Looks and Smiles | |
---|---|
Directed by | Ken Loach |
Written by | Barry Hines |
Produced by | Raymond Day Irving Teitelbaum |
Starring | Graham Green Carolyn Nicholson |
Cinematography | Chris Menges |
Edited by | Stephen Singleton |
Music by | Marc Wilkinson |
Production companies | Black Lion Films Kestrel Films |
Distributed by | ITC Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 104 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Looks and Smiles is a 1981 British drama film directed by Ken Loach. It is based on the novel of the same name, written by Barry Hines. The film was entered into the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, where Loach won the Young Cinema Award. [1]
In an interview for the book Loach on Loach, the director said that the title of the film is taken from a line from Anton Chekhov: "How did girls attract boys when they were young? In the usual way - with looks and smiles." [2]
A disadvantaged young man tries to get by in Margaret Thatcher's England. Writing in his book The Cinema of Ken Loach, Jacob Leigh comments: "Looks and Smiles reveals the depression people felt in the industrial North of England in the 1980s; but it is as depressing as Mick's life. ... Loach's characteristic attention to detail renders the film a period piece." [3]
The film was shot in black-and-white entirely on location in Sheffield. [3] There is some Yorkshire dialect in the film, although not as much as in previous Loach-Hines collaborations such as Kes and The Price of Coal .
A review in The New York Times gave the film a positive review and praised the acting, but complained about Loach's policy of using the actors' natural accents on the grounds that that "a great deal of the dialogue remains unintelligible to the American ear." [4]
A 2016 Guardian article wrote, "Even the most devoted fan found 1981’s Looks & Smiles painfully miserable". [5]
When asked why he was unhappy with the film in an interview for Loach on Loach, Ken Loach said, "It's too lethargic and gently-paced and when I think about it now I want to give it a kick up the arse." [6]
Ken Loach considered the film a failure and turned to making documentaries for several years afterwards, [7] saying that the film failed to "create the outrage in the audience that should have been there". [8] He also considered it "the end of an era" as he avoided long camera shots in subsequent films. [8] In support of the film, it has been held up as one of Ken Loach's film that does not propagate one political view heavily, as opposed to Fatherland [9] or Land and Freedom [10]
The Double Life of Veronique is a 1991 drama film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski and starring Irène Jacob and Philippe Volter. Written by Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, the film explores the themes of identity, love, and human intuition through the characters of Weronika, a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Véronique, a French music teacher. Despite not knowing each other, the two women share a mysterious and emotional bond that transcends language and geography.
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.
Vera Drake is a 2004 British period drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh and starring Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Daniel Mays and Eddie Marsan. It tells the story of a working-class woman in London in 1950 who performs illegal abortions. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and it was nominated for three Academy Awards and won three BAFTAs.
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.
Land and Freedom is a 1995 film directed by Ken Loach and written by Jim Allen. The film narrates the story of David Carr, an unemployed worker and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, who decides to fight in the Spanish Civil War for the republicans, a coalition of Socialists, Communists and Anarchists against a nationalist coup d'état. The film won the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
Britannia Hospital is a 1982 British black comedy film, directed by Lindsay Anderson, which targets the National Health Service and contemporary British society. It was entered into the 1982 Cannes Film Festival and Fantasporto.
Melvin Barry Hines, FRSL was an English author, playwright and screenwriter. His novels and screenplays explore the political and economic struggles of working-class Northern England, particularly in his native West Riding/South Yorkshire.
Fatherland is a 1986 film about a German singer-songwriter, directed by Ken Loach and starring Gerulf Pannach, Fabienne Babe, Cristine Rose and Sigfrit Steiner.
Robert William Bowes was a British actor and teacher whose only film role was as headmaster Mr Gryce in the 1969 adaptation of Barry Hines' book "A Kestrel for a Knave".
The 44th Cannes Film Festival was held from 9 to 20 May 1991. The Palme d'Or went to Barton Fink by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen.
The 33rd Cannes Film Festival was held between 9 and 23 May 1980. The Palme d'Or went to the All That Jazz by Bob Fosse and Kagemusha by Akira Kurosawa.
The 34th Cannes Film Festival was held from 13 to 27 May 1981. The Palme d'Or went to the Człowiek z żelaza by Andrzej Wajda. The festival opened with Three Brothers by Francesco Rosi and closed with Honeysuckle Rose, directed by Jerry Schatzberg.
The Gamekeeper is a 1980 British drama film directed by Ken Loach. It is based on a novel of the same name by Barry Hines. It competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. As with Barry Hines's other scripts, most of the dialogue is in Yorkshire dialect.
The 63rd Cannes Film Festival was held from 12 to 23 May 2010, in Cannes, France. The Cannes Film Festival, hailed as being one of the most recognized and prestigious film festivals worldwide, was founded in 1946. It consists of having films screened in and out of competition during the festival; films screened in competition compete for the Palme d'Or award. The award in 2010 was won by Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a Thai film directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. This was determined by the festival's jury members who reviewed films screened in competition. American film director Tim Burton was the president of the jury for the international competition, and other members of the jury for that competition included actors, screenwriters and composers, such as Kate Beckinsale, Emmanuel Carrère, Benicio del Toro, and Alexandre Desplat. Other categories for films screened in competition that have their own separate juries for other awards are for Short Films and the Un Certain Regard category.
"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.
I, Daniel Blake is a 2016 British drama film written by Paul Laverty and directed by Ken Loach. The film stars Dave Johns as Daniel Blake, a middle-aged man who is denied Employment and Support Allowance despite being declared unfit to work by his doctor. Hayley Squires co-stars as Katie, a struggling single mother whom Daniel befriends.
"The Rank and File" is the 21st episode of first season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 20 May 1971. "The Rank and File" was written by Jim Allen, directed by Ken Loach and produced by Graeme McDonald. It is included in the Ken Loach at the BBC boxset released in 2011, although the recording is of unusually poor quality for a DVD release.
Sally Hibbin is a British independent film producer, known for her work on low budget films with directors like Ken Loach and Phil Davis as well as producers like Sarah Curtis and Rebecca O'Brien. She has produced various British independent films and some television productions.