9° FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE CINEMA GIOVANI
Retrosective - New British Cinema 1956-1968
MARCH TO ALDERMASTON
by Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz
Country: UK
Year: 1958
Duration: 33'
"When Free Cinema tries to get to the heart of reality empirically, it abstains from interpreting the external. And only this attitude towards reality bears witness to its goal, particularly evident in March to Aldermaston, a collective work made in 1958 by eleven independent technicians and edited under Lindsay Anderson's direction. The subject is the antinuclear march that wends its way from London to the Aldermaston atomic center every year. Documentary makers, television camerapersons, and exponents of Free Cinema make up the film's technicians. The film's style is a compromise between TV style, noticeable mainly in the interviews of the marchers, and Free Cinema style, characterized by affectionate observation of groups and individuals. It is this latter strain that manages to convey the human warmth of the 'peace demonstrators', their convictions, and their happy friendliness. The march crosses the city and the country behind a jazz band. There are some groups of people who dance while they march. There are young women who romp around along the column. he face of the people carrying the banners give off a contagious enthusiasm. A sparkling sound track is accompanied by a sober commentary recited by an anonymous voice which nevertheless can be recognized as that of Richard Burton. One more time the political meaning of the demonstration is not highlighted, and classic propaganda techniques are deliberately avoided. The demonstrators are normal people. They are not politicized, and their demonstration is a spontaneous expression of their pacifist moral convictions. By the end of the film, these are the people who are interviewed, not the few politicians that took part in the march." (JeanPaul Torok, Qu' estce que le Free Cinema, "Positif", n. 49, dicembre 1962, pp. 1819)
Biography
film director
Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Anderson (Bangalore, India, 1923 - Angoulême, France, 1994) graduated in 1948 from Oxford, where he was captivated by theater. He was one of the first collaborators of the magazine “Sequence” and the founder along with Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson of Free Cinema. He directed several short films, like O Dreamland and Every Day Except Christmas, and his debut feature film was This Sporting Life (1963). In 1968 he made If…, which won the Golden Palm at Cannes, and then dedicated himself primarily to theater and television. He later directed films such as O Lucky Man! (1973), Britannia Hospital (1982) and, in 1986, The Whales of August, the last film he directed for cinema.
FILMOGRAFIA
Meet the Pioneers (mm, doc., 1948), Three Installations (cm, doc., 1952), O Dreamland (cm, doc., 1953), Thursday’s Children (cm, doc., 1954), £20 a Ton (cm, doc., 1955), A Hundred Thousand Children (cm, doc., 1955), Every Day Except Christmas (mm, doc., 1957), This Sporting Life (Io sono un campione, 1963), The White Bus (mm, 1967), If... (Se..., 1968), O Lucky Man! (id., 1973), In Celebration (Celebrazione, 1975), Look Back in Anger (1980), Britannia Hospital (id., 1982), The Whales of August (Le balene d’agosto, 1987), Glory! Glory! (tv, 1989), Is That All There Is? (mm, tv, 1993).
Cast
& Credits
Director: Lindsay Anderson.
Coregia: Karel Reisz, Stephen Peet, Derek York, Kurt Lewnhack, Derrick Knight.
Screenplay: Lindsay Anderson, Christopher Logue.
Director of photography: Brian Probyn, Lewis McLeod, Wolfgang Suschinsky, Peter Jessop, Bili SmeatonRussell, Alien Forbes, Derek York.
Editor: Lindsay Anderson, Mary Beale.
Voce fuori campo: Richard Burton.
Production company: Derrick Knight.
Coregia: Karel Reisz, Stephen Peet, Derek York, Kurt Lewnhack, Derrick Knight.
Screenplay: Lindsay Anderson, Christopher Logue.
Director of photography: Brian Probyn, Lewis McLeod, Wolfgang Suschinsky, Peter Jessop, Bili SmeatonRussell, Alien Forbes, Derek York.
Editor: Lindsay Anderson, Mary Beale.
Voce fuori campo: Richard Burton.
Production company: Derrick Knight.
