Film Forum

As the 1950s ended, British cinema exploded with new energy, as directors like Tony Richardson, Karel Reisz, Lindsay Anderson and John Schlesinger tackled groundbreaking material from young new writers (among them John Osborne, Shelagh Delaney, and Harold Pinter – fresh from revolutionizing the stage), creating a socially conscious, aggressively working class cinema, trampling taboos by depicting England’s angry and alienated youth, and treating sexual content frankly. And they had the interpreters they needed in a tidal wave of powerful young actors like Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, Rita Tushingham, Julie Christie, Alan Bates, et al. As the 60s progressed, social realism gave way to more escapist fare, Britain’s angry young men evolving into the fashionably disillusioned hedonists of Swinging London. 

Reviews

“Thematically and practically, much of Film Forum’s sprawling series on the British New Wave is galvanized by directionless yearning, cross-generational resentments, rock ‘n’ roll, nascent protest culture, and similarly spirited new-cinema movements from abroad. A cultural seismograph, the ambitious program illustrates tectonic movements that would inspire radical peaks across future moviemaking generations. Handheld camerawork and shallow fields engendering a raw immediacy would later unlock troubled interiors and bewildering dreamscapes.” 
– Jaime N. Christley, The Village Voice

“The soot and the soul are palpable in ‘The Brit New Wave’.”
– Andy Webster, The New York Times 

Films in this Series