ReFocus: The Films of Lindsay Anderson
Edited by Will Kitchen
Provides new scholarly interpretations of films by British director Lindsay Anderson
- New interdisciplinary research on Lindsay Anderson
- Fresh interpretations of neglected texts using contemporary critical themes
- Contains international contributions from both established and emerging academics
Following the centenary of Lindsay Anderson’s birth (1923-94), this edited collection of original essays re-examines the work of one of British cinema’s most iconoclastic and challenging directors. Building upon existing scholarship and authorial frameworks, the chapters included engage with a range of highly contemporary interpretive themes and approaches, including regionalism, reception, trauma, queer theory, genre, collaboration and gender representation.
Addressing a number of methods and key themes which have arisen in the years following Anderson’s death, ReFocus: The Films of Lindsay Anderson offers a diverse exploration of his screen work from a contemporary critical perspective. The chapters provide fresh insights into some of the most significant texts in the history of British cinema, including films, concepts and creative relationships that have shaped modern screen culture.
Figures
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Foreword - Erik Hedling
Introduction - Will Kitchen
1. “Usual stimulating awful marvellous Northern urban landscape”: Authorship, Poetry & Placemaking in Lindsay Anderson’s 1960s Filmography - Jonny Smith
2. The White Bus and Townscape - Kevin M. Flanagan
3. “A poetic version of a News of the World story”: Gender, Realism and Single Motherhood in This Sporting Life - Isabelle Kemp
4. Boarding School Stories: A Critical Reflection on Lindsay Anderson’s If.... - Adam Locks
5. Ego and Alter Ego: Malcolm McDowell in the Films of Lindsay Anderson - Robert Shail
6. The Angry Young Man Strikes: An Exploration into Lindsay Anderson’s Political Satires - Sony Jalarajan Raj and Adith K. Suresh
7. “He’s not what people expect a working-class writer to be”: Class, Region and Realism in the work of David Storey and Lindsay Anderson - David Forrest
8. In Celebration of a Brilliant Craftsman: The Strange Likeness of Lindsay Anderson, William Wyler and Anthony Asquith - Brian Hoyle
9. “Crass stupidity”: The Critics and The Old Crowd - Julian Petley
10. Spine-Chilling Possibilities: Britannia Hospital and British Horror Production - James Leggott
11. Becoming Flesh: Queer Vulnerabilities in Britannia Hospital - Benedict Morrison
12. If You Were There…: The Legacy of Free Cinema - Will Edwards
13. The Popularity of The Whales of August and a Short History of Lindsay Anderson in Japan -Sawako Omori
14. Bette, Lilian and Lindsay – and The Whales of August - Brian McFarlane
Index
Anderson was famously cynical about the growth of academic Film Studies, but he might surely have relished this collection of in-depth scholarly essays: authors ranging widely in nationality as in age, from Scotland to Japan, from Sweden to Australia, testify to the freshness of his films and his legacy. An important book on a major figure in British cinema.
