Saturday Night Sunday Morning

Before New Wave

Free Cinema is now acknowledged as a highly
influential moment in British cinema history, which not only re-invigorated British documentary in the 1950s but also served as a precursor to the British New Wave in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

series of six programmes of (mainly) short

documentaries shown at the National Film Theatre (NFT) in London between February 1956 and March 1959.

 Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson and Lorenza Mazzetti

Although the films had been made independently, they

had a definite 'attitude in common

"British cinema [is] still obstinately class-bound; still

rejecting the stimulus of contemporary life, as well as the responsibility to criticize; still reflecting a metropolitan, Southern English culture which excludes the rich diversity of tradition and personality which is the whole of Britain."

 We are the Lambeth boys (1959)

What are the similarities/ differences in comparison to

Saturday Night Sunday Morning?

Conventions? Portrayal of working class?

 Short (the longest was We Are the Lambeth Boys, at 50

minutes)

used black and white film

hand-held, portable cameras

avoided or limited the use of didactic voice-over
commentary

shunned narrative continuity

sound and editing impressionistically

 Free Cinema distinctive aesthetic consequence of three

main factors:

a conscious decision to take their cameras out of the studios

and into the streets in order to engage with the reality of contemporary Britain

the extremely limited funds at the filmmakers' disposal

and the technology available Free Cinema advocated and developed a genuine 'aesthetic
of economy'

The 'angry young men'

Free Cinema must also to be understood as an early
manifestation of a wider cultural movement, which also included a new breed of writers who began to challenge the existing social and cultural order.

AYM focused on lower-middle-class and working-class life

and were savagely critical of the institutions of English society.

Recognise Free Cinema's significant role in the

apprenticeship of filmmakers who made a major contribution to the flowering of 'social realist' cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

 What were the other films of the British new wave?

List.

How are they different to the Hollywood films of this period?

The big films in Hollywood at the time were Ben-Hur
(1959), William Wyler, and Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Otto Preminger.

Narrative
You never know who your audience is before you start. Was
it the right film at the right time? Nobody knows.

This quote essentially sums up the brunt challenge that faced

British New Wave filmmakers. Was the topic of the film suited to viewing on the big screen? Was the story that these filmmakers were telling valid? The filmmakers certainly had courage and determination.

For mainstream classic cinema, its usually natural causes (floods

earthquakes) or societal causes (wars, economic depression etc.) may cause as the determinant or preconditions for the actions. However in these films in Britain, the catalyst of the story is almost always the individual, and their consequences and/or rewards of their actions, rather than social groups or collectives.

Why do you think these sorts of films were popular in the early 1960s?
It was the first time that the ordinary people live in ordinary two up,
two down[1] houses, speaking in local accents had an opportunity to see their lives reflected on the big screen. much a climate of austerity. They werent bland advertisements for British way of lifethey were rough edged, and unpolished. elements, but for its portrayal of sex, extra- marital affairs, strong language, and, most contentious of all, abortion.

We were emerging from a period of rationing, there was still very

revelation when it was first shown. Not only because of its realistic

The cultural context is very particular. The development of popular

culture (pop culture), teenagers, youth riots. Politics was in the air, and certainly in filmmaking. Even students, who often dont have much of a political say, were very politicised.

SNSM
1: How do Arthur and his mate initially react to the
window smasher?

2: Why do they change their minds? 3: Why do think the man smashes the window? 4: What does this scene say about 1960s Britain?

 http://mediauxbridgea2.blogspot.co.uk/p/saturdaynight-and-sunday-morning.html

 Overall, the New Wave cinema movement rejected the

idea of the traditional story in the sense of Classic Hollywood, which were mainly narrative based with structures from earlier books and theatre. The new wave filmmakers did not hold your hand through the film. They wanted to break up the narrative with a jolting experience to make it youthful and stimulating. To make viewers think, not only about what exactly it is that they are watching, but their own lives, and their own emotions. The object was not just to entertain, but mainly to communicate.

Consider the representations of Gender in SNSM

How are they shown? Choose 3 examples

Arthur
Jack Doreen Brenda

How are they different to normal representations of

women in 1971?

Arthur Seaton
"Whatever people say I am that's exactly what I'm not';

Arthur has become an iconic character for every rebel

in society, from Punk's Sex Pistols to the Arctic Monkeys.

The film also heralded the 'Angry Young Man' as the

post war generation realising they were no longer growing up in an idealistic society - the old class barriers had come down again and they were being forced to work in the same mundane jobs without any real chance of genuine choice or upward progress - this was the 'glass ceiling' which might be said to still exist today.

Representations
Women's position in society - very much entrapped
by the lack of birth control, social stigma regarding illegitimate birth and lack of available abortion.

Men, on the other hand, were expected to be the

providers, although they could rebel and question their society, jumping off the merry-go-round to leave the woman 'holding the baby' when times got awkward. But on the whole their role was also heavily confined to work, eat and sleep, with the occasional pint on a Friday night. Men at this time tended to see their identity through their job, unemployment wasn't an option.

Music
What type of music matches the contempory urban
realismto match mood and drama?

Jazz Music of the oppressed John Dankworth - Britains leading modern jazzman Though Reisz wanted an accordion What sort of atmosphere does it create? It became the theme instrument at various moments in the
film and helped in that way to point up certain aspects of the plot, sentiments of the main character and all that goes on around him in a wide spectrum of moods.

Industry:
Woodfall films - a relatively small UK based firm competing with US dominance; it made several films of a similar genre - 'Look Back in Anger' and 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner' before going on to produce one of the most famous social realist films of all time 'Kes'. It suffered problems with its release in America due to the Legion of Decency refusing to give it a certificate.

BAFTA award for best film (1961) Box Office Budget: 100,000 (estimated)

Gross 600,000 (UK) (January 1970)

Codes and conventions