Dissent & Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC

Discuss releases by the BFI and the films on them.

Moderator: MichaelB

Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#101 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Feb 03, 2016 12:53 pm

Wasn't Scum in the same kind of position as Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle had been a few years earlier? Initially made as part of the BBC's Play For Today series and then 'remade' as a theatrical feature when the BBC refused to show it.

Anyway this is fantastic news! I wonder if some of the extras from the old Blue Underground DVD set might turn up on this new collection (the Phil Daniels, David Threlfall and Margaret Matheson commentary on the BBC version of Scum, and the separate Ray Winstone commentary; Danny Boyle's commentary on Elephant and the Memories of Elephant documentary), or if it will all be entirely newly created material that will cover everything those previous supplements had.

User avatar
RobertB
Joined: Fri Jan 08, 2010 8:00 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#102 Post by RobertB » Wed Feb 03, 2016 1:20 pm

\:D/ I have for a long time hoped peerpee was working on this.

Scum the remake exists on blu-ray from Odeon, so that's not a problem. I haven't seen Rita Rita, Sue and Bob Too. It does exist on blu-ray from Twilight Time. But I'm not a huge fan of Twilight Time, and the film sounds less interesting than anything else Clarke has done. But now when I will get (almost) everything from BFI. What's the verdict on Rita...? Should I get it as well?

Supplementary material on BFI player can't be watched outside UK. So I hope you can put just about everything interesting in the blu-ray box.

This may very well be the release of the year for me. :)

Gaddis
Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2011 4:25 am

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#103 Post by Gaddis » Wed Feb 03, 2016 2:12 pm

That is lovely news to wake up too. Down here in New Zealand I first saw Clarke's films as a late teen at the local film society. The experience, particularly seeing 'Road', forever altered my taste in film. For the better of course.

Werewolf by Night

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#104 Post by Werewolf by Night » Wed Feb 03, 2016 2:53 pm

Absolutely nothing Criterion, Arrow, MoC, BFI or anyone else announce this year will top this news for me. It's not hard looking forward to late May from the depths of winter, but now it can't get here fast enough.

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#105 Post by zedz » Wed Feb 03, 2016 2:53 pm

Is it April Fool's Day already, or is this the release of the year?

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#106 Post by swo17 » Wed Feb 03, 2016 3:00 pm

So does this look about right for a film listing?

BFI set
Shelter (Half-Hour Story, 1967)
The Gentleman Caller (Half-Hour Story, 1967)
George's Room (Half-Hour Story, 1967)
Goodnight Albert (Half-Hour Story, 1968)
Stella (Half-Hour Story, 1968)
The Fifty-Seventh Saturday (Half-Hour Story, 1968)
Thief (Half-Hour Story, 1968)

The Last Train Through Harecastle Tunnel (The Wednesday Play, 1969)
Sovereign's Company (The Wednesday Play, 1970)
The Hallelujah Handshake (Play for Today, 1970)
Under the Age (Thirty-Minute Theatre, 1972)
Horace (1972)
To Encourage the Others (1972)
The Love-Girl and the Innocent (BBC Play of the Month, 1973)
Penda's Fen (Play for Today, 1974)
A Follower for Emily (Play for Today, 1974)
Funny Farm (Play for Today, 1975)
Diane (BBC2 Playhouse, 1975)
Scum (1977)

Danton's Death (BBC Play of the Month, 1978)
Nina (Play for Today, 1978)
Beloved Enemy (Play for Today, 1981)
Psy-Warriors (Play for Today, 1981)
Baal (1982)
Stars of the Roller State Disco (1984)
Contact (Screen Two, 1985)
Christine (Screenplay, 1987)
The Road (Screenplay, 1987)
Elephant (1989)
The Firm (Screen Two, 1989)

Rights Elsewhere
The Arrangement (The Gold Robbers, 1969) Network DVD
Horatio Bottomley (The Edwardians, 1972) Acorn Media DVD
Fast Hands (Plays for Britain, 1976) Network DVD
Scum (1979) Odeon/Kino BD
Made in Britain (1982) Network BD/OOP Blue Underground DVD
Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire (1987) Network DVD
Rita, Sue and Bob Too! (1987) Film Four DVD/Twilight Time BD

