Personal Definition:
‘Social Realism’ is a unique film genre, which tends to primarily focus on upbringing, the
troubles and problems individuals have to undertake and the general urban theme of their
living environment. Most ‘Social Realism’ films specify the hard life that the characters
experience on a daily basis and their paths and risks they take to create a better life for
themselves.
What I love about ‘Social Realism’ films, is that despite yourself perhaps not having the
tough life that many of the characters have, you are still able to understand and interact
with them, due to naturalism in the acting, setting, themes and scenarios. The films are made
to be as believable and natural as possible, and in doing so, give the audience the notion of
themselves being in that situation. It connects to many people in an emotional way, as there
is very little CGI and special effects used, the audience can really picture themselves being
in that position, and how hard life is for some people.
Web Definition:
Link to Web Definition
Social Realism developed as a reaction against idealism and the exaggerated ego encouraged
by Romanticism. Consequences of the Industrial Revolution became apparent; urban centers
grew, slums proliferated on a new scale contrasting with the display of wealth of the upper
classes. With a new sense of social consciousness, the Social Realists pledged to “fight the
beautiful art”, any style which appealed to the eye or emotions. They focused on the ugly
realities of contemporary life and sympathized with working-class people, particularly the
poor. They recorded what they saw (“as it existed”) in a dispassionate manner. The public
was outraged by Social Realism, in part, because they didn't know how to look at it or what
to do with it.
FILM RESEARCH
We analysed the trailers of a wide range of ‘Social Realism’ films, such as ‘London to
Brighton’, ‘Bullet Boy’, ‘Kes’ and ‘Fish Tank'. The films gave us an insight to brilliantly
made and successful social realism films, setting the bar and giving us ideas, for our
project. I think that ‘London to Brighton’ and ‘Fish Tank’ benefited me the most. I’ve been
thinking of ideas for our project and believe that these two films will appeal and connect
more to this project, as they are modern and deal with issues that we will deal with for this
project. Such as:
•Prostitution
•Homelessness & begging
•Rough upbringing
•A female main character
•Setting: London
•Urban and derelict setting
Having watched the films, I will now use themes they deal with, along as our own ideas.
They also helped me research and create ideas from watching it, due to the wide range of
camera shots used and the different framing. I felt that mid-shots, close-ups and panning was
used most, as oppose to high-angle, long shot and over-the-shoulder shots. I think they’ve
experimented with close-ups most, to again, tug at your heart strings and really show facial
expressions and emotions. They want the audience to see close-up emotions for them to be able
to interact and see the true feelings they’re experiencing, and via using extreme- close-ups,
they can.
• Main characters: Most characters in social realism films aren't well known actors.
The directors of social realism films tends to do this as it produces a believable
central character. With no previous work under their belt, the audience can only
perceive them as how they are shown in that particular, hence making them for more
naturalistic and convincing.
•They are usually portrayed with a hard-life depending on their class and background,
this may be hard to relate to some people as some have better lives than others and
find it hard to understand how some people can live the way they do. However, by
continually portraying central characters in social realism films as having a tough
upbringing, an emotional attachment is formed as you immediately feel for the
character. Accent, style and face also play key conventions to a portraying central
characters in social realism films and must have certain qualities such as these, to
play a convincing role.
• Setting: The setting usually suits the characters background and way of living, a
good example of this is ‘Fish Tank’. Mia is poor and has a hard life and the setting of
a grotty council estate perfectly jells with this portrayal. Not just ‘Fish Tank’ but
often used to show a character of working class who is living in a run down area or
somewhere which is not safe in a city.
•Narratives: With many ‘Social Realism’ films these days, the narrative is shown through
the eyes of the main character. Not in literal sense, however due to the film revolving
around this particular character, the film is portrayed as if your watching it from
their perspective. In many if not most ‘Social Realism’ films, the issues of
prostitution, homelessness & begging, racism and rough upbringing are included.
•In particular a rough upbringing, which depicts the character as slightly hopeless and
has no way out. This gives the character more emotion and allows them to emotionally
relate to the audience.
• Ending: The endings of ‘Social Realism’ films don’t tend to be happy ones. As the
film is made to be naturalistic and believable, most real-life situations don’t turn
out to be happy and sorted out, and due to this, the directors want us to be blown away
by the possibilities of the ending.
•As well as this, ‘Social Realism’ films sometimes end on cliff-hangers. This isn’t
intentionally done to make the audience want to see the next film, as most ‘Social
Realism’ films don’t have a second edition, however, it is done to make the audience
question the path that the film may take after everything that has happened. In a way,
it makes the audience make up their own ending and how they believe the ending should
be. A good example of this is Fish Tank, in which Mia finally leaves her home, and you
are un-sure as to what she will do next and the path that her life will take.
