Family Life | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Directed by | Ken Loach |
Screenplay by | David Mercer |
Based on | TV play Two Minds by David Mercer |
Produced by | Tony Garnett |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Charles Stewart |
Edited by | Roy Watts |
Music by | Marc Wilkinson |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by |
|
Release dates |
|
Running time | 108 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £180,000 [1] |
Box office | $1,827,374SEK ($291,648USD) |
Family Life (US: Wednesday's Child) [2] is a 1971 British drama film directed by Ken Loach from a screenplay by David Mercer. [3] It is a remake of In Two Minds , an episode of the BBC's Wednesday Play series first transmitted by the BBC in March 1967, which was also written by Mercer and directed by Loach. [4]
A young woman, Janice, is living with her conservative, working-class parents, who become concerned at her rebellious behaviour, and are shocked when she becomes pregnant. At a time when pregnancy when unmarried was widely considered shameful, they insist she has an abortion, but this has terrible emotional and mental effects on her. They constantly berate her for her behaviour, even when they visit her in hospital.
Tony Garnett became interested in the work of psychiatrist R. D. Laing as a member of his family suffered from mental illness. He arranged for David Mercer to write a screenplay. [5] It resulted in the play Two Minds which Garnett said was inspired by the story of Julie, a case in Laing's 1960 book The Divided Self. "I regretted later it might be seen as scapegoating the mother," wrote Garnett. [6] Garnett wanted Roy Battersby to direct but he was unavailable so he went with Ken Loach.
The production was a success but Garnett said the fate and experience of his family member with the psychiatric profession "kept nagging away at me" so he decided to turn it into a film. Mercer was reluctant as "he rightly felt he had done the subject" but he was eventually persuaded. Garnett says Loach "didn't see the point but was easier to persuade. Directors always want to work in cinema." [7]
"It's the only subject where I've insisted we had two bites at the cherry, for my own personal reasons," said Garnett. "It was so important to me, to do with a woman in my life and a painful time. Although it wasn't necessarily a sensible thing to do, it was almost an obsession in me to try to understand what had gone on." [8]
Garnett claimed Mercer's "screenplay was barely adequate. It was lazy, perhaps because his heart wasn't in it. I wanted to do more work on it with him. He was reluctant. I probably should have called it a day then. With David on strike, but naturally reluctant to allow me to rewrite it, we had an insecure basis for a film. It was probably my fault for pressing him into it." However the producer says the movie was rescued by Loach who "gave a sense that we were witnessing life rather than actors doing their thing." [9]
Half the budget was provided by the National Film Finance Corporation, who had financed the script, the other half by Nat Cohen and Anglo-EMI. [10] [11] Garnett wrote that when he pitched the project to Cohen, the producer summarised the story as "So, a mad girl goes into a mental hospital and goes madder. An unhappy ending. No laughs, no sex." He then said "You and Ken, you know, we could make a lot of money with you. If you weren't such a bunch of bloody communists." [12] Although Garnett and Loach wanted to use an unknown in the lead, Cohen gave the money.
Casting mixed professionals with amateurs. The mother was played by a suburban housewife and the psychiatrist by a real psychiatrist. Changes from the original included introducing a psychiatrist character and a boyfriend for the lead. [8]
There were clashes during filming as Mercer wanted his script filmed to the letter while Loach encouraged improvisation. [13]
During editing, Loach was involved in a car accident that injured him and resulted in the death of his mother in law and five-year-old son. [14]
The film was screened at the New York Film Festival on 3 October 1972. [15]
According to Loach the film made a "healthy profit". [10] However Garnett said it "did little business, as Nat had predicted, although long afterwards he had the grace to admit it was released and marketed badly. I don't think anyone knew how to sell it or even knew what it was really about." The film was very successful in France, however, where Laing's teachings were popular. [9] Loach's biographer says the film was a commercial failure and prevented him making a feature for several years. [16]
The Evening Standard called it "extraordinary". [17] Pauline Kael wrote "There are a few striking performances in the simulations of documentary footage. If you're not convinced by the Laing thesis, though, you may get very impatient." [18]
Variety called it "disturbing and provocative." [19]
Ronald David Laing, usually cited as R. D. Laing, was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness—in particular, psychosis and schizophrenia. Laing's views on the causes and treatment of psychopathological phenomena were influenced by his study of existential philosophy and ran counter to the chemical and electroshock methods that had become psychiatric orthodoxy. Laing took the expressed feelings of the individual patient or client as valid descriptions of personal experience rather than simply as symptoms of mental illness. Though associated in the public mind with the anti-psychiatry movement, he rejected the label. Laing regarded schizophrenia as the normal psychological adjustment to a dysfunctional social context, although later in life he revised his views.
Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 British film, directed by Stephen Frears, about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the 1978 biography by John Lahr. The film stars Gary Oldman as Orton, Alfred Molina as Halliwell, Wallace Shawn as Lahr, and Vanessa Redgrave as Peggy Ramsay.
The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramatic adaptations of fiction also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen.
"Cathy Come Home" is a 1966 BBC television play about homelessness. It was written by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach. A 1998 Radio Times readers' poll voted it the "best single television drama" and a 2000 industry poll rated it as the second-best British television programme ever made. Filmed in a gritty, realistic drama documentary style, it was first broadcast on 16 November 1966 on BBC1. The play was shown in the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology strand, which often tackled social issues.
Kes is a 1969 British coming-of-age drama film directed by Ken Loach and produced by Tony Garnett, based on the 1968 novel A Kestrel for a Knave, written by the Hoyland Nether–born author Barry Hines. Kes follows the story of Billy, who comes from a dysfunctional working-class family and is a no-hoper at school, but discovers his own private means of fulfilment when he adopts a fledgling kestrel and proceeds to train it in the art of falconry.
Anthony Samuel Selby was an English actor. He was best known for his roles as Clive Mitchell in EastEnders, Corporal Percy Marsh in Get Some In!, and Sabalom Glitz in Doctor Who.
Trevor Griffiths was an English dramatist.
David Mercer was an English dramatist.
The Seventh Veil is a 1945 British melodrama film directed by Compton Bennett and starring James Mason and Ann Todd. It was made by Ortus Films and released through General Film Distributors in the UK and Universal Pictures in the United States. The screenplay concerns Francesca (Todd), a brilliant concert pianist who attempts suicide while she is being treated for a disabling delusional disorder centred on her hands that makes it impossible for her to play. A psychiatrist uses hypnosis to uncover the source of her crippling fear and to reveal, one by one, the relationships that have enriched and troubled her life. When the last "veil" is removed, her mind is clear. She regains the ability to play and knows whom she loves best. The film's title comes from the metaphor, attributed to the fictional psychiatrist, that while Salome removed all her veils willingly, human beings fiercely protect the seventh and last veil that hides their deepest secrets, and will only reveal themselves completely under narcosis.
Anthony "Tony" Garnett was a British film and television producer, and actor. Best known for his thirteen-year association with director Ken Loach, his work as a producer continued into the 21st century.
Bill Dean was a British actor who was born in Everton, Liverpool, Lancashire. He took his stage name in honour of Everton football legend William 'Dixie' Dean.
James Allen was an English socialist playwright, best known for his collaborations with Ken Loach.
James MacTaggart was a Scottish television producer, director and writer. He worked in London from 1961.
Bleak Moments is a 1971 British comedy-drama film by Mike Leigh in his directorial debut. Leigh's screenplay is based on a 1970 stage play at the Open Space Theatre, about the dysfunctional life of a young secretary.
"The Spongers" is the 14th episode of eighth season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 24 January 1978. "The Spongers" was written by Jim Allen, directed by Roland Joffé, produced by Tony Garnett, and starred Christine Hargreaves, Bernard Hill, Peter Kerrigan, and Paula McDonagh.
"The Big Flame" is a 1969 BBC television play by socialist playwright Jim Allen, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach. The play tells the story of 10,000 dockworkers occupying the Liverpool docks in a "work-in". Filmed in a gritty, realistic drama documentary style, it was first broadcast on 19 February 1969 on BBC1, at a time when unemployment was rising in Britain. The play was shown in the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology strand, which was noted for tackling social issues.
"Up the Junction" is an episode of the BBC anthology drama series The Wednesday Play directed by Ken Loach and produced by James MacTaggart. It was first broadcast on 3 November 1965 on BBC 1. The play was adapted by Nell Dunn and (uncredited) Ken Loach from Dunn's short story collection of the same name. It tells the stories of three young women living in North Battersea and Clapham and, to a lesser degree, their boyfriends.
"In Two Minds" is a television play by David Mercer commissioned for The Wednesday Play anthology drama series. First transmitted on 1 March 1967, it was directed by Ken Loach and produced by Tony Garnett and features Anna Cropper in the lead role.
Kenneth Charles Loach is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialism are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty, homelessness, and labour rights.
"The End of Arthur's Marriage" is a television satirical musical drama that was an episode in The Wednesday Play series first broadcast on 17 November 1965. It was an early work of director Ken Loach, and the script was written by poet Christopher Logue. It is unusual in Loach's catalogue for the surrealism, and the director later said that he believed himself to have been "the wrong man for the job". Main actor Ken Jones had previously worked with Loach on Wear a Very Big Hat and 3 Clear Sundays and later featured in the controversial 1969 play The Big Flame.