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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 389216" data-attributes="member: 8">Yesterday was an "Alan Bates, mon amour" double feature + an Isabelle Huppert revenge bonus feature.A KIND OF LOVING (1962)[ATTACH=full]51210[/ATTACH]Apart from being a great time capsule I think it is, as the film poster suggests, "astonishing in its daring frankness".Whereas glamorous fictional characters or freaks like Peeping Tom is about "them", Vic Brown (Alan Bates) and Ingrid (June Ritchie) is about the "us" of that time, and therefore more confrontational in a way that cannot be shrugged off so easily.I'm not saying that people are always aware of their place in history at the time it happens, in fact I think it usually takes some retrospection to see the bigger picture.Nevertheless, the rise of realistic working-class drama in film must have signalled the possibility to watch "ourselves" on the big screen.Of course this is just my personal interpretation but I felt that this change spills over in the story itself since Vic and Ingrid are of a generation that was precisely in the middle of the old ways and the new ways.Vic Brown may not represent an entire generation but there's a sense of new opportunities and choices that cannot be achieved yet because it's too early to dismiss the traditions of how it "should be done".The previous generations didn't think they had to worry about love and happiness and idealism and individualism, but the characters in A KIND OF LOVING do.However, not so  much that it goes full on counterculture and anti-establisment. It's the beginning, just the smell of it, that puts these characters in the could-have-beens and possible missed-out-ons, especially in that particular way of living.It is therefore not surprising that it ends with a compromise by lowering the stakes and just hoping for the best, and I'm sure this is what happened to many people of the very last Till Death Do Us Part generation.Vic and Ingrid are, for better or worse, guided by various family members, most notably the parents.Ingrid's mother is a real horror show who constantly criticizes "these people" who are standing in the way of a comfortable life for everyone, thus completely contradicting herself. She's a lot of fun to watch.As the situation becomes more unbearable they are taking sides from a male or female point of view, and this turns out to be the heart and soul of the story."It's rotten to be a girl, sometimes" Ingrid says.But when there's more than one woman in the room then it can also be rotten to be a boy.From a female point of view there's the exhausting need for validation, over and over again. From a male point of view there's the ongoing expectations of performing in a satisfyingly manner.One could argue that they had to go through all this in order to reach the end point which is actually more like a new marriage. I searched the internet for CALL DR. MARTIN, Ingrid's favourite soap, but it looks like it only exists in this film.THE GO-BETWEEN (1971)[ATTACH=full]51211[/ATTACH]Interestingly, A KIND OF LOVING also featured a go-between in order to advance the romance between Vic and Ingrid.I experienced this film from 1971 as a LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER without the loving, and the way young protagonist Leo becomes part of that romance doesn't quite pack a punch as it did in THE FALLEN IDOL.Even for a boy in the first phases of puberty in Edwardian England he comes across as frustratingly simple-minded. Instead on focusing on the erotic forbiddingness complicated by that very puberty we spend a lot of time with the most boring hoity-toity characters. In the gardens, in the carriage, in the breakfast rooms.Michel Legrand's score is nice but it's often used in nonsensical and startling ways. On the other hand, this may have prevented me from dozing off.Alan Bates' solo performance was the best musical contribution to the film, imo.There's one character (forgot his name) who delivers a little bit of humour, with varying results.I did spend some time thinking about it after the film had ended, and while I'd normally consider this to be a good thing in this case I found myself wishful thinking more drama into it than there really was.To add insult to injury I started to realise that Julie Christie's character was a bit of a cunt and it just totalled up to a strong feeling of dissatisfaction.I had to watch something to make that feeling go away.THE PIANO TEACHER (2001)[ATTACH=full]51213[/ATTACH]It's possible that I got more than I had bargained for, but at least the images of boring beautiful gardens were exorcised from my mind.I think I'm going to buy a Schubert greatest hits CD. It's very interesting stuff.</blockquote>

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