Rent Free Cinema (1952-1963) (2006)
4.2 of 5 from 5 ratings
7h 55min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
A highly influential but critically neglected movement in British cinema history, "Free Cinema" not only re-invented British documentary in the 1950s but also served as a precursor for the better known British New Wave of social-realist feature films in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Born in February 1956, when a group, led by critic and filmmaker Lindsay Anderson, screened their short films at the National Film Theatre, Free Cinema proved so popular that five more programmes followed until 1959, featuring films by young British and foreign filmmakers. The BFI has brought together, for the first time, the eleven films of the three British programmes in this 3-disc boxset. This definitive collection includes a number of fascinating shorts made on a shoestring budget and a 16mm Bolex camera by first-time directors such as Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson (Momma Don't Allow), Claude Goretta and Alain Tanner (Nice Time), Michael Grigsby (Enginemen) and Robert Vas (Refuge England), as weN as the more ambitious, 35mm featurettes Together (dir. Lorenza Mazzetti), Every Day Except Christmas (dir. Lindsay Anderson) and We Are the Lambeth Boys (dir. Karel Reisz). The third disc features an exclusive 43-minute documentary with interviews, film extracts and previously unseen stills, as well as a specially curated collection of rarely seen films made in the spirit of the Free Cinema movement. - Actors:
- Chris Barber, Ron Bowden, Jim Bray, Lonnie Donegan, Pat Halcox, Ottilie Patterson, Monty Sunshine, Bill Collins, Abdul Hamid Khan, Tibor Molnár, Leonard Ryland, Tony Benson, Adrian Harding, Brian Mott, Richard Burton, Tony Benn, George Brown, Hugh Gaitskell, Michael Grigsby, Walter Lassally
- Directors:
- Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson, Lindsay Anderson, Claude Goretta, Alain Tanner, Nigel McIsaac, James Ritchie, Raymond Townsend, Robert Vas, Michael Grigsby, Elizabeth Russell, Leslie Daiken, John Irvin, Lorenza Mazzetti, Denis Horne
- Producers:
- Michael Robinson, Leon Clore, Karel Reisz, Derrick Knight, Richard De La Mare, David Naden, Denis Horne
- Voiced By:
- George Potts, Jon Rollason
- Narrated By:
- George Potts, Alun Owen, Jon Rollason, Richard Burton
- Writers:
- Lindsay Anderson, Claude Goretta, Alain Tanner, Laszlo Marton, Robert Vas, Michael Grigsby, Leslie Daiken, Denis Horne
- Studio:
- BFI Video
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Special Interest
- Collections:
- Cinema Paradiso's 2023 Centenary Club: Part 1, The Golden Age of British Pop Musicals, The Instant Expert's Guide to: Miloš Forman, Top 10 Best Last Films: World Cinema, Top 10 British Seaside Movies, Top 10 Czech Films
