Look Back in Anger

Jimmy Porter is a handsome, educated young man, but somehow he doesn't know what to do with himself. He is dissatisfied and feels contempt for social conventions. He refuses to build a career, but at the same time, he doesn't have enough willpower for an open rebellion against the system. Therefore, he resorts to a kind of passive resistance and earns a living as the owner of a stall in a market. Given that he doesn't have the guts to revolt against institutions, his frustration is taken out on his wife Alison - she should share his feelings and be on his side, but in his eyes, she is just as conformist and bourgeois as everyone else. He sees this as a betrayal that must be punished. Sometimes one needs to be brave, so Jimmy boldly expresses his hatred towards his own wife and her parents, and Alison's mild nature and tolerance provoke him even more. The film is based on a successful play and at times it is unpleasant to watch. Contemporary critics and especially (no surprise) left-wing intellectuals saw in the main character a charismatic opponent of the church, upper classes, and old orders, and therefore a hero, albeit a complicated one. I see bitterness, selfishness, immaturity, and a lack of responsibility in Jimmy's behavior. The character of Jimmy introduced the original literary concept of "angry young men" into the world of cinema. Richard Burton rightfully saw in Jimmy a great opportunity and even participated in the production. His convincing performances full of explosive energy eventually elevated the film to 4 stars. Overall impression: 70%. (12/02/2020)

The Misery of British Cinema I. Everything here is as expected, the misery of British cinema, albeit in its probably best period, in an otherwise relatively decent film. Is this a contradiction? Not at all. It is just a manifestation of the reasons why true cinema has never emerged in the UK (and when it did, it had to be made by lone artists who could have been born anywhere else). Kitchen sink realism - angry young men, meaning literature and theater translated to the big screen. Look Back in Anger - but who is looking back in anger? Cinema as such - the British never learned to express themselves through film and they always resort to words - Richard Burton is not acting in a film by Tony Richardson, but in a drama by John Osborne. Even if kitchen sink does not always come directly from literature, when will we see a play with the film medium in it, the mediation of the story through form? As Greenaway (that lone artist, symptomatic of the UK...) reportedly said: it was just an illustrated text. They are high-quality texts, with respectable and beneficial social themes, standing out in a positive sense in the history of British cinema - and yet, in this film (speculatively), all the misery of British cinema is contained. (04/08/2015)