Social Realism Coursework- Research

Social Realism: Art, Nationhood, and Politics by David Forrest

Introduction

"Films that reflect a range of social, environments and issues."

"Rejects the artifice and escapism of more classically orientated narrative models."

"There has been a tendency to view such films in the context of what they have to tell us about the issues and themes they invoke rather than what they say about their art."

"We are invited to read the films as we would approach a poem or a painting, as artefacts of social and artistic worth."

"There is no comparable compulsion in our own critical culture."- comparing New-wave in France 

and Neo- Realism in Italy to British Social Realism. 

"Place limits on a full and thorough consideration of its complexion and influence."- talking about pre-existing definitions of British Social Realism.

Julia Hallam & Margaret Marshment:

"Social realism is a discursive term used by film critics and reviewers to 

describe films that aim to show the effects of environmental factors on the 

development of character through depictions that emphasise the 

relationship between location and identity. Traditionally associated in 

Britain with a reformist or occasionally revolutionary politics that deemed 

adverse social circumstances could be changed by the introduction of more 

enlightened social policies or structural change in society, social realism 

tends to be associated with an observational style of camerawork that 

emphasises situations and events and an episodic narrative structure, 

creating ‘kitchen sink’ dramas and ‘gritty’ character studies of the 

underbelly of urban life."

 

He find it interesting because of, "The identification of the importance of "environment" in designating the Social Realist text." 

"British Filmmaking has encompassed an eclectic and persistently innovative school of creative figures, who have sought to interpret British society in an ever diversifying way." 

http://www.samiraahmed.co.uk/poor-cows-and-angry-young-men-50-years-of-kitchen-sink-drama/- Kitchen Sink dramas.