Film-Philosophy
Journal | Salon | Portal (ISSN 1466-4615)
Vol. 8 No. 3, January 2003
Florian Grandena
Realism, Politics, and Melodrama:
Jacob Leigh's _The Cinema of Ken Loach_
Jacob Leigh _The Cinema of Ken Loach:
Art in the Service of the People_ London and New York:
Wallflower
Press,
2002 ISBN
1-903364-31-0 211 pp. Involved in the filmmaking
business for almost forty years, Ken Loach has become one of
the most prominent British filmmakers. Stamped with
political commitment and artistic integrity, his films have
taken many forms and have dealt with a wide range of issues:
indeed, Loach has produced a body of high quality and
ambitious work that has gained praise and recognition from
film professionals, critics, and the public. Thus, that a
scholar such as Jacob Leigh dedicates an entire book to the
richness and pertinence of Loach's works is more than
welcome. In the Introduction to
_The Cinema of Ken Loach: Art in the Service of the People_,
Leigh immediately states his aims: 'to describe the thematic
and stylistic consistencies in the work of Ken Loach and to
provide an account of the development of his career' (1).
Indeed, the whole book is dedicated to the evolution of
Loach's career, both in formal and topical terms, and places
much emphasis on the director's various collaborations with,
for example, writer Jim Allen and director of photography
Chris Menges. In the first chapter,
'Clear Notes in the Concert', Leigh chooses to discuss the
key themes of his book (realism, politics, and melodrama)
through the analysis of two scenes from _Carla's Song_
(1996). The chapter almost bluntly starts with an
illustration of the problem that has confronted Loach
throughout his career: plausibility, or more precisely, how
'to inform *and* to entertain audiences' (11). Leigh's whole
book is enriched by interesting in-depth analyses of
well-chosen scenes, and Chapter 1 is no exception. Here the
author focuses on acting style in two scenes. In the first
scene, the reader is told that mannered, hesitating acting
leads to spectatorial alienation. In another scene, not
unlike in documentaries, the camera captures 'authentic'
emotions and behaviour. Leigh's reflection is thus informed
by critical appraisals of Loach's films in terms of realism.
Similarly, he ponders over the possibility of incorporating
politics into films without being too overt. In Chapter 2 ('What to Do
with a Camera'), the author analyses the aesthetic
strategies in Loach's early works and lays emphasis on the
evolution of the director's style and his collaborations.
The three films discussed in this chapter concentrate on the
struggle of working class women. They also all share a
desire to stay away from naturalism by applying some
Brechtian techniques. The main films discussed in this
chapter are _Up the Junction_ (1965), _Cathy Come Home_
(1966), and _Poor Cow_ (1967). Typically, the chapter is
divided in three sections, each dedicated to the analysis of
a film. _Up the Junction_ was
adapted from Nell Dunn's novel of the same name. Here, it is
mostly the Brechtian use of songs and music that is
analysed: Leigh underlines the spectatorial emotional
disruption that is provoked by sound/song juxtapositions or
interruptions. The author also pays attention to other
Brechtian and Godardian influences, such as the combination
of individual drama, social analysis, fractured narratives,
and some non-naturalist acting techniques (such as
addressing the camera). _Cathy Come Home_ was
filmed on location and used the interview format. Indeed,
formally speaking, Loach's film suggests a documentary
report. Leigh discusses Loach's use of documentary
traditions such as montage sequences of observational shots.
Much attention is paid to voice-overs, which are used in a
journalistic manner: for example, a voice-over gives a
personal account of the film story (homelessness) whereas
another 'clinically' delivers statistics and directly asks
the government to act. The film links an individual drama to
a problem facing many people. Here, the principles of
association and juxtaposition prevail over
integration. Another adaptation from a
Dunn novel, _Poor Cow_ was Loach's first film destined for
cinema release. This work shows the effect of environment on
the socialisation of a child. As in the previous two films,
the causality between scenes is not obvious. Meaning is
constructed through associations. When songs are used, they
seem to have a political significance, or express something
very specific about their era. Once again, voice-overs offer
and juxtapose different perspectives. In the first paragraph of
Chapter 3 ('Sympathetic observation'), the author announces
that he will discuss the evolution of Loach's works of the
late 1960s, but focuses almost uniquely on _Kes_ (1969).
That said, the chapter provides the reader with a lengthy
and excellent discussion of the film. _Kes_ shows Loach's
willingness to depart from Brechtian influence and allowed
the director to develop his own photographic style (largely
thanks to his collaboration with director of photography
Chris Menges). The film also helped him to refine his
technique of character development and point of view. In
_Kes_, Leigh explains, a political critique is made possible
through metaphors and by showing a private side of its main
character: political comments are implied, not overt. There
are fewer disruptions in _Kes_ than in previous films:
indeed, Loach establishes a connection between his film and
the classical narrative film by using mainly one point of
view (this also allows the director to assert the realism of
the film). Loach also started to experiment with the
'documenting the actor' type of filming (actors are filmed
even when they have stopped performing). The fruitful collaboration
of Loach with writer Jim Allen constitutes the core of
Chapter 4, 'The Experience of History'. Loach collaborated
six times with writer Jim Allen, and three of their
contributions for television are also discussed by Leigh:
_The Big Flame_ (1969), _The Rank and File_ (1971), and
_Days of Hope_ (1975). The 1970s work marks Loach's
diminishing interest in disruptive techniques, such as
unspecified voice-overs, and the beginning of his
exploration of different ways of dramatizing collective
experience. It is indeed through the latter explorations
that Loach expresses his political philosophy (which was
very influenced by Allen's interest in anti-Stalinist
socialism). _The Big Flame_ is the first example of such
politically committed films in Loach's career. _The Rank and
File_ constitute Loach and Allen's first attempt at
dramatising a historical event (a strike in Lancashire in
the late 1960s). The four episode series _Days of Hope_
deals with a lockout in Durham in the early 1920s: however,
the series aims to deal with political issues retaining
great social pertinence in the specific context of the
mid-1970s, and establish a continuity between past events
and the present. Chapter 5 ('Significance
and Objectivity') continues the discussion of realism
started in Chapter 1: in effect, it deals with the
connection between Loach's feature films and documentaries,
that is the relationship between fiction and non-fiction.
