Lindsay Anderson: Britishness and national cinemas

This article will explore three key stages in Lindsay Anderson’s career that illustrate the complex relationship between the director’s negotiation of his own national background and the imposition of a national identity in the critical reception of his work. First, I will look briefly at Anderson’s early directorial career as a documentary filmmaker: by using references to the Free Cinema movement and Thursday’s Children (1953), I will show that, in both instances, the question of artistic impact and critical reception took on a transnational dimension. I will then discuss the production of a documentary short in Poland, which Anderson filmed at the request of the Documentary Studio in Warsaw in 1967, and which constitutes the director’s first experience of working in a foreign film industry. Finally, I will discuss Britannia Hospital (1982), the last feature film that Anderson made in Britain. Throughout the paper, I will also use material from the Lindsay Anderson Archive held at Stirling University

Authorship, collaboration and national identity: Lindsay Anderson's directorial practice in the cinema

The thesis investigates the directorial practice of Lindsay Anderson in the cinema. This includes a study of his work as a feature film director, documentary filmmaker and film critic. From his formative years as a film critic and documentary filmmaker, Anderson developed a distinctive vision for the role of the director. As the study of his critical writings and personal correspondence will show, his vision translated into a celebration of the concept of artistic integrity, which he located at the level of both the production and reception of the film. In turn, this implied a belief in the integrated nature of the filmmaking process with the director in a central but reactive function. The use of archive material – mostly from the Lindsay Anderson Archive located at Stirling University – will uncover the existence of a tension: the study of the tension will be attached to the conceptualisation of a dialogue that I see as underpinning Anderson’s directorial practice in the cinema. It will become apparent for instance, that the practice of diary writing that Anderson maintained for over 50 years, echoed his working relationships with his close collaborators during and after the making of his films. I aim to uncover the sites of convergence as well as of tension between Anderson’s films and the context of their production. In order to do so, I have identified three themes which the director’s life and career in the cinema suggest: authorship, collaboration and national identity will provide the basis for a study of Anderson’s work in relation to their national and cultural context as well as the wider academic context in which his legacy will be assessed

Music / Industry / Politics: Alan Price's Roles in O Lucky Man!

Prior to directing his 1973 film O Lucky Man!, Lindsay Anderson had been planning to shoot an 'on-the-road' documentary about Alan Price and his band. When this fell through he decided to use them instead in the feature, which is now a neglected critique of British society in the early 1970s. Anderson’s correspondence contains abundant material relating to Price’s work in the film. The music features heavily in these letters, mostly concerned with publicity and promotion. There were, for example, disputes over Alan Price's tour in the US and delays in the album’s release as Warner Bros and Anderson saw both (correctly as it turned out) as important publicity for the film. And indeed the album enjoyed favourable reviews, even more so in the USA where the film too was better received than in Britain. Whilst in marketing O Lucky Man! the band were working in the mainstream, their second function ran counter to dominant culture. Anderson had been influenced by Brecht’s dramatic principles and practice ever since Mother Courage had played in London in 1956. O Lucky Man! was constructed broadly in harmony with those principles and their purpose of casting a new, hard-edged light on contemporary society. So the band participate as characters in the narrative. However, they also comment as if from outside it, functioning through songs written for the production as an all-knowing chorus and providing the moral context that frames the protagonists’ self-seeking behaviour. Our paper investigates the various roles that Alan Price’s band played in O Lucky Man