The British New Wave: A Certain Tendency? by B. F. TaylorThis book offers an opportunity to reconsider the films of the British New Wave in the light of forty years of heated debate. By eschewing the usual tendency to view films like A Kind of Loving and The Entertainer collectively and include them in broader debates about class, gender, and ideology, this book presents a new and innovative look at this famous cycle of British films. For each film, a re-distribution of existing critical emphasis also allows the problematic relationship between these films and the question of realism to be reconsidered. Drawing upon existing sources and returning to long-standing and unchallenged assumptions about these films, this book offers the opportunity for the reader to return to the British New Wave and decide for themselves where they stand in relation to the films.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 0719069084
Publication Date: 2006-07-30
Conversations with John Schlesinger by Ian Buruma"I like the surprise of the curtain going up, revealing what's behind it." -John Schlesinger The British director John Schlesinger was one of the cinema's most dynamic and influential artists. Now, in Conversations with John Schlesinger, acclaimed writer Ian Buruma, Schlesinger's nephew, reveals the director's private world in a series of in-depth interviews conducted in the later years of the director's life. Here they discuss the impact of Schlesinger's personal life on his art. As his films so readily demonstrate, Schlesinger is a wonderful storyteller, and he serves up fascinating and provocative recollections of growing up in a Jewish family during World War II, his sexual coming-of-age as a gay man in conformist 1950s England, his emergence as an artist in the "Swinging 60s," and the roller-coaster ride of his career as one of the most prominent Hollywood directors of his time. Schlesinger also discusses his artistic philosophy and approach to filmmaking, recounting stories from the sets of his masterpieces, including Midnight Cowboy; Sunday, Bloody Sunday; Marathon Man; and The Day of the Locust. He shares what it was like to direct such stars as Dustin Hoffman, John Voight, Sean Penn, Madonna, and Julie Christie (whom Schlesinger is credited with discovering) and offers his thoughts on the fickle nature of fame and success in Hollywood. Packed with wit and keen insight into the artistic mind, Conversations with John Schlesinger is not just the candid story of a dynamic and eventful life but the true measure of an extraordinary person.
See chapter 8: Radical Aesthetics: Ken Loach as Social Movement Educator.
Lindsay Anderson by John IzodIn a long and varied career, Lindsay Anderson made training films, documentaries, searing family dramas and blistering satires, including This Sporting Life, O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital.Students of British cinema and television from the 1950s to 1990s will find this book a valuable source of information about a director whose work came to public attention with Free Cinema but who, unlike many of his peers in that movement did not take the Hollywood route to success. What emerges is a strong feeling for the character of the man as well as for a remarkable career in British cinema.The book will appeal to admirers, researchers and students alike. Making use of hitherto unseen original materials from Anderson's extensive personal and professional records, it is most valuable as a study of how the films came about: the production problems involved, the collaborative input of others, as well as the completed films' promotion and reception.It also offers a finely argued take on the whole issue of film authorship, and achieves the rare feat of being academically authoritative whilst also being completely accessible. It prompts renewed respect for the man and the artist and a desire to watch the films all over again.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780719083389
Publication Date: 2012-08-02
Lindsay Anderson by Allison GrahamDiscusses films such as This sporting life, The white bus, The singing lesson, If ..., O lucky man!, and others.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 080579283X
Publication Date: 1981-11-01
Lindsay Anderson Diaries by Lindsay AndersonThe extraordinary and revealing diaries of the revolutionary British film and theatre director who became one of the major cultural figures of his time As a director, critic, writer and actor, Lindsay Anderson established a reputation as one of the most innovative, impassioned and fiercely independent British artists of the twentieth century. In directing films such as If, This Sporting Life and O Lucky Man he championed a new wave of social responsiveness in British cinema, while as director at the Royal Court he was responsible for establishing the reputation of a number of groundbreaking plays.Throughout his life Anderson stood in opposition to the establishment of his day. Published for the first time, his diaries provide a uniquely personal document of his artistic integrity and vision, his work, and his personal and public struggles. Peopled by a myriad of artists and stars - Malcolm McDowell, Richard Harris, Albert Finney, Anthony Hopkins Brian Cox, Karel Reisz, Arthur Miller, George Michael - the Diaries provide a fascinating account of one of the most creative periods of British cultural life. Gripping Daily Express"Vicious and velvety in roughly equal measure ... Demands reading at a single sitting" Daily Telegraph"the reader of this book is richly rewarded" Daily Mail
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781408150092
Publication Date: 2005
