British
Social Realism – From Documentary to Brit Grit by Samantha Lay
1 Social
Realism in the British Context [cont’d]
Representation
What does
Samantha Lay say should be acknowledged about film?
- Samantha Lay says that film is a
commercial medium, rather than an educational tool, and that this should
be notably acknowledged.
What is
Williams’ observation?
- Williams’ observed that the
representation of specific character types tended towards social
extension.
What is
meant by the phrase “social extension”?
- Social extension is the
extension of a range of characters to include groups and individuals whom
were not often represented on screens in the normal cinemas considered and
accepted by most people.
What is
noted by Hallam and Marshment?
- Hallam and Marshment note how
social realist texts draw in characters that were not in the centre of
What
point does Hill make about social extension and how does he develop his
thinking?
- Hill notes that the people of
working class were largely represented by social extension, at different
moments of social and economic change, but he underlines that this is not
just a process of representing the people who previously were
under-represented. He underlines that social realist texts represent them
from specific social perspectives, which are products of distinct moments
in time, and relate and focus on the social realities of these times.
What has
the social extension urge led British filmmakers to do?
- The social extension in British
Social Realism has urged filmmakers to rectify the social and
representational lack of equality, in relation to class.
In
addition to depicting the ‘working class way of life’ what does Lay argue is
also constructed by social realist directors?
- Lay argues that social realist
directors seek to construct visions of the ‘working class way of life’
from specific political points of view, generated from certain sets of
assumptions about what really is realist and the issues and characters
deemed to be within the very remit of social realism.
What do
Dodd and Dodd argue about the representation of the working class in the
documentaries of the 1930s?
- Dodd and Dodd argue that the
documentaries in the 1930s that represented the working class, worked to
be excessively irrational towards the working class male body engaged in
hard labour. Because of this, Dodd and Dodd created a
counter-representation to the portrayal of a ‘victim’, that of male
‘hero’.
What was
Lindsay Anderson’s opinion of cinema’s treatment of the working class and what
did he strive to do?
- Lindsay Anderson felt that
British cinema had severely under-represented the working class and he
strove to prove ways in which filmmakers strive to improve upon previous
beliefs of realism.
What did
the work of Anderson
- The work of Anderson and his
contemporaries signalled a breakaway from what they detected to be the
stuffy and sterile documentary realism.
Describe
the representation of working class people in their films and explain the
rationale provided for this.
- In feature films, working class
people were represented as energetic and vibrant, which was partly due to
the newly emergent youth culture, which filmmakers fascinated about. It
was also due to the respect for the unpretentious traditional working
class, which these filmmakers regarded as being under threat from the
influence of American culture, and under threat from the forces of
consumerism.
Leaving
their differences aside, what did both the 30s and 50s documentary movements
share?
- Despite their differences, the
30s and 50s documentary movements share a very strong emotive
preoccupation with working class males.
Describe
the representation of women in the New Wave films of the 50s and 60s.
- In this period of time, women
were represented as a threat to masculinity, because of their obsession of
marriage and motherhood, and also as agents of consumption who were
partially blamed for the demise of traditional working class culture. They
were also the target of harsh attacks from their working class heroes.
What were
the exceptions to the way women were typically depicted during this period and
what was different about their representation?
- The working class women seemed
to have been prominent in television, and were included in a number of
dramas and soap operas, and in
What
changes occurred in the way women were represented in the 80s?
- In the 80s, the gender gap was
addressed by more female-centred social realist texts, which reflected the
rising importance of women in the workforce and in society as a whole.
How did
the situation change again in the 90s?
- In the 90s, the portrayal of
women had taken a huge step backwards, as women were now being portrayed
as materialistic, or victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
What has
Hallam suggested about the shift in the way the working class has been
represented in realist film texts?
- Hallam has argued that there was
a shift from representing working class characters as producers of labour
to consumers of goods.
What
significant change in narrative accompanies this shift?
- These changes were accompanied
by a move from depicting working class characters in communities and also
in the workplace, where they have now become much more capable of
collective bargaining and action, to now envisioning them in the private
made domestic and leisure-time settings.
What is
Higson’s contention and how is it explained by Hill?
- Higson’s contention is that definitions
of public and private space are changing, as it is bound up with a certain
feature of British realism. Putting it into context, Higson explains that the
history of the realist tradition in British cinema has become the history of
the changing elaborated concept of the relation between certain differing realism
features, such as the public and the private, and the political and the personal.
Hill explains that this was the case, because of British films’ focus on cultural
aspects, in which it tended to prevent work. Hill sees this occurrence as a
continuing and strengthening issue in 80s and 90s British social realist texts.
What
point does Samantha Lay make about ethnicity when drawing her initial
conclusions about representation?
- Samantha Lay makes the point that
British social realist films tend to give white male working class characters
advantages. She explains that British social realism’s sense of social extension
is extremely bad and shocking, as it has a huge lack of working class characters
from different multicultural societies.
What does
this lead her to observe about new areas that representation could explore?
- This point made leads Samantha
Lay to observe how very little asylum seekers, refugees, and illegal workers
are rarely featured on British screens, beyond news bulletins and documentaries,
and how they should be observed much better than in previous times. The film
‘Last Resort’ has already attempted to explore this observation, in the year
2000.
Summarise
Lay’s conclusion in her final paragraph about representation in social realist
film texts.
- In a summary of Lay’s conclusion,
it should be noted that within the framework of social extension, the representation
of working class characters in British social realist films is being attended
to, whilst on the other hand, these texts tend to favour white male working
class characters. These are then defined as ‘prone’ to the social and psychological
traumas of violence, unemployment, and addiction. Also the fact of the continuous
moves from public to private and political to personal, are lost from the
frame globally, as well as nationally, due to the wider structural inequalities
being extended. Finally, some of the texts explore the thoughts or ideas belonging
to the central protagonists through a recreation of the past, which can be
argued via films offering a remembrance of happy times in the past, as a possible
alternative to the heritage film in British cinema.
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