Programmed September 2022

British New Wave

Featuring an introduction by critic Alicia Malone Of the myriad cinematic revolutions that swept the globe in the 1950s and ’60s, the British New Wave stood out for the raw immediacy and intense realism with which it rendered working-class lives and experiences. Emerging alongside the “angry young men” of England’s literary scene, filmmakers like Tony Richardson, Karel Reisz, and Lindsay Anderson broke new ground by giving voice to the frustrations and disillusionment felt by average Britons in tough, hard-hitting touchstones of what came to be known as “kitchen-sink realism,” including Look Back in Anger , Saturday Night and Sunday Morning , and This Sporting Life . Throughout the 1960s, directors such as John Schlesinger ( Billy Liar , Darling ) and Richard Lester ( The Knack . . . and How to Get It ) would continue to push the boundaries of the movement, taking it into increasingly expressionistic, fanciful, and experimental territory that reflected the liberated spirit of swinging-sixties London.