Long-Distance Runner: An Autobiography by Tony Richardson"Tony Richardson died on November 14, 1991. This book was discovered on the day of his death, hidden at the back of the same dark cupboard where he kept his Oscars. As his daughter Natasha movingly writes in her foreword, it is an "entertaining, humorous, and very personal account of the people and places he loved, the films he made, and the things that were important to him."" "Tony Richardson was born on June 5, 1928, in Shipley, Yorkshire. After Oxford University, he joined BBC Television and in 1955 set up the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre with George Devine. Richardson's time at the Royal Court, directing John Osborne's Look Back in Anger, The Entertainer and Luther, among many other productions, heralded a new departure for postwar theater." "Through his films he brought this new theatrical realism to the screen. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, A Taste of Honey, and Tom Jones (which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director) were among his most acclaimed movies from this period. Later films include The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Border, The Loved One, and The Hotel New Hampshire." "In this candid memoir, Tony Richardson focuses on his passion for theater and film. He shares stories of working with Albert Finney, Peggy Ashcroft, Vivien Leigh, and Alan Bates in England - and Tab Hunter, Jack Nicholson, and Diana Ross, among many others, in America. We attend the rehearsals in which the young Laurence Olivier transformed himself into Archie Rice in The Entertainer, in Richardson's words "one of the single most thrilling moments in the theatre." And he describes directing an impossible Tallulah Bankhead in a spectacularly ill-fated production of Tennessee Williams's The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore." "Richardson writes beautifully of his quiet Yorkshire upbringing, surrounded by women he both loved and feared. He tells of his marriage to Vanessa Redgrave, the births of his daughters, his affair with Jeanne Moreau, his extraordinary life of travel, and his many famous and infamous friends." "Written with great wit, insight, and relentless honesty, The Long-Distance Runner is a record of a remarkably creative life - and may well be the most revealing and informative book ever written about modern theater and film."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780688121013
Publication Date: 1993-10-01
Mainly about Lindsay Anderson by Gavin LambertLindsay Anderson was the most original British filmmaker and theatrical director of his generation. His films If . . . , O Lucky Man!, and Britannia Hospital created a Human Comedy of life in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century and were witty, daring, and often prophetic. This Sporting Life and O Lucky Man! made Richard Harris and Malcolm McDowell international stars; The Whales of August provided Lillian Gish, Bette Davis, and Ann Sothern the opportunity to give extraordinary farewell performances. He also directed notable documentaries in several countries: in Britain, the Academy Award-winning Thursday's Children, about a school for deaf-mute children; in Poland, The Singing Lesson, a personal impression of a group of students at a drama school. In China, he recorded the 1985 concert tour by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley of WHAM! As a theatre director he collaborated with playwright David Storey on a series of successes (The Contractor, The Changing Room, In Celebration, Home), and he worked with such actors as John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Alan Bates, Albert Finney, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole, Joan Plowright, and Rachel Roberts. Anderson was, as well, an outspoken and sometimes ferocious critic of British films--and of Britain itself. He was the author of the most important and acclaimed book on John Ford. And he was one of Gavin Lambert's closest friends for more than fifty years. Lambert's book begins with his and Anderson's days as movie-struck schoolboys, becoming fast friends, growing up in the shadow of World War II. He shows us their postwar creation of and collaboration on the influential magazine Sequence--a magazine that was produced on love and a shoestring, and which shook up the British film world with its admiration for both Hollywood noir and MGM musicals (at the time unfashionable genres) and its celebration of such directors as Ford, Buñuel, Cocteau, Vigo, and Sturges. He describes how both men rebelled in opposite directions--Anderson remaining in England, Lambert leaving in 1958 for Los Angeles--and traces their unorthodox paths through the film industry. An illuminating, multifaceted portrait--of a friendship, of postwar moviemaking on both sides of the Atlantic, and, mainly, of the remarkable Lindsay Anderson.
New Waves in Cinema by Sean MartinThe term 'New Wave' conjures up images of Paris in the early 1960s: Jean Seberg and Jean Paul Belmondo, the young Jean-Pierre Leaud, the three protagonists of Jules and Jim capering across a bridge, all from the films of French filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut. Here, Sean Martin explores the history of the many new waves that have appeared since the birth of cinema, including their great forebears the German Expressionists, the Soviet Formalists and the Italian Neorealists.
See Chapter 1: Of interethnic (dis)connection: queer phenomenology, and cultural and religious commodification in Hanif Kureishi’s My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and The Buddha of Suburbia (1990
See chapter 13: Wicked Women: The Menace Lurking Behind Female Independence discussing Stephen Frear's Dangerous Liaisons
Take Ten: Contemporary British Film Directors by Jonathan HackerMention "British cinema" and Hammer horror films or Ealing comedies are frequently all that come to mind. Although there has been no sustained film movement in Britain akin to the French New Wave or Italian Neo-Realism, there is a rich diversity of talent among contemporary British filmmakers that rarely receives the attention it deserves. This collection of essays and in-depth interviews examines the careers and aspirations of ten directors--Stephen Frears, Ken Loach, Lindsay Anderson, Bill Forsyth, Peter Greenaway, Derek Jarman, Nicolas Roeg, Richard Attenborough, Alan Parker, and John Schlesinger. The book looks at their different styles and techniques, their influences, their attitudes toward working with actors and raising money, and their relationships with their audiences. Take Ten offers revealing insights into the working methods and tastes of these important directors. It will be essential reading for all interested in British and contemporary film.