Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - a masterpiece of the ‘British New Wave'

Arthur Seaton, a machinist at a bicycle factory in Nottingham, is a young rebel with a cause; the cause of not ending up tied down to living a life of domestic drudgery (as he sees it) like his parents and others around him. With his cheery mantras of “ah well, work tomorrow” and “don’t let the bastards grind you down” Arthur is out for a good life of drinking and partying at weekends whilst cocking a snook at all forms of authority and conformity. An affair with the married Brenda, and then his pursuit of the younger Doreen, lead to complex and unforeseen consequences.

Produced at our local Twickenham Studios and largely shot on location in Nottingham and the surrounding East Midlands area, Karel Reisz’s 1960 classic richly repays repeated viewings.

Original UK Quad Poster

Adapting his own 1958 novel, Alan Sillitoe’s screenplay brilliantly and precisely, with acute observation of class and social mores, details Arthur’s raging against conformity and his rejection of the seemingly pre-ordained path society has laid out in front of him.

Original Australian One-Sheet

Yet despite Arthur’s boorishness, arrogance and apparent lack of understanding of the consequences of his actions, we still root for him. Albert Finney’s stunning performance, as charismatic and electrifying as anything by the more celebrated Method-acting 'young rebels' James Dean, Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift in Hollywood films, still resonates today.

The core of the film is Arthur's love affairs with two very different, contrasting women: married Brenda, heartbreakingly and superbly played by Rachel Roberts; and the younger Doreen (the equally excellent Shirley Anne Field in the best of her early roles), who keeps Arthur at arms length and wants a more conventional future. Doreen aspires to a more middle-class, married status afforded by occupying one of the new all-mod cons houses being built on a nearby estate that overlook the old city. Navigating a course between these two strong-willed, fascinating women is a task that appears to elude Arthur until the inevitable results of his actions catch up with him.

Other key elements come together to make the film a visual and aural treat. Freddie Francis's crisp black and white photography captures the Nottingham locations in all their post-war grimy glory, with images of factory smoke offset against the rolling hills, or the local canal where Arthur and his cousin Bert (Norman Rossington) fish during downtime.. Slow pans across the rows of terraced houses, including the estate where Arthur lives capture perfectly the working class community that live in homes close to their main workplace (the local Raleigh bike factory where Arthur toils for his weekly wage). Meanwhile Johnny Dankworth's jaunty jazz score accompanies the action, adding immeasurably to the film's sonic texture.

The film remains one of the great post-war British films, and perhaps the most enduring from the era of the so-called British New Wave (the heyday of which was between approximately the late 1950s to mid 1960s). This period offered up a string of fine social realist dramas showcasing the best of British and European talent both in front of and behind the camera. Dubbed ‘kitchen sink dramas’ by critics, the best known examples include Look Back in Anger (Tony Richardson, 1959), Room at the Top (Jack Clayton, 1959), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Tony Richardson, 1962) This Sporting Life (Lindsay Anderson, 1963), and Billy Liar (John Schlesinger, 1963).

A final shard of cultural debris emanating from the lasting influence of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning: The Arctic Monkeys' classic 2006 debut album Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not is a direct quote from Albert Finney's Arthur Seaton character in Reisz's great film...