Realism and Representations of the Working Class in Contemporary British Cinema

https://www.dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2086/4720/SOCIAL+REALISM+AND+REPRESENTATION+OF+THE+WORKING+CLASS+IN+CONTEMPORARY+BRITISH+CINEMA.pdf?sequence=1

"Loach‟s work has never primarily been about visual style: at the core of all

his films, are political statements about people marginalised economically or

politically within British society."

"His main concern is the social system; supposedly

designed to help people in a predicament, but which nevertheless works in the

opposite manner to further oppress the people and create misery."

"The concept of 'social realism' is rather complex, since although it is not 

something like genre, which has collective characteristics on style and mode of

narrative, it has been treated as one."

"With a specific subject (working class lives), filmic treatment (naturalism), political orientation (leftist) and iconography (industrial city, council estates etc.), these characteristics hold a range of films together under the name of social realism"

"The British New Wave was one of the major phases of social realism in the United Kingdom; it binds a number of films produced by young British directors between the late 1950s and the mid 1960s."

"Set in real locations of industrial towns, most of these films have young working-class men as the main characters, who, unsatisfied with their life, are seeking escape."

"The subject-matter of British New Wave films is significant in terms of the representation of the working class, in the time of economic affluence. The British New Wave films repeatedly employ characters with a desire for escape (such as Arthur in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning), or climbing up the social ladder (like Gerald in This Sporting Life or Joe in Room at the Top). Alongside the representation of their open sexuality (and sometimes issues of abortion), this tendency characterises representation of the working class."

"According to Higson, at some point the shots such as 'That Long Shot of Our Town from That Hill' become picturesque images of an industrial town, rather than gritty reality."

"As a result, place in the British New Wave films signifies something more than a narrative motivation, and leads to another important discussion of the incoherence of viewpoint"

"BBC‟s single play programs such as The Wednesday Play and Play for Today became another platform for the presentation of social issues."

"Social realist films in the 1980s, or „the state of the nation films‟ as stated by Sargent (2005) and Hill (1999), reflect the drastic changes in society and show obvious hostilities towards Thatcher herself. "


"Compared to the British New Wave which focused on the representation of the white working-class male, films in the 1980s provided a new terrain of diversity in terms of gender and race."

"The works of Ken Loach display consistently sympathetic eyes on the people on the margin of society, the people who are trapped in a predicament and not be able to escape from it."



"Dedicated to the use of an observational shooting style, the camera keeps its distance from the characters or objects, while the use of an occasional hand-held camera adds a documentary feeling to the film."