Lindsay Anderson
Encyclopedia
Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was an India
n-born, British feature film
, theatre
and documentary
director
, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema
movement and the British New Wave
. He is most widely remembered for his 1968 film if...., which won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival
.Malcolm McDowell produced a stage presentation now available on DVD about his experiences with Lindsay Anderson, "Never Apologize." The title comes from dialogue of a John Ford film.
parentage, Anderson was the son of a British Army officer. He was born in Bangalore
, South India
, and educated at Saint Ronan's School
in Worthing
, West Sussex
, and at Cheltenham College
, where he met his lifelong friend and biographer, the screenwriter and novelist Gavin Lambert
; Wadham College, Oxford
, where he studied classics
; and Magdalen College, Oxford
where he studied English literature
.
After graduating, Anderson worked for the final year of World War II
as a cryptographer
for the Intelligence Corps, at the Wireless Experimental Centre
in Delhi
. Anderson assisted in nailing the Red flag
to the roof of the Junior Officers mess in Annan Parbat, in August 1945, after the victory of the Labour Party
in the general election
was confirmed. The colonel did not approve, he recalled a decade later, but no disciplinary action was taken against them.
magazine (1947–52), which he co-founded with Gavin Lambert
and Karel Reisz
; later writing for the British Film Institute
's journal Sight and Sound and the left-wing political weekly the New Statesman
. In a 1956 polemical article, "Stand Up, Stand Up" for Sight and Sound, he attacked contemporary critical practices, in particular the pursuit of objectivity
. Taking as an example some comments made by Alistair Cooke
in 1935, where Cooke claimed to be without politics as a critic, Anderson responded:
Following a series of screenings which he and the National Film Theatre programmer Karel Reisz
organized for the venue of independently-produced short films by himself and others, he developed a philosophy of cinema which found expression in what became known, by the late-1950s, as the Free Cinema
movement. This was the belief that the British cinema must break away from its class-bound attitudes and that non-metropolitan Britain ought to be shown on the nation's screens.
, Tony Richardson
, and others, he secured funding from a variety of sources (including Ford of Britain
) and they each made a series of short documentaries on a variety of subjects. One of Anderson's early short films, Thursday's Children
(1954), concerning the education of deaf children, made in collaboration with Guy Brenton, a friend from his Oxford days, won an Oscar
for Best Documentary Short in 1954.
These films, influenced by one of Anderson' heroes, the French
filmmaker Jean Vigo
, and made in the tradition of the British documentaries of Humphrey Jennings
, foreshadowed much of the social realism of British cinema that emerged in the next decade, with Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
(1960), Richardson's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
(1962) and Anderson's own This Sporting Life
(1963), produced by Reisz. Anderson's film met with mixed reviews at the time, and was not a commercial success.
Anderson is best remembered as a film maker for his "Mick Travis trilogy", all of which star Malcolm McDowell
as the title character: If.... (1968), a satire on public schools; O Lucky Man!
(1973) a Pilgrim's Progress inspired road movie; and Britannia Hospital
(1982), a fantasia taking stylistic influence from the populist wing of British cinema represented by Hammer
horror films and Carry On comedies.
Anderson developed an acquaintance from 1950 with John Ford
, which led to what has come to be regarded as one of the standard books on that director, Anderson's About John Ford (1983). Based on half a dozen meetings over more than two decades, and a lifetime's study of the man's work, the book has been described as "One of the best books published by a film-maker on a film-maker".
In 1985, producer Martin Lewis invited Anderson to chronicle Wham!
's visit to China
, the first-ever visit by Western pop artists, which resulted in Anderson's film Foreign Skies: Wham! In China. He admitted in his diary on 31 March 1985, to having "no interest in Wham!", or China, and he was simply "'doing this for the money'". In 1986, he was a member of the jury at the 36th Berlin International Film Festival
.
Anderson was also a significant British theatre director. He was long associated with London's Royal Court Theatre
, where he was Co-Artistic Director 1969–70, and Associate Artistic Director 1971–75, directing premiere productions of plays by David Storey
, among others.
In 1992, as a close friend of actress Jill Bennett, Anderson included a touching episode in his autobiographical BBC
film Is That All There Is?, with a boat trip down the River Thames
(several of her professional colleagues and friends aboard) to scatter her ashes on the waters while musician Alan Price
sang the song "Is That All There Is?
".
