British New Wave Cinema

In his 1956 play Look Back In Anger John Osbourne set the tone for a wave of cinema which in its examination and depiction of working-class life raged against Britain's cultural gentry.  Adapted to film in 1959, protagonist Jimmy Porter’s flamatic rage proved controversial not only because it was aimed at the establishment, but also for the articulate way in which it was expressed. Porter contravened stereotype at a time when lower-class characters were depicted as buffoons.

"People like me don't get fat. I've tried to tell you. We just burn everything up." - Look Back In Anger

British New Wave artists were storytellers eager to see the world in which they had grown up represented on film. Disregarded as “kitchen sink” by unreceptive middle-class critics, these social realist dramas were the work of Britain’s post-war generation: a generation that had come of age with the advent of the welfare state, nationalisation of industry and increased access to higher-education. Set against the backdrop of post-industrial towns and cities, and focusing on the stories of characters that speak in provincial accents and dialects, the films search for beauty and tragedy in the banal. New Wave cinema was underpinned by its makers belief that stories of working-class lives held equal importance with all others. 

The politics of the filmmakers were generally left-leaning and they took thematic and stylistic influence from Italian Neorealism. As a result of filmmakers desire to depict the realities of working-class lives, the films were amongst the first to handle subjects such as: abortion, sex outside of marriage, prostitution and homosexuality, taking advantage of relaxation in censorship laws, in order to create public dialogue around issues affecting those on the margins of society.

"It's easy. You get on a train, and four hours later there you are. London." - Billy Liar

Commonly the domestic situations of character are used in order to explore these wider social issues. In This Sporting Life (1963) the narrative contrasts the rising professional successes of it’s rugby league playing protagonist Frank Machin against his turbulent, unfulfilled relationship with landlady Margaret Hammond. Whilst Look Back In Anger (1959) explores the relationship between working-class protagonist Jimmy Porter and his upper-class girlfriends Alison and Helena, using their living arrangement in a Midlands flat in order to draw attention to class-divisions in British society.

Aside from A Taste Of Honey (1961), which focuses on the pregnancy of Jo an unmarried 17 year-old in Salford, New Wave cinema tended to focus on the angst and social-alienation of male protagonists. But half a century later, as we continue to lament the lack of fully-rounded female characters on screen, the New Wave’s ‘angry young men’ narratives provide us with rich characterisations of women.

"Whatever people say I am, that is what I am not." - Saturday Night, Sunday Morning

In Billy Liar (1963), the narrative focuses on the desire of a 19 year-old dreamer to escape a suburban Yorkshire town, yet the film concludes with Liz (its female lead) leaving for London and Billy being left behind. In the film’s depiction of Liz as capable of her own choices outside of the film’s protagonist, eventually making a decision of which he is incapable,  we find a representation of women more enlightened than is found in much of contemporary cinema.

A central theme in much of New Wave cinema is the anti-hero protagonist’s search for agency. Often the characters anger and existential angst stem from their resistance to the power of social-structures around them. But whilst characters might achieve small victories over the course of their journey, the films almost always fall short of offering the viewer a satisfying conclusion. Ultimately the protagonists must either come to accept the legitimacy of institutions with which they have come into conflict (as in Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (1960)), or as in This Sporting Life they continue to battle, with increasing awareness of the impotency of their fight. 

With these unsatisfying resolutions New Wave gained a reputation as gloomy and unnecessarily grim. The movement came to an end in 1963, following the commercial failure of This Sporting Life (perhaps the least hope-filled film to emerge from the movement)  signalled a diminishing appetite for social realist cinema. Yet a retrospective look at British New Wave films shows that though unflinching in their depiction of reality, they find humour and warmth in working-class lives. 

Given the current failures of media and film to accurately represent working-lives, the works of British New Wave remain relevant today. With programmes such as The Jeremy Kyle Show and Benefits Street depicting the lower-classes as inarticulate, feckless and dependant on the state; and the middle-classes disproportionately represented within drama, perhaps once again there is a need for a social realist movement to draw attention to the everyday plights of Britain’s working-class.

(Written for RL Motion & RL Horizons)