alr

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Screening on Film
Directed by Karel Reisz.
With Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, Rachel Roberts.
UK, 1960, 35mm, black & white, 89 min.
Print source: HFA

"Don’t let the bastards grind you down" became the clarion call for a generation of angry young men who embraced this seminal work of the British New Wave. Based on a novel by Alan Sillitoe, the film stars Albert Finney as a defiant factory worker rallying against an oppressive class structure in 1950s Nottingham. When his reckless romantic pursuits get him into trouble, he must choose between his boisterous carousing and a more conventional life. Director Karel Reisz (who passed away last year) uses documentary-style realism to chronicle everyday life in industrial Britain and intimate close-ups to offer privileged access to the human sentiment beneath these harsh exteriors.

Part of film series

Read more

Cinema A–Z: Treasures from the Harvard Film Archive

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988

Read more

From the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection

Read more
a double-exposed image that includes a 16th century Russian man being fed grapes by another amid decadent decor

Wings of a Serf

Read more
a close-up of a Bissau-Guinean woman wearing a scarf on her head and looking directly at the camera with a slight smile

Le Dépays + Sans soleil

Read more
Peter Sellers wearing a large hat with "ME" embroidered on it, and gripping a Pilgrim-like collar

Carol for Another Christmas

Read more

Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy