The Other Side of the Underneath

Last updated

The Other Side of the Underneath
The Other Side of the Underneath.png
DVD cover
Directed by Jane Arden
Written byJane Arden
Produced by Jack Bond
Starring Sheila Allen
CinematographyJack Bond
Aubrey Dewar
Edited byDavid Mingay
Music bySally Minford
Production
company
Jack Bond Films
Release date
  • October 1972 (1972-10)
Running time
110 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Other Side of the Underneath is a 1972 British experimental psychological drama film written and directed by Jane Arden and starring Sheila Allen, Suzanka Fraey, Liz Danciger, Ann Lynn, and Penny Slinger. Other members of the Holocaust Theatre Company appear in the film. Jane Arden herself also appears in the film.

Contents

It is the only British feature film in the 1970s to be solely directed by a woman. The title of the film is taken from a line in Arden's play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven, which was a huge success at the London Arts Lab in 1969. The film is an adaptation of Arden's 1971 play A New Communion for Freaks, Prophets and Witches. [1] The film had almost mythical status amongst fans of radical, experimental cinema, partly because of its visionary and disturbing depictions of the mental state of its schizophrenic protagonist, and also its unavailability.

Plot

The film looks inside the mind of a young woman labelled schizophrenic and finds, not madness, but tortured sexual guilt created by the taboos of society. Juxtaposing visions of personal hell with group psychotherapy sessions, The Other Side of the Underneath is an unsettling experience and provides an illustration of the idea that insanity is a kind of death that must be followed by rebirth. The terrifying fantasy sequences are utterly convincing images of madness from the inside and convey the despair and destitution of a personality that has been fragmented.

Cast

Production

Filming

The locations for the film were primarily in and around the Welsh mining communities of Abertillery and Cwmtillery in Blaenau Gwent. One early episode was filmed at the Newport Transporter Bridge.

Alcohol and LSD use was rampant from the crew during production, particularly with Arden. [2] The filmmaking process was so painfully intense for almost everyone involved that it brought an end to the Holocaust theatre company, and the majority of participants parted ways for good.

Music

The extraordinary soundtrack to the film was primarily the work of the cellist Sally Minford, who appears, actually playing the cello, in many interior and exterior scenes, and the sound editor Robert Hargreaves.

Release

Obscurity

Until the July 2009 showings at the National Film Theatre (BFI South Bank) and The Cube Microplex in Bristol, it had not been publicly shown anywhere since a July 1983 National Film Theatre tribute to Arden, who had committed suicide at the end of the previous year. Like Separation (1967) and Anti-Clock (1979) the film remained unseen and was thought lost for many decades.

Home media

The British Film Institute restored and remastered the film for DVD and Blu-ray release on 13 July 2009. [3] The Other Side of the Underneath was re-released simultaneously with Arden's other two feature films.

Critical reception

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Film Institute</span> UK film archive and charity

The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, distribution, and education. It is sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and partially funded under the British Film Institute Act 1949.

<i>The Grove Family</i> British TV soap opera (1954–1957)

The Grove Family was a British television series soap opera, generally regarded as the first of its kind broadcast in the UK, made and broadcast by the BBC Television Service from 1954 to 1957. The series concerned the life of the family of the title, who were named after the BBC's Lime Grove Studios where the programme was made.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John E. Blakeley</span> English film director and producer (1888–1958)

John E. Blakeley was a British film producer, director and screenwriter, the founder of Mancunian Films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheila White (actress)</span> British film, television and stage actress (1948–2018)

Sheila Susan White was an English film, television and stage actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Foster</span> English actress (born 1943)

Julia Foster is an English stage, screen, and television actress.

<i>Penny Points to Paradise</i> 1951 British film by Tony Young

Penny Points to Paradise is a 1951 comedy feature film directed by Tony Young and starring Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers of The Goon Show in their feature film debut.

<i>A Private Function</i> 1984 British comedy film

A Private Function is a 1984 British comedy film starring Michael Palin and Maggie Smith. The film was predominantly filmed in Ilkley, and Ben Rhydding in West Yorkshire. The film was also screened in the section of Un Certain Regard at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.

