance and compromise";{{sfn|Sellers|2015|p=135}} Duguid sees the examination of the English character as being "at the heart" of the film.<ref name=screenonline /> This was one of the aspects that appealed to Margaret Rutherford, who liked the way the British were portrayed "accentuating their individuality and decency, while acknowledging some parochial idiosyncracies".{{sfn|Merriman|2010|p=99}}