Free Cinema was adocumentary film movement that emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1950s. The term referred to an absence of propagandised intent or deliberate box office appeal. Co-founded byLindsay Anderson (but he later disdained the 'movement' tag) withKarel Reisz,Tony Richardson andLorenza Mazzetti, the movement began with a programme of three short films at theNational Film Theatre, London on 5 February 1956. The programme was such a success that five more programmes appeared under the ‘Free Cinema’ banner before the founders decided to end the series. The last event was held in March 1959. Three of the screenings consisted of work from overseas filmmakers.[1]
Together withGavin Lambert, Anderson and Reisz had previously founded the short-lived but influential journalSequence, of which Anderson later wrote 'No Film Can Be Too Personal'. So ran the initial pronouncement in the first Free Cinema manifesto. It could equally well have been the motto of SEQUENCE'.[2]
The manifesto was drawn up by Anderson and Mazzetti at aCharing Cross cafe named The Soup Kitchen, where Mazzetti worked. It read:
These films were not made together; nor with theidea of showing them together. But when they came together, we felt they had an attitude in common.Implicit in this attitude is a belief in freedom, in the importance of people and the significance ofthe everyday.
As filmmakers we believe that
No film can be too personal.
The image speaks. Sound amplifies and comments.
Size is irrelevant. Perfection is not an aim.
An attitude means a style. A style means an attitude.[3]
At an interview in 2001, Mazzetti explained that the reference to size was prompted by the then-new experiments inCinemaScope and other large screen formats. "The image speaks" was an assertion of the primacy of the image over the sound. Reisz said that ‘An attitude means a style’ meant that ‘a style is not a matter of camera angles or fancy footwork, it's an expression, an accurate expression of your particular opinion’.[4]
The first ‘Free Cinema’ programme featured just three films:
The films were accompanied by the above provocativefilm manifesto, written chiefly by Anderson, which brought the film-makers valuable publicity. Later programmes brought in like minded filmmakers, among themAlain Tanner andClaude Goretta (withNice Time),Michael Grigsby andRobert Vas. The two film technicians closely associated with the movement wereWalter Lassally and John Fletcher. The three of the six programmes were devoted to foreign work, including the newPolish cinema (fourth programme), emergingFrench New Wave (fifth programme); and American independent filmmakerLionel Rogosin was invited to screen his ground-breaking filmOn the Bowery at the second Free Cinema programme in September 1956.[6] That event also includedNorman McLaren'sNeighbours andGeorges Franju'sLe Sang des bêtes.[7]
The films were free in the sense that they were made outside the confines of the film industry and were distinguished by their style and attitude and the conditions of production. All of the films were made cheaply, for no more than a few hundred pounds, mostly with grants from theBritish Film Institute's Experimental Film Fund. Some of the later films were sponsored by theFord Motor Company or funded independently. They were typically shot in black and white on16mm film, using lightweight, hand-held cameras, usually with a non-synchronised soundtrack added separately. Most of the films deliberately omitted narration. The film-makers shared a determination to focus on ordinary, largelyworking-class British subjects. They felt these people had been overlooked by themiddle-class-dominated British film industry of the time.
The founders of the movement were dismissive of mainstream documentary film-making in Britain, particularly of theDocumentary Film Movement of the 1930s and 1940s associated withJohn Grierson, although they made an exception forHumphrey Jennings. Another acknowledged influence was French directorJean Vigo (1905–34). Free Cinema bears some similarities to thecinéma vérité andDirect Cinema movements.
Free Cinema was a major influence on theBritish New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and all of the founders except Mazzetti would make films associated with the movement. Richardson directedLook Back in Anger (1958),A Taste of Honey (1961) andThe Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962); Reisz directedSaturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960); and Anderson directedThis Sporting Life (1963) andIf.... (1968).
Many of these films have also been categorized as part of thekitchen sink realism genre, and many of them are adaptations of novels or plays written by members of Britain's so-called "angry young men".
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