Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a film that was created in 1960 from a novel (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning) written by Alan Sillitoe in 1958. It was directed by Karel Reisz. The actors in this film were not necessarily famous at the time of filming and most originated from theater, in those days it would have been thought that the experience in acting may help create realistic and raw acting, however this isn't the case as much nowadays. The actors include; Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field and Rachel Roberts (these being the main three characters in the plot).
The themes of this film include alcohol, deceit, relationships & sex, abortion, working class life, poor family relationships and poverty; all of these being quite dark and depressing subjects at times. These tend to be what build a realistic story though, as a lot of them can be experienced in real life. For example, an action filled life being chased by dragons and meeting the love of your life is far less likely to happen in real life; whereas an unwanted pregnancy that shakes life up is far more likely to occur to an average, everyday person.
Here is a clip of the opening sequence, posted by u9s56, on YouTube.
Just from this short opening sequence, we can see the pieces of the social realism genre perfectly.
The very first shot in in a film is a long shot of a working-class work place; a factory. In the shot we can see lots of people at work, wearing scruffy uniforms (most with their sleeves rolled up and dirty) and of all ages, which shows that even the older generation are suffering in poverty and need to gain finance somehow. The lighting in this shot is also very dull, which faint beams of light seeping through small upper windows if any. This helps to show the atmosphere that these workers would have been working in; creating a rather dull and undesirable mood. However, this low yet busy mood is used in a lot of films with this genre to show that not everyone lives a happy, colourful life like in a lot of other films, it's an extremely effective way of depicting how a film is going to turn out.
Another really important scene for this film are the shots of background workers. These people would have been included in shot to help show the atmosphere of the factory and show you the types of people that work there, for example in one shot they show 3 workers sitting down in a line formation (see picture below). In this shot, the people are all different age, shape and sizes which shows that anyone that needed the money would be working in the factory, regardless to those factors. But the part is consider isn't the characters they play, but the fact they were not hired to act as workers, they really are the workers of the factory in real life. This means it was filmed on set of an actual working factory and all of their actions would have been real.
Even from screenshots taken at completely random points during the film, we can see it contains many features that we can recognize and match up to be part of the social realism genre.
From the first screenshot, we see the man standing near a playground with rough, grubby looking swings and other play equipment. By showing the playground, there are two things we can pick up from it. One that it is a typical 'poorer' place to be, as children may spend less time at home and more out in parks and streets with the levels of poverty in the area. We can also relate it to Arthur though, suggesting he isn't a small child any more and how life is more serious at his age, which he may not like the idea of. There is also a chain link fence which looks typically restricting and rough itself, this may show how he doesn't have complete freedom. The sky is grey and dull (minus the fact it is a black and white film, you can still recognize how vibrant a scene is) and the whole scene seems urban and lower-class. All of these things are typically seen in the social realism genre.
In the second screenshot, we can see a group of friends and the main character drinking in a pub. In this particular shot, the main character (who is in his young 30's) is trying to out drink a man who is a lot older than himself. This would have been to assert his dominance and youthful nature and lifestyle, suggesting he can take his drink and probably drinks regularly. Alcohol is a very common theme within the social realism genre.
One thing that does not necessarily match the idea of a social realist film is the ending; it's quite a happy one. Most films in this genre end on a low note, with the character being punished and realizing their mistakes at the end. However this film ends with the suggestion of him being married and living with the girl of his dreams. However it could be argued it does have a slight sense of realism to it, possibly suggesting the idea of 'a happy ending is always possible' or possibly 'you're young and have much more to come in life, so don't mope in the past, enjoy the present and future' which is a phrase that is often said to younger people in their lives.
The very first shot in in a film is a long shot of a working-class work place; a factory. In the shot we can see lots of people at work, wearing scruffy uniforms (most with their sleeves rolled up and dirty) and of all ages, which shows that even the older generation are suffering in poverty and need to gain finance somehow. The lighting in this shot is also very dull, which faint beams of light seeping through small upper windows if any. This helps to show the atmosphere that these workers would have been working in; creating a rather dull and undesirable mood. However, this low yet busy mood is used in a lot of films with this genre to show that not everyone lives a happy, colourful life like in a lot of other films, it's an extremely effective way of depicting how a film is going to turn out.
Another really important scene for this film are the shots of background workers. These people would have been included in shot to help show the atmosphere of the factory and show you the types of people that work there, for example in one shot they show 3 workers sitting down in a line formation (see picture below). In this shot, the people are all different age, shape and sizes which shows that anyone that needed the money would be working in the factory, regardless to those factors. But the part is consider isn't the characters they play, but the fact they were not hired to act as workers, they really are the workers of the factory in real life. This means it was filmed on set of an actual working factory and all of their actions would have been real.
From the first screenshot, we see the man standing near a playground with rough, grubby looking swings and other play equipment. By showing the playground, there are two things we can pick up from it. One that it is a typical 'poorer' place to be, as children may spend less time at home and more out in parks and streets with the levels of poverty in the area. We can also relate it to Arthur though, suggesting he isn't a small child any more and how life is more serious at his age, which he may not like the idea of. There is also a chain link fence which looks typically restricting and rough itself, this may show how he doesn't have complete freedom. The sky is grey and dull (minus the fact it is a black and white film, you can still recognize how vibrant a scene is) and the whole scene seems urban and lower-class. All of these things are typically seen in the social realism genre.
One thing that does not necessarily match the idea of a social realist film is the ending; it's quite a happy one. Most films in this genre end on a low note, with the character being punished and realizing their mistakes at the end. However this film ends with the suggestion of him being married and living with the girl of his dreams. However it could be argued it does have a slight sense of realism to it, possibly suggesting the idea of 'a happy ending is always possible' or possibly 'you're young and have much more to come in life, so don't mope in the past, enjoy the present and future' which is a phrase that is often said to younger people in their lives.
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