Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (film)

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Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Directed by Karel Reisz
Produced by Tony Richardson
Written by Alan Sillitoe
Starring Albert Finney
Shirley Anne Field
Rachel Roberts
Hylda Baker
Music by John Dankworth
Cinematography Freddie Francis
Distributed by Bryanston Films Ltd.
Continental Distributing Inc.
Release date(s) Flag of United Kingdom November, 1960
Flag of United States 3 April 1961
Running time 89 min
Language English
IMDb profile

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a 1960 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alan Sillitoe. Sillitoe adapted the screenplay himself and the film was directed by Karel Reisz.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film (which has some plot differences from the novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning ) tells the story of Arthur Seaton, a young Nottingham factory worker, who is having an affair with Brenda, the wife of an older co-worker. He also has a relationship with Doreen, a woman closer to his own age. When Brenda gets pregnant, Arthur asks his aunt for advice on aborting the child. Brenda's husband discovers the affair and her brother and a fellow soldier give Arthur a serious beating. The film ends on an ambiguous note, with a recovered Arthur and Doreen discussing marriage and the prospect of a new home.

[edit] Style

The film is considered to be the first of the social-realist or "kitchen sink dramas" of the 1960's. Others include Tony Richardson's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (from Alan Sillitoe's 1959 collection of short stories of the same name) and A Taste of Honey; and John Schlesinger's A Kind of Loving and Billy Liar. It was at the forefront of the British New Wave, films dealing with working class issues in a serious manner for the first time, and portraying the more realistic side of everyday issues such as sex, unwanted pregnancy and abortion.

[edit] Filming locations

Much of the exterior filming was done on location in Nottingham, but some scenes were not. The night scene with a pub named "The British Flag" in the background was filmed along Culvert Road in Battersea, London, the pub being at the junction of Culvert Road and Sheepcote Lane (that part of Sheepcote Lane has subsequently been re-named Rowditch Lane).

The closing scenes show the lead characters on a grassy slope overlooking a housing estate with new construction going on. According to an article in the Nottingham Evening News, 30th March 1960, this was filmed in Wembley with the assistance of Nottingham builders Simms Sons & Cooke who set up a staged "building site" on location

[edit] Cast

[edit] Awards

The film won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film in 1961.

[edit] Popular culture references

The film is also the origin for the title of the debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not of Sheffield rock band Arctic Monkeys.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Sapphire
BAFTA Award for Best British Film
1961
Succeeded by
A Taste of Honey