Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (film)
| Saturday Night and Sunday Morning | |
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| Directed by | Karel Reisz |
| Produced by | Tony Richardson |
| Written by | Alan Sillitoe |
| Starring | Albert Finney Shirley Anne Field Rachel Roberts Hylda Baker Norman Rossington |
| Music by | John Dankworth |
| Cinematography | Freddie Francis |
| Editing by | Seth Holt |
| Distributed by | Bryanston Films (UK) Continental Films (US) |
| Release date(s) |  November 1960 3 April 1961 |
| Running time | 89 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a 1960 British film. It is an adaptation of the 1958 novel of the same name by Alan Sillitoe. Sillitoe wrote the screenplay adaptation and the film was directed by Karel Reisz.
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[edit] Synopsis
Arthur Seaton is a young machinist at a Nottingham factory. Angry at his lot in life, he is determined not to be tied down to living a life of domestic drudgery like the people around him, including his parents whom he describes as "dead from the neck up". He spends his wages at weekends on drinking and having a good time. Arthur is having an affair with Brenda, the wife of an older co-worker. He also begins a relationship with Doreen, a single woman closer to his age. When Brenda gets pregnant, Arthur asks his Aunt Ada for advice on aborting the child (as abortions were not legal at that time). None of Ada's advice works and Brenda decides that she will keep the child and suffer the consequences. Later, Brenda's husband discovers the affair and his brother (a burly soldier) and a fellow soldier give Arthur a beating. After recovering, Arthur returns to work but knows he can never see Brenda (or his soon to be born child) again. The film ends with Arthur and Doreen discussing marriage and the prospect of a new home together.
[edit] Style
The film is among the first of the social-realist or "kitchen sink dramas" which followed the success of the play Look Back in Anger. Others include Tony Richardson's (a producer on this film) 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 life in a serious manner for the first time and portraying the more realistic side of sex and abortion. The film received an X rating from the BBFC upon its theatrical release and later was submitted for re-rating for the home video release and given a PG rating.[1]
[edit] Filming locations
Much of the exterior filming was done on location in Nottingham, though some scenes were shot elsewhere. 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 (now Rowditch Lane).
The closing scenes show Arthur and Doreen on a grassy slope overlooking a housing estate with new construction going on. According to an article in the Nottingham Evening News on 30 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
- Albert Finney as Arthur Seaton
- Shirley Anne Field as Doreen
- Rachel Roberts as Brenda
- Hylda Baker as Aunt Ada
- Norman Rossington as Bert
- Bryan Pringle as Jack
- Robert Cawdron as Robboe
- Edna Morris as Mrs. Bull
- Elsie Wagstaff as Mrs. Seaton
- Frank Pettitt as Mr. Seaton
- Avis Bunnage as Mousy Woman
- Colin Blakely as Loudmouth
- Irene Richmond as Doreen's Mother
- Louise Dunn as Betty
- Anne Blake as Civil Defence Officer
- Peter Madden as Drunken Man
- Cameron Hall as Mr. Bull
- Alister Williamson as Police Constable
- Peter Sallis as Man in Suit (uncredited)
[edit] Awards
The film won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film in 1961.
[edit] Popular culture references
The film is the origin for the title of the debut album of Sheffield rock band Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.
It is also the origin for the title of the live album Saturday Night, Sunday Morning by The Stranglers.
"Saturday Night Sunday Morning" - a song from Madness 1999 album Wonderful
The runout groove on the B-side of vinyl copies of The Smiths' 1986 album The Queen Is Dead feature the line "Them was rotten days" said by Aunt Ada (Hylda Baker) in the film. Also the line said by Doreen before Arthur takes her to the fair "I want to go where there's life and there's people" inspired the song "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" on the same album ("I want to see people and I want to see life").
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Saturday Night and Sunday Morning BBFC page
[edit] External links
- Saturday Night and Sunday Morning at the Internet Movie Database
- Saturday Night and Sunday Morning at AllRovi
- Saturday Night and Sunday Morning at the TCM Movie Database
- Saturday Night and Sunday Morning at Rotten Tomatoes
- British Film Institute article
- Screenonline article
- British New Wave Essay on Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, at BrokenProjector.com. Archived at Webcite from this original URL 2008-05-08.
- Photographs of The White Horse Public House, Nottingham as featured in the film
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