Free cinema

‘Free Cinema’ was not a movement so much as a group of young filmmakers (including Lindsay Anderson, Tony Richardson and Karel Reisz), reacting against the class bound British cinema by working outside the dictates of the industry, although not entirely without its support. The filmmakers use of lighter and more flexible camera equipment and faster film stock, combined with their portrayal of contemporary life, injected the British documentary tradition with a new life. While inevitably portraying working class life from a middle class perspective which was not always free from left-wing sentimentality, ‘Free Cinema’ filmmakers did turn their cameras on previously ignored (on film), areas of British life. ‘Every Day Except Christmas’ (Dir; Lindsay Anderson, 40 mins. 1957) is a lyrical, implicitly idealistic, portrayal of working class community at the Covent Garden Market. ‘We Are the Lambeth Boys’ (Dir; Karel Reisz, 50 mins. 1959) tries to get close to working class youth culture. ‘The Saturday Men’ (Dir; John Fletcher, 29 mins. 1959) is the portrait of a football club.