Free Cinema
- In 1956, a group of young film makers and critics founded the British Free Cinema Movement
- Karel Reisz / Lindsay Anderson / John Fletcher / Tony Richardson - Struggled to get their films shown in the commercial circuits
- Joined together and had their short documentary films screened in a single programme at the National Film Theatre (where Karel Reiz was event programme manager)
- Chose the name Free Cinema to indicate their films were produced outside the constraints of government funding and control and therefore free to be radical personal and adventurous
- Free Cinema Manifesto that stated a belief in freedom, the importance of people and the significance of the everyday
"Kitchen Sink" Films
- The Free Cinema Movement led to The British New Wave which applies to a series of films released between 1959 – 1965
- Also called “kitchen sink” drama films due to the films depiction of grubby, gritty everyday life
- Films were based on Plays and Novels that centred on the experiences of aggressive and rebellious working class males – Writers referred to as ‘Angry young men’
- Influenced by the French New Wave and Italian Neorealist films
- Shot in black and white, used mainly unknown actors who used their regional accents, shooting on location, loosely structuredand set in domestic, industrial and rural spaces
Film Examples
Future Reference
- British New Wave films such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) were ground breaking in for their depiction of Northern working-class characters but generally focused on the perspective of young white men
- This was challenged in later decades by films that focused attention on the experiences of women, homosexuals and ethnic groups
- From the mid 1990s onwards, The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo, 1997), Nil by Mouth (Gary Oldman, 1997) and Fish Tank (Andrea Cattaneo 2009) addressed underclass cultures with stories about individuals and communities struggling to exist outside the mainstream
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