Every year, the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) gives an acclaimed filmmaker the chance to screen his or her personal Top 10 favorite films. In 2007, Iranian filmmaker Maziar Bahari
selected O Dreamland
and Every Day Except Christmas
(1957), a record of a day in the old Covent Garden
market, for his top 10 classics from the history of documentary.[3]
's memoir, Mainly About Lindsay Anderson, in which he claimed that Anderson repressed his homosexuality
, was seen as a betrayal by his other friends. Malcolm McDowell
was quoted in 2006 as saying:
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n-born, British feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
, theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema
Free Cinema
Free Cinema was a documentary film movement that emerged in England in the mid-1950s. The term referred to an absence of propagandised intent or deliberate box office appeal. Co-founded by Lindsay Anderson, though he later disdained the 'movement' tag, with Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson and Lorenza...
movement and the British New Wave
British New Wave
The British New Wave is the name given to a trend in filmmaking among directors in Britain in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The label is a translation of Nouvelle Vague, the French term first applied to the films of François Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard among others.There is considerable overlap...
. He is most widely remembered for his 1968 film if...., which won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
.Malcolm McDowell produced a stage presentation now available on DVD about his experiences with Lindsay Anderson, "Never Apologize." The title comes from dialogue of a John Ford film.
Early life
Of ScottishScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
parentage, Anderson was the son of a British Army officer. He was born in Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
, and educated at Saint Ronan's School
St. Ronan's School
Saint Ronan's School is an independent co-educational preparatory school for boys and girls from 3 to 13 years located near Hawkhurst in Kent, England. It currently has about 200 boys and 100 girls, all of them day pupils, although boarding is available from time to time...
in Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, and at Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College is a co-educational independent school, located in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.One of the public schools of the Victorian period, it was opened in July 1841. An Anglican foundation, it is known for its classical, military and sporting traditions.The 1893 book Great...
, where he met his lifelong friend and biographer, the screenwriter and novelist Gavin Lambert
Gavin Lambert
Gavin Lambert was a British-born screenwriter, novelist and biographer who lived for part of his life in Hollywood...
; Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, located at the southern end of Parks Road in central Oxford. It was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, wealthy Somerset landowners, during the reign of King James I...
, where he studied classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
; and Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
where he studied English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
.
After graduating, Anderson worked for the final year of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as a cryptographer
Cryptography
Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...
for the Intelligence Corps, at the Wireless Experimental Centre
Wireless Experimental Centre
The Wireless Experimental Centre was one of two overseas outposts of Station X, Bletchley Park, the British signals analysis centre during World War II. The other outpost was the Far East Combined Bureau....
in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
. Anderson assisted in nailing the Red flag
Red flag
In politics, a red flag is a symbol of Socialism, or Communism, or sometimes left-wing politics in general. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution. Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its...
to the roof of the Junior Officers mess in Annan Parbat, in August 1945, after the victory of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
in the general election
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
was confirmed. The colonel did not approve, he recalled a decade later, but no disciplinary action was taken against them.
Film criticism
Before going into film-making, Anderson was a prominent film critic writing for the influential SequenceSequence (journal)
Sequence was a short-lived but influential British film journal founded in 1947 by Lindsay Anderson, Gavin Lambert and Karel Reisz.Anderson had returned to Oxford after his time with the army Intelligence Corps in Delhi, Lambert was a schoolfriend of Anderson from Cheltenham College who had dropped...
magazine (1947–52), which he co-founded with Gavin Lambert
Gavin Lambert
Gavin Lambert was a British-born screenwriter, novelist and biographer who lived for part of his life in Hollywood...
and Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz was a Czech-born British filmmaker who was active in post–war Britain, and one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in 1950s and 1960s British cinema.-Early life:...
; later writing for the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
's journal Sight and Sound and the left-wing political weekly the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
. In a 1956 polemical article, "Stand Up, Stand Up" for Sight and Sound, he attacked contemporary critical practices, in particular the pursuit of objectivity
Objectivity (science)
Objectivity in science is a value that informs how science is practiced and how scientific truths are created. It is the idea that scientists, in attempting to uncover truths about the natural world, must aspire to eliminate personal biases, a priori commitments, emotional involvement, etc...
