Social Realism In Films
Social realism was originally a new genre of painting, which started in France during the mid 1800’s. It was used to express racial injustice, economic hardship, and general struggles and flaws of that society’s time, so mainly satirical (another common theme was to depict the actions of the working class to be quite heroic). This new genre of painting outraged people of the time, presumably because they found it difficult to accept how cruel the world can be.
Social realism in film is not so different, in the sense it highlights real problems that the directors believe need to be solved. Social realism is often associated with British cinema, however its roots show that it dates back to Italian neorealism (this type of film is set amongst the poor/working class and is filmed on location, usually using unprofessional actors, examples include Toni by Renoir 1935). The early social realist films were based on the works of Dickens and Thomas Hardy. An iconic director called James Williamson filmed one of the earliest British social realist films in 1902 (James Williamson made films before this one, such as “The Big Swallow”). The film was called “A Reservist Before The War, And After The War”. The film is about soldiers of the Boer war returning to England, where they face homelessness and unemployment.
Social realism played a large part in British cinema throughout World War Two, enough so to compete with Hollywood. Some of the more popular films made during the 1940’s include “Target For Tonight” (1941), “In Which We Serve” (1942) “Millions Like Us” (1943) and “This Happy Breed” (1944). These films all served the same purpose of trying to bridge the class divide in 1940’s Britain, which it did effectively because many people from all classes would visit the cinemas for relief from hard war time work. Social Realism remained popular throughout post war Britain, and many of the films were based on how people were coping with the after effects of World War Two. Examples include “Saturday Night And Sunday Morning” (1960) and “The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner” (1962). Both of these films show average people discussing the social structure of Britain. Furthermore, the post war films had similarities to the pre-war films in the sense that it still focused on the working class, so there was still an evident class divide. World War Two was also still a driving theme behind the 1960’s films as it was in earlier 1940’s films.
In recent British social realism, censorship has been more relaxed, meaning films now included more controversial subjects, such as; abortion, homosexuality, prostitution, pregnant girlfriends, depression etc. Directors who took on these more controversial subjects include Ken Loach and Mike Leigh.
This helped usher the “New Wave” of the 1960’s, which saw an increase in British social Realism and art house cinemas. This meant the mainstream themes and attitudes were now being challenged. The “New Wave” social realism films, such as “This Sporting Life” (1963 by Lindsay Anderson), held similar conventions. These include that the main protagonist was usually a working class male and one of the themes would usually involve the decline of tradition and culture within Britain (Such as “A Kind Of Loving” which shows the effect World War Two had on British culture).
During the 1980’s social realism took a more satirical approach with films like “My Beautiful Laundrette” and “letter To Brezhnev” (both 1985). Both films were funded and distributed through “films On Four”. This company played an important part in social realism, as more people saw it, and it became more in demand meaning that he following decade saw social realism films with a higher budget, meaning British realism could be combined with Hollywood like funding, which led to a larger national audience.
By the 1990’s the new theme of impact of society on family life were taken on board by the two directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. Leigh made the films “Life Is Sweet” (1990) and “Secrets And Lies” (1996). These films explored the issues of social life and how it can influence domestic life. This is similar to Loach’s “Raining Stones” (1993) and “Ladybird Ladybird” (1994), as these films also explore social life, but it is represented through the individual stories told by the characters. Both directors also gave women a larger role in their films as opposed to the weaker representation women had in previous films like “Saturday Night Sunday Morning” (1960).
Finally British Social realism today has had some big successes such as “This Is England” and “kidulthood”. However it is argued that both these films aren’t true social realism, but it may seem this way as new themes and issues are being represented that wasn’t common to previous Social realism (Such as Youths are explored in more detail, and are represented as more complex characters).
Overall, it is fair to say that social realism is an important part of British cinema as it explores issues other film genres may be too scared to represent. It may have a niche audience, but it does play a large part in British culture, and is therefore critical to British cinema.