‘A Taste of
Honey’ (1961)
Tony
Rhichardson
‘Kes’ (1970)
Kenith Loach
‘Made in Britain’
(1982) Alan Clarke
‘Trainspotting’ (1996)
Danny Boyle
‘Corrina, Corrina’
(1994) Jessie Nelson
‘Requiem for a Dream’
(2000) Darren
Aronofsky
‘Bullet Boy’ (2004)
Saul Dibb
‘This is England’
(2006) Sam Mendes
‘London to
Brighton’ (2006)
Paul A. Williams
‘Kidulthood’ (2006)
Manhaj Huda
‘Read Road’
(2006) Andrea
Arnold
‘Fish Tank’ (2009)
Andrea Arnold
‘Boy A’ (2007)
John Crowley
Early British cinema realised the potential of displaying Social Realist situations
through film through Dickens and Thomas Hardy in the early 1900’s. Films such as James
Williamson's ‘A Reservist before the War, and After the War’ (1902) a film about a Boer
War serviceman returning to unemployment, and was one of the first social realist films.
Also ‘Rescued by Rover’ (1905), a Cecil Hepworth piece, which captured Edwardian England
at that point in time. It showed England for what it really was like, and not how the
media wrongly displayed it.
Social Realism in British films primarily peaked around the 1960’s, which is when the
British New Wave of cinema emerged. At this point, a wide range of up-coming and talented
directors such as Lindsay Anderson and Tony Richardson, who had produced documentaries
before, began to veer towards making Social Realism films. Similar to the French New
Wave, many of the British directors were professional film critics and both the French
and British Directors saw this as the perfect opportunity to promote and show their
knowledge of film.
‘This Is England’
(2006) Shane Meadows
‘London to Brighton’
(2006) Paul Andrew
Williams
‘Kes’ (1969)
Kenith Loach
‘Bullet Boy’ (2004)
Saul Dibb
‘Fish Tank’ (2009)
Andrea Arnold
Shane Meadows: ‘This is England’
Meadows enrolled on a Performing Arts course at Burton
College. Since then, he has directed 12 films and
written 11 films, with his most prestigious being ‘This
is England’. Ranked number 40 in “The most powerful
people in British culture” in The Telegraph 2008.
Ken Loach: ‘Kes’
Ken Loach is known through the film bussiness
for his naturalistic, social realist directing
style. Loach's film work is usually styled by a
his personal view of realism; he tries to
create in every area of filmmaking emphasis of
genuine interplay between actors, to the point
where some scenes in his films appear
unscripted.
Danny Boyle: ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
Danny Boyle is seen as one, if not the best
director of social realism films today. With
his hugely successful ‘Slumdog Millionaire,
Boyle is seriously making a name for himself.
Strangely his openings usually begin with shots
from the middle of the film, such as ‘Slumdog
Millionaire’. He is one in 7 directors to get a
Golden Globe and is a huge prospect in the
‘Social Realism’ film society.
Fish Tank (2009) Andrea Arnold
‘Fish Tank’ is a 2009 British social realist film directed by Andrea Arnold. Filmed
in the downtrodden depths of Havering in Tilbury, it showed what the council estates
of England, are really like. The film revolves around a 15 year old girl called Mia,
who, for her whole life so far, has had to undertake abuse and insults from everyone
around her.
The film won the Jury Prize at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival and also the 2010 BAFTA
for Best British Film. The film was funded by BBC Films and the UK Film Council and
is one of the most naturalistic and powerful social realist films to date.
‘Fish Tank’ begins with Mia, in her council estate. We are immediately made to
presume the worst about her lifestyle due to her tacky and dirty way of living. As
well as this, the portrayal of her being a ‘chav’ is very obvious, due to her
clothes, hair style and gold hoop earrings; nevertheless though, we see insences
burning in her room which suggest that there we shouldn’t read a book by its cover,
and there could be hidden emotions and ma different person, to what we see on the
outside.
As the film progresses, we find more and more mise-en-scene
which displays to the audience of her lower class way of
living, such as:
•Caravans- Gypsies
•A lack of education
•Underage drinking/smoking
•Violent parenthood/lifestyle
London to Brighton (2006) Paul Andrew Williams
‘London to Brighton’ is a social realist film, produced in 2006. The film
revolves around two characters, Joanne and Kelly. Joanne is an eleven-year-old
runaway who is convinced by Kelly into selling herself through sex, with an old,
violent mobster with a lust for underage girls. Kelly however, is being forced
into it by Derek, also a mobster, and has been Kelly’s pimp for a matter of
years. She is reluctant to going through with it and the story revolves around
her battle to keep Joanne out of the prostitution industry.
The film won a British Independent Film Award for Best Achievement in Production
as well as the director winning numerous prizes for his powerful piece of film.
The film begins with both Joanne and Kelly bursting into a grubby toilet, Joanne
in tears and a Kelly extremely frantic. The film’s genre is immediately shown
through this opening scene and the mise-en-scene used.
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To conclude my research on Social Realism, producing this PowerPoint has
been both fun and extremely helpful. Analysing Social Realism films has
given me an insight into the portrayal of central characters and the
hard-life the undertake. A good example of this is Mia from ‘Fish Tank’,
in which due to her mother being the un-loving, abusive parent she is,
she has destroyed any chance of Mia having a care-free, loving
relationship with her.
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In addition to the research of films, by doing a detailed analysis of the
history of Social Realism and how it came about, I was given a general
overview of what Social Realism is, in both film form, and generalised
views of what it really is. I also researched the primary themes that
most Realism films deal with, which helped with ideas on what themes
could feature in my film.
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Overall, I think creating this PowerPoint and gathering background
information has hugely benefitted me and has given me many ideas on how
to produce a personal portrayal of a Social Realism teaser trailer.