We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of New South Wales stands.

Film series: Hitting rock bottom in post-war England November 2012 – February 2013

By Robert Herbert, curator, film (until June 2017)
Still from The servant, 1963

Still from The servant 1963, photo: courtesy of Tamasa Distribution

Francis Bacon’s uncompromising paintings epitomise the grimness of post-war England. This collection of films, screened in conjunction with the exhibition Francis Bacon: five decades, covered from the post-World War II period to the late 1980s and composed a riveting survey of the changing social structure in Britain. The films in this series worked to transport us from Bacon’s Soho nightworld to Pinteresque ‘no man’s lands’, exploring the effects of the war, austerity, disaffected youth, the de-criminalisation of homosexuality and the seedy, hypocritical Puritanism that regulated a class-ridden British society. Class, which is the defining feature of British society, has changed many aspects of its character in the 20th century.

Films

  • 7, 11 November – Room at the top (director Jack Clayton, United Kingdom, 1959, 35mm)

  • 14, 18 November – Victim (director Basil Deardon, United Kingdom, 1961, 35mm)

  • 21, 25 November – The servant (director Joseph Losey, United Kingdom, 1963, 35mm)

  • 28 November, 2 December – Withnail and I (director Bruce Robinson, United Kingdom, 1987, 35mm)

  • 5 December – Grown ups (director Mike Leigh, United Kingdom, 1980, 16mm)

  • 5, 9 December – The birthday party (William Friedkin, United Kingdom, 1968, 35mm)

  • 12 December – High hopes (director Mike Leigh, United Kingdom, 1988, 35mm)

  • 12 December – The killing of Sister George (director Robert Aldrich, United Kingdom, 1968, 35mm)

  • 9, 13 January – 10 Rillington Place (director Richard Fleischer, United Kingdom, 1970, 35mm)

  • 19 January – Love in the devil: Study for a portrait of Francis Bacon (director John Maybury, United Kingdom, 1998, 35mm)

  • 16, 20 January – My beautiful laundrette (director Stephen Frears, United Kingdom, 1985, 35mm)

  • 23, 27 January – Prick up your ears (director Stephen Frears, United Kingdom, 1987, 35mm)

  • 2 February – Nighthawks (director Ron Peck, United Kingdom, 1978, 35mm)

  • 30 January, 3 February – Vera Drake (director Mike Leigh, United Kingdom, 2004, 35mm)

  • 6, 10 February – Get Carter (director Mike Hodges, United Kingdom, 1971, 35mm)

  • 16 February – Love in the devil: Study for a portrait of Francis Bacon (director John Maybury, United Kingdom, 1998, 35mm)

  • 13, 17 February – This is England (director Shane Meadows, United Kingdom, 2006, 35mm)

Still from Get Carter, 1971

Still from Get Carter 1971

Still from My beautiful laundrette, 1985

Still from My beautiful laundrette 1985

Still from Room at the top, 1959

Still from Room at the top 1959

Still from The servant, 1963

Still from The servant 1963

Still from This is England, 2006

Still from This is England 2006

Still from Vera Drake, 2004

Still from Vera Drake 2004

Still from Withnail and I, 1987

Still from Withnail and I 1987