The director's interest in documentary can be explained by
his willingness to document the life of everyday people.
However, the chapter deals primarily with Loach's feature
film _The Gamekeeper_ (1980), a collaboration with writer
Barry Hines and Menges. This work is Loach's only 1980s
fiction film that acknowledged the importance of individual
drama. The rest of the decade is described as 'artistic
dormancy' (120). In his discussion of _The Gamekeeper_,
Leigh also stresses the importance of the long shot, and
restrained lighting and camera movement. These techniques
are also to be found in another feature film, _Looks and
Smiles_ (1982). Between 1981 and 1986 Loach almost
exclusively made documentaries that are all explicit about
politics, and it is with these non-fiction works that the
author concludes Chapter 5: Loach's documentaries of the
1980s show everyday people presenting themselves with their
own voices through the use of interviews, discussions, and
explanatory voice-overs. In the first paragraph of
the final chapter ('Cutting to the Core of what's
Happening') Leigh explains that, in the early 1990s, Loach
finally succeeded in establishing a secure relationship with
a producer (Parallax). This collaboration led to the
production of _Riff-Raff_ (1991), _Raining Stones_ (1993),
and _Ladybird, Ladybird_ (1994). These three films form a
post-Thatcher Britain trilogy, but, unfortunately, the
author does not analyse the films in relation to each other.
(In fact _Riff-Raff_ is only referred to in a passing
reference.) In this chapter, much attention is paid to
_Raining Stones_, _Ladybird, Ladybird_, and _Land and
Freedom_ (1995). _Raining Stones_ is
another collaboration with Allen and recalls the episodic
linearity that is representative of Italian neo-realism. The
film alternates between comedy and melodrama: the changes of
mood are enhanced by the music of Stewart Copeland, who had
collaborated twice with Loach before (the author does not
inform us which other films Copeland has worked on).
_Raining Stones_ differs from other collaborations with
Allen in that digressions are integrated in the film
narrative; moreover, the film develops its political theme
by contrasting a minor character's view with the
hero's. Whereas the photography
and locations of _Labybird, Ladybird_ are similar to the
ones used in _Raining Stones_, the storyline relies mainly
on melodrama and its tendency to excess and narrative
disproportion. Here, the storyline develops out of a
character's experience. Allen and Loach take this method
further in _Land and Freedom_, making a narrative emerge
from different versions of history (the Spanish Civil War).
Aiming at a large audience, their target was to 'balance a
sense of events, institutions and policies with a story
about individuals whose emotions and experiences are
engaging' (166). Leigh stresses the way that the Civil War
acts as an eye-opener for the main character, helping him to
enlarge his own perceptions of the conflict and the people
taking part in it. In the Introduction, _The
Cinema of Ken Loach: Art in the Service of the People_
promises the reader an overview of the evolution of Loach's
career. However, the author focuses on only a selection of
Loach's films, without justifying the omission of others.
For example, only passing references are made to important
works such as _Hidden Agenda_ (1990), _My Name is Joe_
(1998), _Bread and Roses_ (2000) and _The Navigators_
(2001), all of which are listed in the filmography. These
unjustified omissions make Leigh's project somewhat un-clear
and incomplete. In order to map the evolution of Loach's
films, a more strictly chronological discussion of the
director's works would have been more pertinent and
productive. Moreover, the author
unfortunately digresses from his own project as early as the
first chapter: in effect, Leigh introduces the key themes of
his books through a discussion of _Carla's Song_ (1996),
contradicting from the beginning his central project of
discussing films in the continuity of Loach's career.
Although the analysis of the film is irreproachable, one may
wonder why, in this introductory chapter, the author has not
concentrated on a more thorough theoretical presentation of
the central themes of his book. The central choice of
_Carla's Song_ is not justified. Nor does the author provide
the reader with a synopsis, a drawback for those unfamiliar
with the film. Also, Leigh's often convoluted prose does not
help the reader in his grasp of this somehow fragmented
presentation. That said, the qualities
of Leigh's book are many. The book is extremely
well-researched and contains rare and useful contributions
by Loach himself. It also provides the reader with in-depth
and illuminating film analyses, and successfully underlines
the productive relationship between Loach and his various
collaborators. In other words, _The Cinema of Ken Loach: Art
in the Service of the People_ is a must for those interested
in Loach's career and European politically committed
cinema. Notttingham
Trent University,
England Copyright ©
Film-Philosophy 2004. Florian Grandena,
'Realism, Politics, and Melodrama: Jacob Leigh's _The Cinema
of Ken Loach_', _Film-Philosophy_, vol. 8 no. 3, January
2004
<http://www.film-philosophy.com/vol8-2004/n3grandena>.
Save as Plain Text Document...Print...Read...Recycle
Film-Philosophy (ISSN 1466-4615)
PO Box 26161, London SW8 4WD, England
Contact the Editor (remove Caps before sending)
Back to the Film-Philosophy homepage
