AFS Essential: SPARROWS CAN’T SING

Rated NR; 94min; Director:Joan Littlewood (1963)

All tickets to AFS events available at the AFS Website

AFS ESSENTIAL CINEMA SERIES: Blokes ‘n’ Birds: British Realist Cinema
TUESDAYS IN SEPTEMBER AT THE ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE SOUTH LAMAR

By the mid-1950s Britain finally seemed to be on an economic rebound from over two decades of deprivation caused by the Great Depression, World War II, and the immediate postwar period of continued shortages. Despite this admirable recovery, young artists were dissatisfied with the state of British culture. Writers, actors, directors, and artists railed against materialism, the rigid class system, and social issues such as racism, abortion, and homosexuality. Social realism provided a style and look, distantly akin to Italian neo-realism of the late ‘40s, French poetic realism of the ‘30s, and American postwar documentary-style narratives set in New York City tenements. Disparagingly described as “kitchen sink realism,” some British paintings, plays, and novels had begun to examine the lives of working class “blokes and birds,” young men and women with dreams or full of rage at the inequities of society. John Osborne’s play, LOOK BACK IN ANGER (1956), set the stage for a powerful body of work in literature, in the theater, and finally on the screen. Some of the finest British film directors of the ‘60s and ‘70s started in the realist style – Tony Richardson, Lindsay Anderson, John Schlesinger, and Basil Dearden. The talented monsters of the British (and later American) stage and screen exploded out of these kitchen sink dramas – Richard Burton, Albert Finney, Dirk Bogarde, Peter Finch, and Michael Caine. Even though the classic “kitchen sink” cinema lasted only about seven years, the British realist torch was picked up and carried even farther by Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, both of whom continue to create powerful films unafraid of current social problems. This Austin Film Society series will present six of the great British Realist films of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. (Chale Nafus, Austin Film Society)

SPARROWS CAN'T SING
The only film made by the hugely important stage director, actress and impresario Joan Littlewood, whose Theatre Workshop revolutionized the face of live drama in Great Britain. This is a wonderfully acted comedy about a rough and ready seaman (the great and underrated actor James Booth) who returns home after being at sea for years and finds his life shattered - home demolished, wife shacked up with another man - and sets out in his own blunt fashion to make things right. Barbara Windsor, who Life Magazine called the “funniest dumb blonde since Judy Holliday,” plays the wife in her winning, vivacious style.

Location: Alamo South Lamar

Kid Policy: 18 and up; Children 6 and up will be allowed only with a parent or guardian. No children under the age of 6 will be allowed.

Screenings (click on a show time to buy tickets):

• Tuesday, September 18, 2007
  • 7:00p