Social Realism in the film industry

Social realism in films represents real life, with all its difficulties and triumphs. The stories and people used in the films are everyday characters, usually from working class backgrounds. Typically, films that use a social realist background are about the struggle to survive the daily grind. They usually told the whole story and didn’t leave out any gritty or nasty situations.

Social Realism in British films became popular during the 1960s. In this period, it was referred to as the British New Wave. British New Wave directors included Karel Reisz, Lindsay Anderson and Tony Richardson. Before they made feature films, most of them created a number of documentaries. Many of there films had been screened at the National Film Theatre event. This was an event called the ‘Free Cinema’ that happened in the 1950’s. Many of the British New Wave creators were more than just directors. Most of them were film critics as well. This helped them to promote their agenda and ideas in magazines such as the Sequence.

Many films produced in this era emerged as great films. These included Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Look Back in Anger. Many of the films were either based on plays or books due to the fact that the social realists were part of the literature and theatre scene. As well as the number of new directors that the New Wave produced, many actors came to prominence in this time period. Actors such as Tom Courtenay, Rita Tushingham and Albert Finney had prominent roles in social realism films.

The end of the New Wave came when the rise of television dramas brought this genre of film to people’s homes. Also, the Americans withdrew funding for such movies. However, since the demise of the New Wave, new directors such as Mike Leigh and Ken Loach have produced new films that use the same genre as those 40 years before them.