Has the recent stream of films set against the backdrop of the industrial
north given us a new movement to rival the legacy of the British New
Wave?
There’s something rather familiar about the opening scenes from
Brassed Off. A montage of images of miners hard at work, finishing their
shift and setting off for home at the end of the day, walking back home
towards streets of terrace housing set amongst an industrial northern
landscape. The similarities with Saturday Night and Sunday Morning are
undeniable, and the parallels do not end there. Brassed Off is just
one of a number of recent films that pay homage to the cinematic triumphs
of the 1960s British New Wave. But can we see these recent films as
a new movement depicting northern working class life, or are they simply
one off tributes to the glory days of 1960s British filmmaking?
In recent years there has been a return to a traditional style of filmmaking
that combines a sense of gritty documentary realism and social conscience,
with a sympathetic protagonist – and an individual story with
a collective message. Mark Herman’s 1996 film Brassed Off, Peter
Cattaneo’s The Full Monty (1997) and the recent hit Billy Elliot
(Stephen Daldry 2000), have captured the imagination of audiences. They
have offered a return to a style of filmmaking that portrays the struggle
of the working classes set against the stark backdrop of an often overlooked
industrial north, presenting a working class hero struggling against
the odds to escape from the harsh reality of their surroundings. Their
success has once again provided a voice for working class northern Britain.
The 1950s and 60s saw a country still enjoying post-war economic affluence,
full employment and a new sense of opportunity and change. A new film
movement emerged that reflected the shift in ideology and experience,
gave the industrial working class a voice for the first time and showed
that working class life was as complex and emotionally charged as any
other. Films such as Room at the Top (Jack Clayton, 1958), A Kind of
Loving (John Schlesinger, 1962)
and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel
Reisz, 1960) broke new ground with their unflinching examination
of the hopes and ambitions of young people struggling to make sense
of new identities, and their attempts to break out of their constraining
circumstances.
The New Wave examined the isolation of the working class from political
and economic decision-making and the psychological alienation of struggle,
a tradition that continued through the hard-edged realism of the work
of Ken Loach and Alan Clarke. The
films of the British New Wave also focused on the individual, and explored
contemporary issues through the eyes of a sympathetic hero, producing
an engaging tale framed by social issues. Many of the films of this
time were adapted from contemporary novels, which had also broken new
ground by adding a working class voice into the traditional literary
framework. This poetic literary influence can be seen on the screen,
as the personal struggle of the hero competes with the harsh northern
industrial landscape. The fragility of the relationship between Vic
(Alan Bates) and Ingrid (June Ritchie) in A Kind of Loving, warmly and
delicately handled by Schlesinger, is equally as powerful as the spontaneous
feel of northern realism that runs through Saturday Night and Sunday
Morning.
These elements can also be seen in the recent spate of contemporary
films that have focused on the working class north. This north, however,
is in stark contrast to the post-war industrial strongholds of the 1950s
and 60s.
