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Karel Reisz, last of the British new wave, dies at 76

Czech-born director of The French Lieutenant's Woman and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning dies in London

Staff and agencies
Wednesday November 27, 2002

Karel Reisz, the Czech-born director who became a pioneer of the Free Cinema movement in 50s and 60s Britain, has died in London aged 76.
Reisz made his reputation with his revolutionary portrait of London's working class, We Are the Lambeth Boys, in 1958 and followed it up with the classic Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Gritty and naturalistic, the films established him, alongside the likes of Lindsay Anderson and Tony Richardson, as part of the new social realist school of British cinema.

Other notable pictures include The Gambler, Who'll Stop the Rain and his acclaimed John Fowles adaptation, The French Lieutenant's Woman. His last film was Everybody Wins, starring Nick Nolte and Debra Winner, in 1990, after which he spent his final years working mainly in the theatre.

Renowned as a fine director of actors, Reisz won Oscar nominations for Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant's Woman, and for Jessica Lange in 1985's Sweet Dreams. He is also credited with bringing Albert Finney to the world's attention in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

He was also a talented film technician, writing the standard textbook The Technique of Film Editing in 1953, and connoisseur, becoming the first program director of the National Film Theatre.

Reisz came to Britain as an orphan, aged 11, after his parents were taken to die in a concentration camp. He later fought with the RAF as a Czech pilot in the second world war.

Earlier this month, Stephen Frears dedicated his London film festival opening night picture, Dirty Pretty Things, to Reisz, saying at the time that the director was "very ill".

Karel Reisz died on Monday, leaving a wife and three sons.