. Taking as an example some comments made by Alistair Cooke
Alistair Cooke
Alfred Alistair Cooke KBE was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cooke's America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theater from 1971 to 1992...
in 1935, where Cooke claimed to be without politics as a critic, Anderson responded:
Following a series of screenings which he and the National Film Theatre programmer Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz was a Czech-born British filmmaker who was active in post–war Britain, and one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in 1950s and 1960s British cinema.-Early life:...
organized for the venue of independently-produced short films by himself and others, he developed a philosophy of cinema which found expression in what became known, by the late-1950s, as the Free Cinema
Free Cinema
Free Cinema was a documentary film movement that emerged in England in the mid-1950s. The term referred to an absence of propagandised intent or deliberate box office appeal. Co-founded by Lindsay Anderson, though he later disdained the 'movement' tag, with Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson and Lorenza...
movement. This was the belief that the British cinema must break away from its class-bound attitudes and that non-metropolitan Britain ought to be shown on the nation's screens.
Filmmaking
Along with Karel ReiszKarel Reisz
Karel Reisz was a Czech-born British filmmaker who was active in post–war Britain, and one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in 1950s and 1960s British cinema.-Early life:...
, Tony Richardson
Tony Richardson
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
, and others, he secured funding from a variety of sources (including Ford of Britain
Ford of Britain
Ford of Britain is a British wholly owned subsidiary of Ford of Europe, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Its business started in 1909 and has its registered office in Brentwood, Essex...
) and they each made a series of short documentaries on a variety of subjects. One of Anderson's early short films, Thursday's Children
Thursday's Children
Thursday's Children is a 1954 short documentary film directed by Lindsay Anderson about The Royal School for the Deaf in Margate, Kent, UK. It won an Academy Award in 1955 for Documentary Short Subject....
(1954), concerning the education of deaf children, made in collaboration with Guy Brenton, a friend from his Oxford days, won an Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Documentary Short in 1954.
These films, influenced by one of Anderson' heroes, the French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
filmmaker Jean Vigo
Jean Vigo
Jean Vigo was a French film director, who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s and was a posthumous influence on the French New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Biography:...
, and made in the tradition of the British documentaries of Humphrey Jennings
Humphrey Jennings
Frank Humphrey Sinkler Jennings was an English documentary filmmaker and one of the founders of the Mass Observation organization...
, foreshadowed much of the social realism of British cinema that emerged in the next decade, with Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (film)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a 1960 British film. It is an adaptation of the 1958 novel of the same name by Alan Sillitoe. Sillitoe wrote the screenplay adaptation and the film was directed by Karel Reisz.-Synopsis:...
(1960), Richardson's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
"The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" is a short story by Alan Sillitoe which was set in Irvine Beach, and published in 1959 as part of a short story collection of the same name. The work focuses on Colin, a poor Nottingham teenager from a dismal home in a blue-collar area, who has bleak...
(1962) and Anderson's own This Sporting Life
This Sporting Life
This Sporting Life is a 1963 British film based on a novel of the same name by David Storey which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. It tells the story of a rugby league footballer, Frank Machin, in Wakefield, a mining area of Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting...
(1963), produced by Reisz. Anderson's film met with mixed reviews at the time, and was not a commercial success.
Anderson is best remembered as a film maker for his "Mick Travis trilogy", all of which star Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...
as the title character: If.... (1968), a satire on public schools; O Lucky Man!
O Lucky Man!
O Lucky Man! is a 1973 British comedy-drama fantasy film, intended as an allegory on life in a capitalist society. Directed by Lindsay Anderson, it stars Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis, whom McDowell had first played as a disaffected public schoolboy in his first film performance in Anderson's...
(1973) a Pilgrim's Progress inspired road movie; and Britannia Hospital
Britannia Hospital
Britannia Hospital is a 1982 black comedy film by British director Lindsay Anderson which targets the National Health Service and contemporary British society...
(1982), a fantasia taking stylistic influence from the populist wing of British cinema represented by Hammer
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
horror films and Carry On comedies.
Anderson developed an acquaintance from 1950 with John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
, which led to what has come to be regarded as one of the standard books on that director, Anderson's About John Ford (1983). Based on half a dozen meetings over more than two decades, and a lifetime's study of the man's work, the book has been described as "One of the best books published by a film-maker on a film-maker".
In 1985, producer Martin Lewis invited Anderson to chronicle Wham!
WHAM!
Wham! were a short-lived British musical duo formed by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in the early 1980s. They were briefly known in the United States as Wham! UK due to a naming conflict with an American band....
