Saturday Night And Sunday Morning

Finney made it, and let's not forget Shirley Ann Field of course, worth seeing although not the 'classic' that I was expecting.

1960s kitchen sink classic. Worth watching as a rare view of life at the end of the 1950s in an industrial city in the Midlands (Nottingham), and a window on how people and families behaved towards each other. Life was grey and hard in those days and the black and white seems to emphasise this aspect. Also a portrayal of how stilted and awkward relationships were between the sexes. A bit like A kind of Loving really. Not a lot happens by modern taste -like a modern Mike Leigh film, and the film fizzles out without any real ending or conclusion . But the film is watchable and compelling as a window on life over 50 years ago .

Finney is magnetic in this film. I loved it-the feel,the look,story and performances. Really captures England at a time of huge industrial and social change.

Ricky Gervais was obviously inspired by this for his awful-Cemetery Junction.

After viewing this unashamedly gritty portrayal of British working class life on BLU RAY, you're left with two distinct impressions - one is admiration for the extraordinary restoration work done by the BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE on the newly restored near-faultless print - and second - and more importantly - is sheer astonishment at what a truly fantastic and ballsy film 'Saturday Night And Sunday Morning' is.

In 2012 - with our so-called freedom and enlightenment - you'd be hard-pressed to find a movie so darkly truthful and still relevant. Masterpiece is a word that is often overused, but in this case it genuinely applies.

Directed by Karel Reisz in 1960, it was produced by Tony Richardson (who directed 'The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner') and adapted and scripted from his own novel by Alan Sillitoe. Set in Northern England, this is a world of downing pints of mild and bitter until you're paralytic drunk, red phone booths with black A/B coin boxes in them, kids getting a bag of Dolly Mixtures sweets in the corner shop, push-up packets of Sweet Afton cigarettes, busy bodies with scarves on their heads watching with malicious eyes from tenement doorways for neighbours doing anything immoral...

A young Albert Finney plays defiant loudmouth Arthur Seaton who suffers the late 1950's Nottingham factory all day, because at night and at weekends, he can have his 'fun'. In his dapper suit and greased-back hair, Arthur is busy juggling another man's wife, drinking and betting. Finney isn't just good in the part, he's magnificent - he inhabits every scene like a panther about to pounce - like the world owes him a favour and his character Arthur clearly believes it does (his anthem above is spoken in the opening credits as he wipes his hands in a rag by the machine-tool lathe).

Having said that, watching the movie again, you're more struck by the women whose parts were cutting edge for the time - given real meat to work with. Shirley Ann Field isn't just a pretty face as Doreen the girl who makes hairnets and lives at home with her mum; she adds a rare intelligence and class to the movie. Hylda Baker is excellent as the convivial Aunt Ada who thinks Arthur is a lovely boy, but it's Rachel Roberts as the smitten wife who nicks the film - she is needy one moment, steel the next - then towards the end, she's just beaten and broken as she realizes Arthur's heart is going somewhere else - permanently.

Johnny Dankworth's jazz soundtrack is deceptive - it seems like fun, but mostly it acts as an almost sly and sinister backdrop - happy tunes for people with nowhere to go - for the rest of their lives... It's very, very effective.

But your eyes keep coming back to the print - apart from a few lines in the opening shot of the noisy factory floor, the stark black and white footage is consistently fantastic - you can see Rachel's face blusher, Finney's sweat in the pub as he watches a war-veteran drown his sorrow in beer (Peter Sallis - the voice of Wallace in Wallace & Gromit - has a bit part in that scene) even feel the soft texture of Doreen's cashmere cardigans...a stunning restoration job done from start to finish.

'Saturday Night And Sunday Morning' is a balls-to-the-wall triumph on Blu Ray - it's just such a shame that the mighty Albert Finney didn't get more involved - it would have been such sweet icing to an already great piece of cake.

Recommended - big time.

A interesting peek into life before credit cards,buy now pay later,witherspoons and the throw away society.

Lead character very well played - and as the film progressed i found him increasingly tedious using the same rehearsed lines that are still used today.Think this type character can now be found on modern daytime tv- Except in those days there were 'some' boundries.See also 'up the Junction' - as a same type of theme.Made me think how fortunate we are to of progressed in some aspects of society yet slipped off the radar for other more basic respect.Well worth a watch.