The 1968 film '' if .... '' , which satirised the worst elements of English ' public school ' life , and culminated in scenes of armed insurrection , won the Palme d'Or at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival . The film , produced and directed by Lindsay Anderson , taps into the revolutionary spirit of the late 60s . Each frame burns with an anger that can only be satisfied by imagining the apocalyptic overthrow of everything that middle class Britain holds dear . Alan Bennett , used the metaphor of an end of term revue at a minor public school to contrast the events of the twentieth century with that of public school life , in his 1968 play '' Forty Years On . '' The title alludes to the Harrow school song , '' Forty Years On ''
1969 Cannes Film Festival
1969 Cannes Film Festival
Public school (United Kingdom)