Free Cinema

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Free Cinema is a movement in British film culture that began in the mid-1950s and is characterized by its strong documentary quality. The films in Free Cinema show the living conditions of the working class in unadorned images. The documentary work of directors such as Tony Richardson , Lindsay Anderson and Karel Reisz resulted in collaborations with writers of the Angry Young Men generation and thus in the British New Wave films , in many ways the counterpart to the French Nouvelle Vague .

history

From 1956 to 1959 six film programs were shown at the National Film Theater under the title Free Cinema . The directors of the films shown included Tony Richardson, Lindsay Anderson and Karel Reisz; Filmmakers, some of whom had their roots in film criticism , among others as employees of Sight & Sound and the short-lived, left-positioned film magazine Sequence . Anderson manifested in Sight & Sound in 1956 with the article “Stand up! Stand up! ”The directors' theoretical similarities, denounced the unrealistic British post-war film and called for a socially engaged cinema that should develop its impact through its themes rather than through glossy photography.

Richardson's short film Momma Don't Allow (1955) showed the lives of young adults between monotonous factory work and weekend entertainment. Anderson showed the escapist efforts of people in an amusement park in O Dreamland (1953) , opened up an optimistic look at the joie de vivre of pupils at a deaf-mute school in Thursday's Children (1954) and took a clear political position in March to Aldermaston (1960) by speaking out , so Gregor and Patalas, made the "spokesman for the anti-nuclear movement " . In Every Day Except Christmas (1957) he portrayed the working conditions at London's Covent Garden Market . In We Are the Lambeth Boys (1958) Reisz gave insights into the youthful subculture of the capital.

Free cinema filmmakers tried to produce and finance their films independently. Together with the writer John Osborne, Richardson founded the Woodfall production company , which financed most of the Free Cinema films, together with the Experimental Fund of the British Film Institute and individual sponsors, including the Ford company . A little outside of free cinema was John Schlesinger , who produced his short films The Innocent Eye (1958) and Terminus (1960) as commissioned works for television.

Motives and characteristics

Free cinema was influenced by the tradition of the British documentary film movement and the films of Humphrey Jennings , but instead of a propagandistic intention it reflected the reality of the 1950s. The themes of the Free Cinema related to the climate of the conservative restoration of the time and result from the living environment of the portrayed: social exploitation, cramped living conditions, generation conflicts and relationship problems. Stylistically characteristic of the works of Free Cinema are the work on real locations, the minimization or the renunciation of artificial lighting and long, uncut sequences. The filmmakers wanted to stand out from the entertainment cinema and make their films open, realistic and political. The socially critical approach was aimed at a proletarian audience, which should be made aware of the problems of their own life situation. This also included the highly colloquial dialogues.

Aftermath

The directors of Free Cinema applied the ideals and principles of their documentaries to their first feature films. It shall Jack Clayton's Room at the Top (1958), the film adaptation of a novel by John Braine , the first feature film of the British New Wave . This was followed by Reisz with Saturday night to Sunday morning (1960), Richardson with Bitter Honey (1961) and Anderson with Alluring Laurel (1962). Contemporary writers collaborated with the filmmakers, for example Alan Sillitoe with Richardson in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) or John Osborne with the same director in Looking Back in Anger (1959).

literature

  • John Hill: Sex, Class and Realism. British Cinema 1956-1963. British Film Institute, London 1986, ISBN 0-85170-133-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ulrich Gregor : History of the film from 1960. C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-570-00816-9 , p. 186.
  2. ↑ Ulrich Gregor, Enno Patalas : History of modern film (= The modern non-fiction book. Vol. 36). Sigbert Mohn Verlag, Gütersloh 1965, p. 290.
  3. ↑ Jörg Helbig: From Free Cinema to British New Wave. In: History of British Film. JB Metzler, Stuttgart et al. 1999, ISBN 3-476-01510-6 , pp. 203-206.