Early 60s British New Wave films

[Arthur Pringle]

I've got the paperback pictured of This Sporting Life though it was ages ago when I read it, I'm sure it was a good read as Saturday Night & SM is, also Alan Sillitoe's Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner which is a short story in a collection of short stories ( and a long poem called 'The Rats' ) about various working class characters.

I think the 'angry young man' phase started to look out of date by the end of the 60's as the war & National Service became a distant memory, young people began to question their parent's generation, voicing their discontent, rebelling, protesting & of course becoming more sexually promiscuous due to the birth control pill. Living conditions improved & people became more aspirational, in fact I think Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads is where the kitchen sink ended up.

Ken Loach & a few others continued to make films about the lives & struggles of the working class, then there was the The Full Monty, Brassed Off, Billy Elliot, etc., 'I'm not goin down t'pit like me dad' films that were in fashion.

[Charles Bronson]

 Very good appraisal  Arthur.

[Cartman]

Yes, they were a short lived phase, starting in about 1959 and ending in 1963. Another one which could be added to the list is Whistle down the wind, which was filmed near Burnley, Alan Bates was in it.

[Lord Emsworth]

I love the Kitchen Sink/Angry Young Men films and books and have read/watched many of them

The Wikipedia page on Kitchen Sink realism states...

Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama) is a term coined to describe a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose 'heroes' usually could be described as angry young men.

It used a style of social realism, which often depicted the domestic situations of working-class Britons living in cramped rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimy pubs, to explore social issues and political controversies.

The films, plays and novels employing this style are set frequently in poorer industrial areas in the North of England, and use the rough-hewn speaking accents and slang heard in those regions. The film It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) is a precursor of the genre, and the John Osborne play Look Back in Anger (1956) is thought of as the first of the idiom.

The gritty love-triangle of Look Back in Anger, for example, takes place in a cramped, one-room flat in the English Midlands. The conventions of the genre have continued into the 2000s, finding expression in such television shows as Coronation Street and EastEnders.

The Wikipedia list of films is instructive...

• Look Back in Anger (1959)
• Room at the Top (1959)
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
• The Entertainer (1960)
• A Taste of Honey (1961)
• A Kind of Loving (1962)
• The L-Shaped Room (1962)
• The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
• A Place to Go (1963)
• This Sporting Life (1963)
• Billy Liar (1963)
• The Leather Boys (1964)
• Alfie (1966)
• The Whisperers (1967)
• Poor Cow (1967)
• Up The Junction (1968)
• Spring and Port Wine (1970)

This BFI article states that the "angry young men" label "was also applied to Kingsley Amis (Lucky Jim, 1953, filmed 1957), John Braine (Room at the Top, 1957, filmed 1958), Shelagh Delaney (A Taste of Honey, 1957, filmed 1961), Alan Sillitoe (The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, 1959, filmed 1962),Keith Waterhouse (Billy Liar, 1959, filmed 1963), Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin,John Wain, Colin Wilson and Arnold Wesker

Although not an organised and ideologically coherent artistic movement as such, the work of the 'angry young men' was characterised by outspoken dissatisfaction with the status quo, particularly the so-called Establishment. Reacting against stifling class distinctions, their work championed the working classes, with Osborne's Jimmy Porter becoming a figurehead: an intelligent, articulate, university-educated man denied opportunities through being the 'wrong' social class. These opinions were usually expressed in direct, straightforward language, rejecting the self-conscious experimentation of the immediate prewar years.

By the late 1950s, their work had become established enough for the 'angry young man' label to seem somewhat limited. Most of the films that were made from their work were dubbed 'kitchen-sink dramas', a slightly patronising but nonetheless effective acknowledgement of how successful they had been in pushing working-class issues to the forefront of English culture.

[Arthur Pringle]

Funnily enough flicking through the channels last night 'Look Back In Anger' was on BBC2. Of course most of these terms, 'angry young man', 'kitchen sink', 'swinging sixtites', 'video nasty', 'soap opera', 'spaghetti western', etc. are coined by lazy journalists. These 60's films are more notable for their photography, camera work & location shooting than their scripts imo.

I think Martin Scorsese copied much of This Sporting Life for Raging Bull, last time I watched it I thought 'this is just like Raging Bull', particularly the rugby scenes which are so similar to the scenes in the boxing ring in terms of how they look & sound. The similarity between the two films is picked up on a lot in reviews I've read. American directors of that period were greatly influenced by the French & British so-called 'new wave' of film making.

[Bojan Scores]

While the kitchen sink dramas may have had its heyday in the early 1960s it’s fair to say it’s influence went beyond. It certainly must have been an influence on things like Coronation Street, A Hard Days Night, Kes, Up The Junction, Bronco Bullfrog, possibly even films like Get Carter and Slade in Flame.

[Del Boy]

Of the list above I've only seen Up The Junction. Great insight into the rest of the series though and I'll keep a look out for them.

[Charles Bronson]

Feb 4, 2021 21:37:44 GMT Del Boy said:

Of the list above I've only seen Up The Junction. Great insight into the rest of the series though and I'll keep a look out for them.

I've seen about half on that list. Of the ones I've seen A Kind Of Loving,  S.N.A. S. M.  Room At Top, and Billy Liar Were the best I.m.o.
Surprising that Look Back In Anger isn't  on telly much, considering how famous it is.
Written by John Osborne who acted in Get Carter.

[Cartman]

My favourites are A kind of Loving, A Taste of Honey and Billy Liar.

[Del Boy]

Feb 4, 2021 22:00:11 GMT Charles Bronson said:

Feb 4, 2021 21:37:44 GMT Del Boy said:

Of the list above I've only seen Up The Junction. Great insight into the rest of the series though and I'll keep a look out for them.

I've seen about half on that list. Of the ones I've seen A Kind Of Loving,  S.N.A. S. M.  Room At Top, and Billy Liar Were the best I.m.o.
Surprising that Look Back In Anger isn't  on telly much, considering how famous it is.
Written by John Osborne who acted in Get Carter.

I must say some of the titles I am familiar with even though I haven't got round to seeing them. As is often the case the recommendations from the folks on here are worth following up.