Lost/Undistributed/Unknown
A Man Inside (Half-Hour Story, 1967)*
Which of These Two Ladies Is He Married To? (Half-Hour Story, 1967)*
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie (The Informer, 1967)*
Sally Go Round the Moon (A Man of Our Times, 1968)
Got Yourself Sorted Out at All? (A Man of Our Times, 1968)*
Never Mind How We Got Here, Where Are We? (A Man of Our Times, 1968)*
Nothing's Ever Over (Half-Hour Story, 1968)
Stand by Your Screen (The Company of Five, 1968)
Gareth (The Company of Five, 1968)
The Piano Tuner (ITV Saturday Night Theatre, 1969)
Joan (Plays of Today, 1969)*
Doreen (Plays of Today, 1969)*
The Comic (ITV Saturday Night Theatre, 1969)
I Can't See My Little Willie (Play for Today, 1970)
Everybody Say Cheese (Play for Today, 1971)*
A Life Is Forever (Play for Today, 1972)
Achilles Heel (1973)
Man Above Men (Play for Today, 1973)*
Vodka Cola (1980)
Road (Alive from Off Center, 1990) (merely a US airing of the 1987 UK version?)

* "Definitely lost" per Dave Rolinson's 2005 book

(edited per suggested corrections below)

User avatar
antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
Location: Cheltenham, England

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#107 Post by antnield » Wed Feb 03, 2016 3:03 pm

The Gold Robbers and Fast Hands were made for ITV, so should be labelled as 'Not BBC'. They're out on DVD from Network Releasing: link and link.

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#108 Post by zedz » Wed Feb 03, 2016 3:15 pm

RobertB wrote:\:D/ I have for a long time hoped peerpee was working on this.

Scum the remake exists on blu-ray from Odeon, so that's not a problem. I haven't seen Rita Rita, Sue and Bob Too. It does exist on blu-ray from Twilight Time. But I'm not a huge fan of Twilight Time, and the film sounds less interesting than anything else Clarke has done. But now when I will get (almost) everything from BFI. What's the verdict on Rita...? Should I get it as well?

Supplementary material on BFI player can't be watched outside UK. So I hope you can put just about everything interesting in the blu-ray box.

This may very well be the release of the year for me. :)
Everything by Clarke is worth seeing, even Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire, if only to see just how weird he could get. Rita, Sue and Bob Too is very good, but to me it feels like one of his more anonymous works. I don't know if it would have come out much different directed by Frears, Leigh or Loach. But Andrea Dunbar is a very interesting co-auteur for that film. See the superb quasi-documentary The Arbor for more information.

This release / event should finally establish Clarke as one of the giants of British cinema, and should also go some way to correcting the view that British cinema went into abeyance in the 70s and 80s. Actually, many of its most innovative emerging directors were simply working in television (Clarke, Loach, Leigh), or in industrial films (Greenaway), or underground (Jarman, Potter), or in non-feature formats (Douglas, Davies).

And it will also establish the breadth of Clarke's filmmaking (which I myself have only got the scarcest of grips on), as the films that have traditionally got the most attention (Scum, Made in Britain, Elephant, The Firm) are the tense, violent, crushingly masculine ones. If you're only familiar with those films, it's hard to imagine a film like Penda's Fen, which is just as strong, but wildly different.

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#109 Post by MichaelB » Wed Feb 03, 2016 3:24 pm

Yes, one thing that will really come across via the new box is that despite the über-masculine image of his most famous films, Clarke was one of the best directors of actresses in the business. There's an unusual number of really strong female leads in his work, and at present Rita, Sue and Bob Too is the only easily accessible example.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#110 Post by swo17 » Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:16 pm

The Edwardians is already out from Acorn Media but it was a BBC production, so will Clarke's episode from that be included on the BFI set?

peerpee
not perpee
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#111 Post by peerpee » Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:36 pm

swo17 wrote:The Edwardians is already out from Acorn Media but it was a BBC production, so will Clarke's episode from that be included on the BFI set?
As "Horatio Bottomley" is already out on DVD, and in print, it's not likely. Unfortunately, Clarke's episode – although shot in colour – only exists as a b&w dupe (which is on the Acorn DVD. I've seen it, it's a fine episode.)

