Lindsay Anderson - latest news.

May 2008 - Hard on the heels of the USA DVD release comes the UK DVD release of the long awaited O'Lucky Man! After its inital video release and being long unavavilable (with VHS copies changing hands for upwards of £50), the two disc version was finally released in the UK on 19th May 2008. Its content is exactly the same as US version, with all the lovely extra features.

Lindsay Anderson - A Biography part 1: Early years to 1960. (part 2, part 3)

Lindsay Gordon Anderson was born in Bangalore, India on 17th April 1923 the son of a Scottish Army officer that was stationed there. His formative education was at Cheltenham College and then (following his service with the Army Intelligence Corps during WW2) Wadham College, Oxford - no doubt much direct inspiration was gained here for his films and his rebellious leanings. It was also at Oxford where he founded "Sequence" a critical film journal with his long time friend Gavin Lambert. The voice of Sequence decried the state of British film as too stuffy, too middle class, and lacking in any social / moral perspective (the same things he Anderson would aim to put right in his later career).

In 1948 Lindsay Anderson began his transition from film critic to film maker, when he commenced making short documentary films. 1948 saw him make a 33 minute documentary film titled Meet The Pioneers a film about an Engineering factory in Wakefield (a job he got because a fan of Sequence was married to the factory owner who then commissioned the film). This was followed in 1949 by Idlers That Work.

1952 saw Lindsay become a published author with his book Making A Film which looked at one of his favorite film directors Thorold Dickinson (a director with a professorial knowledge of cinematic technique) and Dickinson's direction of the film Secret People. 1952 also saw Anderson complete three further documentaries Wakefield Express about the production of a small weekly newspaper, Trunk Conveyor made for The National Coal Board and Three Installations another industrial film promoting the industrial expertise of an engineering company.

1953 was something of a breakthrough year for Lindsay Anderson. His first film of the year was O' Dreamland a documentary which on the surface was about Margate's famous amusement park, but underneath was more of an indictment on the state of modern culture and it's need to embrace all that shines, and the hollowness and sadness that underpins it. This was followed later in the year by Thursday's Children a film about the children from the Royal School for the Deaf in Margate. The film was a critical success despite finding no distributor. It was nominated for a BAFTA and also won The Academy Award in 1955 for Best Documentary Short. Thursday's Children was also marked a step up in the world because he was able to film in 35mm and would also be joined by Walter Lassally as Director Of Photography (more of him later) and Richard Burton as the narrator. NB Thursdays Child has been included as an extra on the recent DVD issues of if....

A series of further documentaries followed over the next two years. A Hundred Thousand Children, Henry, Green And Pleasant Land and The Children Upstairs were all five minute shorts made for the National Society for the Prevent of Cruelty to Children. Foot And Mouth was a Public Information film about the disease produced for the Ministry of Agriculture. Energy First and £20 A Ton were produced for the National Industrial Fuel Efficiency Service.

Lindsay's vehement opposition to the subjects being made by British movies, and the problems of getting films like his distributed and shown led to a new cinematic movement coined by Anderson 'Free Cinema'. It was spearheaded by Anderson and his like minded cinematic comrades the directors Lorenza Mazzetti, Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson plus DP Walter Lassally. Their Manifesto stated "No film can be too personal. The image speaks. Sound amplifies and comments. Size is irrelevant. Perfection is not an aim. An attitude means a style. A style means an attitude." The Free Cinema event took place at the National Film Theatre in February 1956 an included Anderson's O' Dreamland, Momma, Dont Allow by Richardson and Reisz, and Together by Mazzetti. The original programme for the event can be viewed at the Free Cinema section on the BFI site. The movement continued for a few years with further events taking place before the end of the fifties but by that time much of the talent had moved onto making full length movies. A Free Cinema DVD has recently been released (which is available to buy from our stores) which contains amongst others early Lindsay Anderson works The Wakefield Express, O' Dreamland and Everyday Except Christmas.

The same year saw him take up his first commission to direct for the theatre with his production of Kathleen Sully's The Waiting of Lester Abbs at The Royal Court Theatre. This was the first in a long career in the theatre (and in particular with The Royal Court) that would see him direct at least one theatre production a year for most of the rest of his life and would see him specialising in directing a few selected playwrights including Shakespeare, Checkhov plus contemporary sympathetic writers in particular David Storey. The theatre work kept him busy up until the early sixties when he would commence work on his next film project.

continued on Part 2