Timeline Of British Social Realism

1950

 

An iconic British social realist film is the film "Back In Anger" the typical social realist themes present in this film are the themes of characters who live in poverty which the audience connote from the fact the characters live in an attic. We see stereotypical views of relationships of people of the characters social class of the era the film was made by having the male character being the dominat person in the relationship who runs the household, while the female character is shown as a stereotypical housewife who much cook,clean and tend to her family. 

 

 

1960

  

In the 1960's the British Social Realist film "Kes" was released. At the time of "Kes" being released in 1969 England had won the world cup three years prior so the conventions of lower class people in poor living locations was present in the film while employing aspects of current society like football into the plot to appeal to the films target audience. To further express the British Social Realist stereotypes the film depicted a character who comes from a poor background as having no P.E kit to play Football in which resulted in bullying from his friends, this is put in the film because the target audience can show empathy for the character which is something British Social Realist films have long tried to do.

 

 

 

1970

   

1979 saw the release of the British Social Realist film "Quadraphenia" which depicted themes and conventions not often explored as in depth as "Quadraphenia" did such as strained father and son relationships. A character in the films father is an alcoholic which in turn shows the audience the now very common theme in British Social Realist films- addiction. This appeals to a British Social Realist audience because it lets the audience see things that they knew occured in society even though they may not have actually experienced it , this is not however always the case as some members of their audience may watch the film because they can relate to what the characters go through.

 

 

1980

 

The ITV Television play "Made In Britain"(1982) starring now Hollywood actor Tim Roth was released which dealt with the themes of anarchy,violence and racism. The film exploited the up rise of anarchy that young people were the subjects and participants. This once again benefitted the British Social Realist target audience because at the time these were all things that were being increasingly more common at that point in society. The issues of racism that were explored at the time was a risky subject to tackle but the production never the less tackled it so because of the fact it appealled to the target audience and opened peoples eyes to the people that were effecting others with their racism. The themes in this production are now very common with British Social Realist audiences.

 

1990

 

In 1997 Gary Oldman directed the film "Nil By Mouth", a film that further depicted domestic violence and physical abuse in relationships. The film allowed an audience to see the jealousy of a womans husband and how it poisoned their relationship. These themes appealed to the British Social Realist audience because it let the audience see and witness things that most films would shy away from but that British Social Realist films wouldn't. The film depicted the abuse exactly as how it would occur. Realistic and brutally. This camera techniques  used handheld camera work which had been previously seen in productions such as "Made In Britain", this appealed to the audience because it had already become associated with British social realist films.