---

re: swo17's filmography.

There's also a documentary called VODKA COLA that Clarke produced and directed for ATV (for ITV) that was transmitted 22nd July 1980. It's 53 minutes. Based on Charles Levinson's book VODKA COLA. Dave Rolinson describes it as a "functional documentary" in his Clarke book (where I've got all the other details from). His work on this led Clarke to BELOVED ENEMY (1981) which has the same topic.

--

One thing I've not been able to get to the bottom of is the "ROAD (Alive from Off Center, 1990)" listing on imdb. Can't work out whether it was simply an American broadcast of the UK version, or something else. I'm aware ROAD was performed on Broadway, with American actors (!), at some point between 1987-1990 – maybe it's related to that? I've asked someone who might know, will report back.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#112 Post by swo17 » Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:45 pm

I take it Vodka Cola is lost then? It doesn't even have an IMDb listing.

User avatar
antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
Location: Cheltenham, England

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke

#113 Post by antnield » Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:51 pm

swo17 wrote:I take it Vodka Cola is lost then? It doesn't even have an IMDb listing.
The BFI National Archive has the colour negative and a re-recorded negative according to their records.

peerpee
not perpee
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BB

#114 Post by peerpee » Wed Feb 03, 2016 6:13 pm

Using Dave Rolinson's (excellent) 2005 book "Alan Clarke", and taking into account the recent finds that will appear in the BFI Blu-ray box, the only Clarkey films that are still definitely lost are:

A MAN INSIDE (1967) 26 mins, Half Hour Story, Associated Rediffusion for ITV (starring Freddie Jones!)
WHICH OF THESE TWO LADIES IS HE MARRIED TO? (1967) 26 mins, Associated Rediffusion for ITV (starring Glenda Jackson!)
THE INFORMER: SLEEPING DOGS LIE (1967) 53 mins, Associated Rediffusion for ITV (starring Ian Hendry!)
A MAN OF OUR TIMES: GOT YOURSELF SORTED OUT AT ALL? (1968) 53 mins, Associated Rediffusion for ITV (starring George Cole!)
A MAN OF OUR TIMES: NEVER MIND HOW WE GOT HERE – WHERE ARE WE? (1968) 53 mins, Associated Rediffusion for ITV (George Cole again)
THE LADIES: DOREEN AND JOAN (1969) 1hr 32 mins, Plays of Today, BBC2
EVERYBODY SAY CHEESE (1971) 1hr 13 mins, Play for Today, BBC1
MAN ABOVE MEN (1973) 1hr 13 mins, Play for Today, BBC1

----

There is another BBC production which Rolinson says the BBC don't have in their archives but there is "a print in circulation", namely: A LIFE IS FOR EVER (1972) 1hr 16 mins, BBC1

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BB

#115 Post by swo17 » Wed Feb 03, 2016 6:32 pm

Are you suggesting that some of the films on my "lost" list might still turn up on the BFI set? Or are you making a distinction here between definitely lost and only possibly lost?

peerpee
not perpee
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BB

#116 Post by peerpee » Wed Feb 03, 2016 6:42 pm

The films I've listed are the ones that, as far as I can ascertain using Rolinson's book, are definitely lost. If Rolinson's book doesn't list them as lost, it's because he's seen them.

I can't see any further titles being announced now for the BFI box, simply because of time constraints, and bit budgets.

Interestingly, between November 2015 and now, THE GENTLEMAN CALLER has been found.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BB

#117 Post by swo17 » Wed Feb 03, 2016 6:49 pm

So, for example, one of those that he's apparently seen is the Half-Hour Story Nothing's Ever Over, though the BFI's press release does not list this among the "seven surviving episodes."

