You have to like a genre of films with the moniker ‘the kitchen sink’ a term used for a group of British films from the fifties and sixties. It was a society thing for years the working class in film were largely been used for comic effect stars like George Formby a 'salt of the earth' chappy.
A new wave of films showed a realism not seen before in British film, gritty was a word used a lot by the film critics. The working class now had money to spend and in their pockets it was the first time some were gaining economic power. After the Second World War with a Labour Government, the NHS, and plenty of work things began to change giving a strong voice to a working-class for the first time.
The workers were in control in the 50s and 60s with near full employment bosses were forced to treat workers has fair as possible to keep their workforce happy. You could walk out of a job in the morning and be in a new job by the afternoon and there were always strikes.
Two films I would put in genre but came later were Ken Loach’s much-acclaimed Kes (1969) is about an abused young boy by friend and family with an unbreakable spirit and a love for his kestrel, Kes. Another Loach film was Poor Cow (1967) follows a London woman’s will to survive after her violent husband his put in prison.
Three films below are what many would call confrontational films such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), A Taste of Honey (1962) and This Sporting Life (1963) were noteworthy movies in the genre.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Albert Finney plays the anti-hero Arthur Seaton, an angry-ish, frustrated young machinist at a Nottingham bike factory. His wages are more than the other machinists in the factory he doesn’t care he earns it his is attitude. He lives with his Mother and Father and loves nothing more than a pint or two as he parties hard he is also carrying on an affair with Brenda (Rachel Roberts), the bored and rather dowdy wife of an older workmate (Bryan Pringle). Being the happy-go-lucky guy he is Seaton also begins a relationship with Doreen (Shirley Anne Field), a sweet single woman closer to his age whom he meets in a pub.
Finney’s electrifying performance and in Roberts’s tragic portrait of a middle-aged woman scorned in what surely must be her last fling. She falls pregnant and the problem is she hasn’t had sex with her husband in months Seaton goes about getting it sort it.
Among a series of fine support performances, Pringle is outstanding as the workmate who finds out about his wife’s affair. It all comes to an head at the fair ground when Seaton and Brenda are spotted together by her husband and his brother and his friend on leave from the army get revenge on Seton by giving him a good kicking. Shirley Anne Field glows seductively as the sweet and yearning Doreen dreaming of a ring, marriage, and a new house on the new housing estate.
A Taste of Honey is about a 17-year old schoolgirl Jo (Rita Tushingham), with an abusive, alcoholic mother Helen (Dora Bryan). Their relationship is fraught with tension as they move from one shabby flat to another because Helen is dodging paying the rent.
Her mother’s new boyfriend Peter (Robert Stephens) dislikes Jo and they run away leaving Jo to fend for herself. She starts a relationship with a black sailor and gets pregnant they talk of marriage but he leaves when his ship leaves port. Jo moves a homosexual acquaintance, Geoffrey played brilliantly by (Murray Melvin) into her flat who she met while working in a shop. He was kicked out of his flat because of his sexuality. He becomes her surrogate husband/caretaker, cooking and cleaning but paying no rent. He offers to marry her for respectability sake, but despite being conflicted about motherhood, Jo realizes they can only be "girlfriends”. Helen returns after Peter throws her out. What happens to Jo becomes the focus of the film.
This Sporting Life the story begins when Frank Machin (Richard Harris), a young miner, becomes determined to win a place in the City rugby squad. They represent the only glamour in a small northern town revolving around the same routine – pit and factory by day, the pub, and dancehall by night. Frank lives with Mrs Hammond (Rachel Roberts), his landlady and her 2 young kids
While most of the town are in admiration of the team Frank refuses to join in the adulation of the players, picking a fight with one of them. When the team’s elderly scout Johnson (William Hartnell) arranges a successful trial, Frank holds out for a big money deal.
His arrogance offends some of the directors – but not the chairman, Weaver (Alan Badel). He takes Frank under his wing and grooms him for ‘stardom’ in a deliberate move to emphasise his power over the rest of the board.
Frank hopes his newfound wealth and fame will impress his landlady, the widow of a worker who died in an accident at Weaver’s factory. The two have a cagey relationship and even when it develops into a relationship with Frank becoming a surrogate father to her two young children, they are unable to express their love for each other. She feels consumed by guilt; he uses his aggressive, independent self-image as a shield against the world. But the film makes it clear that Frank is essentially an innocent – constantly manipulated by his new bosses at the club, realising too late that there’s more to life than being ‘a big ape on a rugby field’ and that he has merely exchanged one form of prison for another.
Frank's downward spiral builds to a climax that is both raw and powerful, but also artistic and moving, as he finally drops his guard and expresses emotion. But is it too late?
No comments:
Post a Comment