's visit to China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, the first-ever visit by Western pop artists, which resulted in Anderson's film Foreign Skies: Wham! In China. He admitted in his diary on 31 March 1985, to having "no interest in Wham!", or China, and he was simply "'doing this for the money'". In 1986, he was a member of the jury at the 36th Berlin International Film Festival
36th Berlin International Film Festival
-Jury:* Gina Lollobrigida * Rudi Fehr* Lindsay Anderson* August Coppola* Werner Grassmann* Otar Iosseliani* Norbert Kückelmann* Francoise Maupin* Rosaura Revueltas* Naoki Togawa* Jerzy Toeplitz-Films in competition:...
.
Anderson was also a significant British theatre director. He was long associated with London's Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
, where he was Co-Artistic Director 1969–70, and Associate Artistic Director 1971–75, directing premiere productions of plays by David Storey
David Storey
David Rhames Storey is an English playwright, screenwriter, award-winning novelist and a former professional rugby league player....
, among others.
In 1992, as a close friend of actress Jill Bennett, Anderson included a touching episode in his autobiographical BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
film Is That All There Is?, with a boat trip down the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
(several of her professional colleagues and friends aboard) to scatter her ashes on the waters while musician Alan Price
Alan Price
Alan Price is an English musician, best known as the original keyboardist for the English band The Animals, and for his subsequent solo work....
sang the song "Is That All There Is?
Is That All There Is?
"Is That All There Is?" is a song written by American songwriting team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller during the 1960s. It became a hit for American singer Peggy Lee from her recording in November 1969...
".
Every year, the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) gives an acclaimed filmmaker the chance to screen his or her personal Top 10 favorite films. In 2007, Iranian filmmaker Maziar Bahari
Maziar Bahari
Maziar Bahari Maziar Bahari Maziar Bahari (مازیار بهاری, (born 1967) is an Iranian Canadian journalist, film maker and human rights activist. He was a reporter for Newsweek from 1998 to 2011...
selected O Dreamland
O Dreamland
O Dreamland is a 1953 documentary by British film director Lindsay Anderson.The documentary was made in 1953 by Anderson and his camerman/assistant, John Fletcher, using a single 16mm camera and an audiotape recorder...
and Every Day Except Christmas
Every Day Except Christmas
Every Day Except Christmas is a 37-minute documentary film filmed in 1957 at the Covent Garden fruit, vegetable and flower market, then located in the Covent Garden area of East central London...
(1957), a record of a day in the old Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
market, for his top 10 classics from the history of documentary.[3]
Personal life
Gavin LambertGavin Lambert
Gavin Lambert was a British-born screenwriter, novelist and biographer who lived for part of his life in Hollywood...
's memoir, Mainly About Lindsay Anderson, in which he claimed that Anderson repressed his homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, was seen as a betrayal by his other friends. Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...
was quoted in 2006 as saying:
Theatre productions
All Royal Court, London, unless otherwise indicated:- The Waiting of Lester Abbs (Kathleen Sully, 1957)
- The Long and the Short and the TallThe Long and the Short and the Tall (play)The Long and the Short and the Tall is a play written by British playwright Willis Hall. Set in World War II, the play premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in January 1959; it was directed by Lindsay Anderson and starred Peter O'Toole and Robert Shaw. It was Anderson's first major...
(Willis Hal,1959) - Progress to the Park (Alun OwenAlun OwenAlun Owen was a British screenwriter, predominantly active in television, but best remembered by a wider audience for writing the screenplay of The Beatles' debut feature film A Hard Day's Night ....
, 1959) - The Trial of Cob and Leach/Jazzetry (Christopher LogueChristopher LogueChristopher Logue, CBE is an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival. He has also written for the theatre and cinema as well as acting in a number of films. His two screenplays are Savage Messiah and The End of Arthur's Marriage...
, 1959) - Serjeant Musgrave's DanceSerjeant Musgrave's DanceSerjeant Musgrave's Dance, An Un-historical Parable is a play by English playwright John Arden, written in 1959 and premiered at the Royal Court Theatre on October 22 of that year. In Arden's introductory note to the text, he describes it as "a realistic, but not a naturalistic" play...
(John ArdenJohn ArdenJohn Arden is an award-winning English playwright from Barnsley . His works tend to expose social issues of personal concern. He is a member of the Royal Society of Literature....
