Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

 

Tittle: Sunday Night  Saturday Morning

Director: Karel Reisz

Release Year: 27 October 1960

Trivia: Morrisey (lead singer of The Smiths) says this is his favourite movie

The house used as the filming location for the Seafords’ house was owned by Alan Sillitoe, the author of the novel on which the film is based.

Included among the “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”, edited by Steven Schneider.

British rock band the Arctic Monkeys were heavily influenced by this film. The title of their debut album “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” is a direct quote from the movie

Runtime: 89 min

Review:

The film is one of the first of the social-realist or kitchen sink dramas and it was at the fore front of the British New Wave. It is defiantly not a polish idealised look at the working class.it portrays closer to reality there is no singing chimney sweeps or friendly shop keeps. The film follows Arthur Seaton   Played by Albert Finney Over the space of a few weeks. In this short space of  time he has to confront an unexpected pregnancy with a married woman he is seeing on the side and a new relationship with a young women . We see what kind of life he lives the factory he works at and the excessive drinking he partakes in at the weekend.

The characters are very real they curse and lie and are for the most part portrayed as flawed people but overall as good peolpe. The main character is more akin to an antihero who seems to seek his own downfall. His catchphrase is “Don’t let the bastards grind you down!”   And he seems to be very anti-establishment and rebellious anti-government, business the entire system really .Speaking about his parents he says “They have a television set and a packet of fags, but they’re both dead from the neck up”. But it’s not a real rebellion he plans on settling down living in a small house with his wife just like his parents he criticising.

The films overall feeling is one of bleak life crude but in the genuine warmth between family and lovers. The film is an interesting snap shot of the times .The small terraced houses with the factory the whole town works at .The kind of factory that when it shuts dons devastates the area. For  fans of British New Wave cinema it is a must watch .The cast give a great performance all round and feel for the most part naturalistic almost like a documentary observing the everyday life of this man.