Working Class Heroes: British Working Class on Film
Image: This is England

Working Class Heroes: British Working Class on Film

Season

Please note : this season finished in Oct 2018

From the so-called ‘angry young men’ of British theatre and cinema of the 1950s and ‘60s – a term coined by the press in promoting John Osborne’s 1956 play, Look Back in Anger – came the British New Wave. Here, kitchen sinks were visible and working-class men and women finally had their stories told, on stage and screen.

More than just examples of capitalist success, made popular by Charles Dickens’ ‘rags to riches’ narratives, the working-class heroes of the British New Wave were real - and yeah, they had it tough. Still, even bittersweet stories are flooded with light, love and a barrel of laughs from time to time. Bold and bracing, they showed the working-classes as individuals, and not as the faceless masses of a workforce that simply props up the British economy.

Reflecting on some of these significant works, that paved the way for contemporary British cinema, throughout September and October this season celebrates some of British cinema’s most compelling working class talent and reveals the beating heart of a nation, stagnated by prejudice and privilege.

September - Of Grudge and Gumption (1960s)

Talking back to the establishment – most of these films were made under consecutive tenures of Conservative governments (1951-1964) – our September brunches are all grudge and gumption.

From factories to physical fitness and into the aching heart of the domicile, our season begins with a cold hard look at life in 1960s Britain. With the proverbial ‘angry young men’ in mind, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is anti-establishment and, honestly, fed up with the oppression of its time. Looking for ways of coping or escaping, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Billy Liar bare resilience and the indomitable spirits that keep drowning heads (and hearts) just above water. What each of these films reveals is the pressure that the nation puts on an unsustainable system of capitalist patriarchy and, in Poor Cow, we see its intimate and heart-breaking consequences.

October - Class, Race and Gender Struggles (1990s / 2000s)

Following in the footsteps of the British New Wave, which gave British cinema both a voice and an aesthetic, the independent cinema of the 1990s and early 2000s, such as the films we'll be screening as part of the season in October, continued to deal with class struggle, but in an increasingly intersectional way.

From Mike Leigh’s astonishing Secrets and Lies to Saul Dibb’s Bullet Boy, depictions of the true devastation of the class system in Britain went one step further, now revealing its bitter entanglement with gender and race. So, too, did a number of female voices, behind as well as in front of the camera, start to make waves. Lynne Ramsay, now one of the foremost internationally acclaimed British filmmakers, didn’t just break ground with her debut feature film, Ratcatcher, she positively smashed it. Finally, and rounding off our season, is Shane Meadows’ This is England, a portrait of revisionist right wing extremism come terrifyingly alive. Twelve years on, and with a spin-off TV series in the ether, Meadows’ masterfully made fiction film is dystopian reality incarnate.

Viewed under the contemporary social and political climate, each of these impacting voices of British cinema feels more urgent than ever.

Written by Tara Judah, Watershed Cinema Producer.


Previous screenings in this season

This is England

classified 15 Working Class Sunday Brunches
This is England
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2018
Film

Shane Meadows semi-autobiographical portrait of a 12-year-old boy who finds a sense of belonging with a group of local skinheads in the 1980s remains a masterpiece of working-class storytelling.

Bullet Boy

classified 15 Working Class Sunday Brunches
Bullet Boy
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2018
Film

Saul Dibb’s intelligent story about gang life made a big screen star of Londoner Ashley Walters, the young MC who had already entered the public eye with UK garage collective So Solid Crew, who brought huge presence and authenticity to a film that transcended the clichés of urban crime drama.

Secrets and Lies

classified 15 Working Class Sunday Brunches
Secrets and Lies
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2018
Film

Mike Leigh scooped the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1996 as well as a resounding box-office hit with this bittersweet snoop into the nooks and crannies of working class family life, in this hilarious and touching suburban comedy.

Billy Liar

classified PG Working Class Sunday Brunches
Billy Liar
Please note: This was screened in Sept 2018
Film

Few films tell a heartbreaking story as hilariously as this must-see classic in which Tom Courtenay stars in this tale of a young clerk lost to daydreams in his Yorkshire home town. But will they ever come true?

Poor Cow

classified 15 Working Class Sunday Brunches
Poor Cow
Please note: This was screened in Sept 2018
Film

A landmark in British social realist filmmaking, Ken Loach's debut feature film was a kitchen-sink drama starring Carol White (Cathy Come Home) as a working-class single mother living in the London slums.

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

classified 12A Working Class Sunday Brunches
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Please note: This was screened in Sept 2018
Film

A young Tom Courtenay delivers a remarkable performance as an embittered delinquent in a young offender's reform school who dares to buck the system just as it offers him a lifeline.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

classified PG Working Class Sunday Brunches
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Please note: This was screened in Sept 2018
Film

Albert Finney stars as a Nottingham factory worker railing against authority whilst his tangled love life lands him in trouble, in this seminal 1960s social realist drama that was the first to put working-class life on screen, bluntly, with respect and without condescension.

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