On a sidenote, Which of These Two Ladies Is He Married To? is an enticing title!

peerpee
not perpee
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BB

#118 Post by peerpee » Wed Feb 03, 2016 6:53 pm

swo17 wrote:So, for example, one of those that he's apparently seen is the Half-Hour Story Nothing's Ever Over, though the BFI's press release does not list this among the "seven surviving episodes."
Correct. Rolinson does not indicate that NOTHING'S EVER OVER is missing. He could be wrong though, the book is over ten years old, and he welcomes corrections for a future edition.

beamish13
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:31 am

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BB

#119 Post by beamish13 » Wed Feb 03, 2016 7:22 pm

Being able to see Contact, Psy-Warriors and especially Penda's Fen in HD is incredible, and I can't wait to buy this.

peerpee
not perpee
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BB

#120 Post by peerpee » Wed Feb 03, 2016 7:33 pm

FWIW, Rolinson believes the "ROAD (Alive from Off Center, 1990)" listing on imdb was just the US transmission of the 1987 UK version of ROAD, but we'd both love and hate to be proved wrong.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BB

#121 Post by domino harvey » Wed Feb 03, 2016 8:44 pm

I've never seen any Clarke, can anyone offer an overview/summation of his style/approach/work, or point me in the right direction?

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BB

#122 Post by swo17 » Wed Feb 03, 2016 8:51 pm

All most people will have seen are the films in the OOP Blue Underground set, which are generally gritty and shocking films about young, vicious malcontents, featuring starmaking turns from then young British actors like Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, and Ray Winstone. Elephant was a major influence on Gus Van Sant's film of the same name. But supposedly there's a lot more variety to this other, mostly unknown work.

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BB

#123 Post by zedz » Wed Feb 03, 2016 9:28 pm

In addition to that unflinching grittiness, he's a brilliant director of actors (and, not coincidentally, one of the great talent scouts of British film) and his films increasingly exhibit a formal flair you don't generally associate with films made for television. He became a master of ambitious sequence shots and handheld camerawork.

Philosophically, one of the reasons he did so much of his work in television is that he felt audiences should be confronted where they were most complacent. Elephant might be the most extreme example: an abstract, ultra-violent, structuralist film that is surely the most avant-garde thing many viewers in 1989 would ever have seen. If he'd made that film for the cinema, it's unlikely to have had a theatrical release and would have shown in a smattering of film festivals and art galleries. By making if for the BBC, it reached millions. Incidentally, it pioneered the following-the-protagonist-steadicam-shot that became something of an arthouse cliche in the 21st century.

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BB

#124 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Feb 03, 2016 9:31 pm

To back up zedz's comments, here's a discussion we had about Elephant few years back, if that is any help.

It is difficult to speak with much confidence about Clarke's work when I've not had the chance to see the majority of it, but from those films in the Blue Underground set and Rita, Sue and Bob Too I got that sense of an interest in the marginalised and under represented elements of society being a main focus. Rita, Sue and Bob Too has that interesting tension between the gritty, more working class blocks of flats at the beginning of the film being contrasted against the more middle class suburban housing estates at the climax. Its sort of a critique of aspirational, upwardly mobile culture (for the few who can afford it) and the sly suggestion that the veneer of class and money is overlying a vulgarity perhaps uglier (or at least more hypocritical) than the plain-spoken earthiness that the girls are displaying!

It seems that the main characters have often already been abandoned as lost causes from the very first opening moments of the films, but being rejected from mainstream society is also seemingly allowing the characters the chance to live in the world on their own terms. Or at least fight it out for supremacy of the prison yard! Or to prove themselves capable of managing a gang of football hooligans while a home life goes neglected.
Last edited by colinr0380 on Wed Feb 03, 2016 10:09 pm, edited 4 times in total.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BB

#125 Post by swo17 » Wed Feb 03, 2016 9:47 pm

I didn't realize this initially, but with the exception of the half-hour stories, the thirty-minute theatre short, and Elephant, these are all feature-length films--no wonder the set is supposed to take up 13 discs!

Post Reply