, 1959) - The Lily White Boys (Harry Cookson and Christopher Logue, 1960)
- Trials by Logue: Antigone/Cob and Leach (Christopher Logue, 1960)
- Diary of a MadmanDiary of a Madman (film)Diary of a Madman is a 1963 horror film directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Vincent Price, Nancy Kovack, and Chris Warfield.The screenplay, written by producer Robert Kent, is an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's short story "Le Horla" , written in 1887...
(Gogol adaptation,1963) - Box and CoxBox and CoxBox and Cox is a one act farce by John Maddison Morton. It is based on a French one-act vaudeville, Frisette, which had been produced in Paris in 1846....
(John Maddison MortonJohn Maddison MortonJohn Maddison Morton was an English playwright who specialized in one-act farces. His most famous farce was Box and Cox . He also wrote comic dramas, pantomimes and other theatrical pieces.-Biography:...
, 1961) - The Fire RaisersThe Fire RaisersThe Fire Raisers may refer to* The Fire Raisers , a 1933 British film starring Leslie Banks* The Fire Raisers , aka "The Firebugs", a 1953 German play...
(Max FrischMax FrischMax Rudolf Frisch was a Swiss playwright and novelist, regarded as highly representative of German-language literature after World War II. In his creative works Frisch paid particular attention to issues relating to problems of human identity, individuality, responsibility, morality and political...
, 1961) - Julius CaesarJulius Caesar (play)The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
(William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, 1964) - AndorraAndorra (play)Andorra is a play written by the Swiss dramatist Max Frisch in 1961. The original text came from a prose sketch Frisch had written in his diary titled Der andorranische Jude . The Andorra in Frisch's play is fictional and not intended to be a representation of the real Andorra located between...
(Max Frisch, National TheatreRoyal National TheatreThe Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
at the Old VicOld VicThe Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
, 1964) - The Cherry OrchardThe Cherry OrchardThe Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
(Anton ChekhovAnton ChekhovAnton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
, Chichester Festival TheatreChichester Festival TheatreChichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. Subsequently the smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989....
, 1966) - The ContractorThe ContractorThe Contractor is a direct-to-DVD action film starring Wesley Snipes and Lena Headey, and directed by Josef Rusnak in 2007 in Bulgaria and the UK.-Plot:...
(David StoreyDavid StoreyDavid Rhames Storey is an English playwright, screenwriter, award-winning novelist and a former professional rugby league player....
, 1969) - HomeHome (play)Home is a play by David Storey. It is set in a mental asylum, although this fact is only revealed gradually as the story progresses.The five characters include seemingly benign Harry, highly opinionated Jack, cynical Marjorie, and flirtatious Kathleen...
(David Storey, also Morosco TheatreMorosco TheatreThe Morosco Theatre was a legitimate theatre located at 217 West 45th Street in the heart of the theater district in midtown-Manhattan, New York, United States....
NY, 1970) - The Changing RoomThe Changing RoomThe Changing Room is a 1971 play by David Storey, set in a men's changing room before, during and after a rugby game. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre on 9 November 1971, directed by Lindsay Anderson...
(David Storey, 1971) - The FarmThe FarmThe Farm may refer to:In places:* The Farm , a government residence in Canada and home to the Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons* The Farm , a community center in California, U.S....
(David Storey, 1973) - Life ClassLife ClassLife Class is a novel by Pat Barker released in 2007. The novel is about students at the Slade School of Art in the first years of the twentieth century, one of whom volunteers to serve in a front line hospital during the First World War....
(David Storey, 1974) - In CelebrationIn CelebrationIn Celebration is a 1975 film directed by Lindsay Anderson. It is based in the 1969 stage production of the same name by David Storey which was also directed by Anderson. The movie was meant to be shown theatrically with tickets sold in advance....
(David Storey 1974) - What the Butler SawWhat the Butler Saw (play)What the Butler Saw is a farce written by English playwright Joe Orton. It premièred at the Queen's Theatre in London on 5 March 1969. It was Orton's final play and the second to be performed after his death, following Funeral Games the year before....
(Joe OrtonJoe OrtonJohn Kingsley Orton was an English playwright.In a short but prolific career lasting from 1964 until his death, he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies...
, 1975) - The SeagullThe SeagullThe Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
(Anton Chekhov, Lyric TheatreLyric Theatre (London)The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
, 1975); in repertory with - The Bed Before Yesterday (Ben TraversBen TraversBen Travers AFC CBE in London) was a British playwright best remembered for his farces.Born in the London borough of Hendon, Travers was educated at Charterhouse, where today there is a theatre named for him...
