British New Wave Cinema Documentary Notes
What influenced the British new wave?
British New Wave Films (named in documentary);
- Saturday Night and Sunday Morning 1960
- A Hard Day's Night 1964
- A Kind of Loving 1962
- The System 1964
- The Servant 1963
- The Knack and... How to Get it 1965
- Girl with Green Eyes 1964
- Georgy Girl 1966
- A Taste of Honey 1961
- The L-Shaped Room 1962
- The Entertainer 1960
- Room at the Top 1959
- The Leather Boys 1963
- Billy Liar 1963
- Darling 1965
- If... 1968
- Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment 1966
- This Sporting Life 1963
- Look Back in Anger 1959
- The Caretaker 1964
- The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner 1962
British New Wave - Social Realism aka Kitchen Sink dramas - DOCUMENTARY NOTES
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
- scripted by Alan Sillitoe from his 1958 novel of the same name
- also derived from documentary work young film makers had started producing in mid 50s
- dir. Karel Reis
- weren't paid to make films - cost practically nothing
- rough edged and unpolished; out of these rough documentaries grew gritty features called Angry Young Man films
set in Northern England during late 50s / early 60s
plots candidly dealt with problems facing its working class anti heroes:
- unhappy marriages
- excessive drinking
- secret affairs
- unplanned pregnancies
- bar room brawls
- generation gap
The Swinging 60s (British Boom)
- London became the setting for many films mid 60s ("cool and hip")
- characters more affluent + confident yet still had same problems as before
- secret affairs etc
Influences/Inspiration
- British New Wave was inspired by 1940s work of American auters + 1940s Italian Realism + especially from the concurrent French New Wave filmmakers who used certain techniques to convey realism
A Hard Day's Night
- for a documentary feel location shots are used with real people (not actors) as extras
- Beatles play themselves + man playing Beatles' tailor is the real guy
- handheld cameras + black&white footage used
- illusion of real life + real space; long tracking shots used - this technique was also used in Goodfellas; its likely Scorsese and other directors were influenced by the British New Wave
-the films also influenced artists such as David Bowie, Pulp and Oasis
- a lot of improv was also used which gave the films authenticity
Departures - moving up/moving on
- 1963 Social Realism Director Tony Richardson jumped genres + applied humour + new wave effects to a period piece
-Richard Lester challenged traditional filmmaking by introducing techniques such as a laugh track, jumbled story structure + alternative cast credits
An Introduction to World Cinema - Aristides Gazetas BOOK NOTES
notes on book
- post WWII British Cinema portrayed trad. adaptations of literary classics to film.
eg adaptations of novels by Charles Dickens, 'Great Expectations' (1946) and 'Oliver Twist' (1947)
- both dir. David Lean
Tony Richardson founded Woodfall Films, produced a series of New Wave films inc. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), and This Sporting Life (1963)
Free Cinema movement films focused on the loss of traditional moral and cultural values who attempt to overcome their fears of conforming to society to liberate themselves from the class structures in postwar England.
John Grierson - founder of documentary tradition in England and later Canada
at start of WWII in 1939 G.P.O film unit became thew Crown Film Unit as part of the Ministry of Information.
Humphrey Jennings (doc filmmaker) most lifted the spirits of the British people at war with his work. later influenced Lindsay Anderson and the Free Cinema movement of the 1950s.
his first war film The First Days 1939 was followed by Listen to Britain 1942, Fires Were Started 1943 and Diary for Timothy 1945
these docs portrayed the tremendous stress undergoing tremendous stress in surviving air-raids, fire bombings and the general madness of modern warfare.
contextual notes
-life after Second World War (ended 1945) difficult for many
-rationing still in place until 1952
-shortage of housing due to bombings
-teenagers rebelling against traditions of parents (portrayed in a taste of honey play)
-BNW film makers using films as a way of depicting the social problems that still existed for the majority of working class people
-1950s people generally not open minded about interracial relationships/ homosexuality
Kitchen Sink Drama
-plays/films that depict daily struggles of ordinary working class people
-often deal with social issues such as poor living conditions, lack of employment, poverty, turbulent relationships
-previously many movies focused on middle class people + tended to shy away from controversial issues such as homosexuality
notes
- social realism shows us the 'real us' - presenting experiences of real Britons
- less censorship + issues / topics touched upon that previously were avoided
- British 'auteurs' like Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson + John Schlesinger dealt with prostitution, abortion, homosexuality, alienation + relationship problems
- here were factory workers, office underlings, dissatisfied wives, pregnant girlfriends, runaways, the marginalised, the poor, depressed
- also addressed issues with masculinity that would become common in British social realism
Carry On Ken notes
A Hard Day's Night notes
- unintentionally influential both superficially and on a deeper level, creating a new image for men with hairstyles becoming longer and not being cut again until the 1970s.
- also signifies liberation, the Beatles don't follow orders and don't conform to the societal norms of the 1950s. although their manager tries to control them and their director doesn't like their improvisations during a live tv broadcast, they continue to act according to how they feel.
- social commentary on the class system as the Beatles rebel against it.
-shaky handheld camera
- fast paced
- shots sped up or in slo mo
- documentary style, following them around everyday life
- high key lighting used creating little contrast and shadows
- rapid changing camera shots / angles in some scenes
- drone style footage also used?
- Lester did not invent these techniques but brought them together in a way that influenced the films made after. even today we still see handheld camera techniques, jump cuts and interviews conducted with moving targets.
A Taste of Honey - notes
- first produced as a play by Shelagh Delaney in 1958 when she was only 18.
- Delaney was angry with much of the writing being produced in the 1950s as it only portrayed middle class life and didn't depict the working class life and their struggles.
- The play had its first performance in the Theatre Royal, London, in 1958 but it quickly became very successful and moved to the West End in 1959. Many critics enjoyed that the play was witty, honest and direct.
- Film version made in 1961, directed by Tony Richardson. It was the first major film production in the uk filmed entirely on location. most of the filming took place in Salford and some scenes were also shot in Blackpool.
- film received an X rating in the Uk, Australia and New Zealand due to the controversial topics of interracial relationships, teen pregnancy and homosexuality. The film however, approaches these topics nonchalantly unlike other films at the time
- also examines the key topics of kitchen sink dramas: poor living conditions, lack of employment and turbulent relationships. we see the jo has a difficult relationship with her mother and we see her argue with her throughout the film. this is also seen between other characters including her relationship with Peter.
Cathy Come Home notes
- voice over + handheld camera zooming in and out gives it a home video style - makes it more emotive and authentic
- background noise/noise overlapping adds to documentary
link above "not the swinging sixties".
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