<i>High Treason</i> (1929 British film) 1929 film

High Treason is a 1929 film based on a play by Noel Pemberton Billing. It was directed by Maurice Elvey, and stars James Carew, Humberstone Wright, Benita Hume, Henry Vibart, Hayford Hobbs, Irene Rooke, and Jameson Thomas. Raymond Massey makes his first screen appearance in a small role. The film was initially produced as a silent but mid-way during production, Elvey was pushed by the studio to add sound to the film in order to cash in on the talkies. Although a third of the film was filmed in sound, Elvey maintained much of the silent footage and dubbed over the dialogue for shots that were originally silent, with Elvey himself voicing some of the minor characters, which he admitted when interviewed by the Manitoba Free Press shortly after the film was released in the US. Likewise, BIP's Blackmail, directed by Alfred Hitchcock was also turned into a sound picture mid-way during production and many of the silent scenes used dubbed dialogue and sound effects in a similar fashion to High Treason.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Arden (director)</span> Welsh film director and actress (1927–1982)

Jane Arden was a British film director, actress, singer/songwriter and poet, who gained note in the 1950s. Born in Pontypool, Monmouthshire, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She started acting in the late 1940s and writing for stage and television in the 1950s. In the 1960s, she joined movements for feminism and anti-psychiatry. She wrote a screenplay for the film Separation (1967). In the late 1960s and 1970s, she wrote for experimental theatre, adapting one work as a self-directed film, The Other Side of the Underneath (1972). In 1978 she published a poetry book. Arden committed suicide in 1982. In 2009, her feature films Separation (1967), The Other Side of the Underneath (1972) and Anti-Clock (1979) were restored by the British Film Institute and released on DVD and Blu-ray. Her literary works are out of print.

Penny Slinger, sometimes Penelope Slinger, is a British-born American artist and author based in California. As an artist, she has worked in different mediums, including photography, film and sculpture. Her work has been described as being in the genres of surrealism and feminist surrealism. Her work explores the nature of the self, the feminine and the erotic.

Sheila Allen was an English actress, who was best known to the wider public for her role on television as Cassie Manson in Bouquet Of Barbed Wire and its sequel Another Bouquet (1976–77). From 1966 to 1978, Allen was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

<i>Piccadilly Incident</i> 1946 British film

Piccadilly Incident is a 1946 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Coral Browne, Edward Rigby and Leslie Dwyer.

<i>Madness of the Heart</i> 1950 British film by Charles Bennett

Madness of the Heart is a 1949 British drama film directed by Charles Bennett, produced by Richard Wainwright for Two Cities Films and starring Margaret Lockwood, Maxwell Reed, Kathleen Byron and Paul Dupuis. The screenplay was written by Charles Bennett, adapted from the novel of the same name by Flora Sandström.

<i>The Third Alibi</i> 1961 British film by Montgomery Tully

The Third Alibi is a 1961 British 'B' thriller film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Laurence Payne, Patricia Dainton, Jane Griffiths and Edward Underdown. The screenplay is by Maurice J. Wilson and Tully, based on the play A Moment of Blindness by Pip and Jane Baker.

Sailors Three is a 1940 British war comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Tommy Trinder, Claude Hulbert and Carla Lehmann. This was cockney music hall comedian Trinder's debut for Ealing, the studio with which he was to become most closely associated. It concerns three British sailors who accidentally find themselves aboard a German ship during the Second World War.

<i>Bleak Moments</i> 1971 British film

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.

<i>Pressure</i> (1976 film) 1976 British film

Pressure is a 1976 British drama film directed by Horace Ové and starring Herbert Norville, Oscar James and Frank Singuineau. Co-written by Ové with Samuel Selvon, it is hailed as the UK's first Black dramatic feature-length film, and has been characterised as "a gritty and dynamic study of a generation in crisis". Ové said in a 2005 interview: "What Pressure tried to do was to portray the experience of the Windrush generation, the kids who came with them and the kids born here."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">In Two Minds</span> 17th episode of the 6th season of The Wednesday Play

"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.

ITV Sunday Night Theatre, originally titled ITV Saturday Night Theatre and often shortened to simply Sunday Night Theatre or Saturday Night Theatre, is a British television anthology series screened on ITV, whose episodes were contributed by various companies in the ITV network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Loach</span> British filmmaker (born 1936)

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.

References

  1. "BFI Screenonline: Arden, Jane (1927-82) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk.
  2. Andrew Key (25 February 2022). "The Quietus | Film | Film Features | Girl Interrupted: Revisiting Jane Arden's The Other Side Of The Underneath". The Quietus.
  3. Thea Porter (20 October 2020). "The Cinematheque / The Other Side of the Underneath". The Cinematheque.