, Lyric Theatre, 1975) - The Kingfisher (William Douglas HomeWilliam Douglas-HomeWilliam Douglas Home was court-martialled in World War II for his refusal to obey orders as a British army officer and later became a successful British dramatist.-Early life:...
, Lyric Theatre 1977, BiltmoreBiltmoreBiltmore may refer to:* One of many Biltmore Hotels** Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona** Atlanta Biltmore Hotel and Biltmore Apartments in Atlanta, Georgia** Miami-Biltmore Hotel, in Coral Gables, Florida, west of Miami, Florida...
NY, 1978) - Alice's Boys (Felicity BrownFelicity BrownFelicity Brown is an English-born fashion designer, living and working in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. She studied Fashion Textiles at the Glasgow School of Art, receiving a first class honors degree and winning the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Award. From Glasgow she went on to the Royal...
and Jonathan HayesJonathan HayesJonathan "Jonny" Hayes is an Irish footballer who currently plays as a left winger for Scottish Premier League club Inverness Caledonian Thistle.-Early career:...
, Savoy TheatreSavoy TheatreThe Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
, 1978) - Early Days (David Storey, National Cottesloe Theatre, 1980)
- The Holly and the Ivy (Wynyard BrowneWynyard BrowneWynyard Barry Browne was an English playwright.He was born in London in 1911, and educated at Marlborough and Christ's College, Cambridge. His plays include 'The Holly and the Ivy', which was first produced at the Duchess Theatre in London in 1950 and was later made into a film, for which he wrote...
, RoundaboutRoundaboutA roundabout is the name for a road junction in which traffic moves in one direction around a central island. The word dates from the early 20th century. Roundabouts are common in many countries around the world...
NY, 1982) - The Cherry OrchardThe Cherry OrchardThe Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
(Anton Chekhov, Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1983) - The Playboy of the Western WorldThe Playboy of the Western WorldThe Playboy of the Western World is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge and first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on January 26, 1907. It is set in Michael James Flaherty's public house in County Mayo during the early 1900s...
(John Millington SyngeJohn Millington SyngeEdmund John Millington Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, prose writer, and collector of folklore. He was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival and was one of the cofounders of the Abbey Theatre...
, 1984) - In CelebrationIn CelebrationIn Celebration is a 1975 film directed by Lindsay Anderson. It is based in the 1969 stage production of the same name by David Storey which was also directed by Anderson. The movie was meant to be shown theatrically with tickets sold in advance....
revival (David Storey, Manhattan Theatre ClubManhattan Theatre ClubManhattan Theatre Club is a theater company located in New York City. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, Manhattan Theatre Club has grown since its founding in 1970 from an Off-Off Broadway showcase into one of the country’s most acclaimed...
, NY, 1984) - HolidayHolidayA Holiday is a day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observance is warranted. It is generally an official or unofficial observance of religious, national, or cultural significance, often accompanied by celebrations...
(Philip BarryPhilip BarryPhilip James Quinn Barry was an American playwright born in Rochester, New York.-Early life:Philip Barry was born on June 18, 1896 in Rochester, New York to James Corbett Barry and Mary Agnes Quinn Barry. James would die from appendicitis a year after Philip's birth, and his father's marble and...
, Old Vic, 1987) - The March on Russia (David Storey, National Lyttelton Theatre, 1989)
- The Fishing Trip (Frank GrimesFrank Grimes (actor)Frank Grimes is an Irish stage and screen actor.Grimes was born in Dublin. He achieved his first major success as the young Brendan Behan in the 1967 stage adaptation of Behan's autobiography, Borstal Boy, at the Abbey Theatre...
, Warehouse TheatreWarehouse TheatreThe Warehouse Theatre is a professional producing theatre with one hundred seats in the centre of the London Borough of Croydon, south London, England based in an oak-beamed former cement Victorian warehouse...
, 1991) - Stages (David Storey), National Cottesloe Theatre, 1992)
Filmography
- This Sporting LifeThis Sporting LifeThis Sporting Life is a 1963 British film based on a novel of the same name by David Storey which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. It tells the story of a rugby league footballer, Frank Machin, in Wakefield, a mining area of Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting...
(1963) - The White BusThe White BusThe White Bus is a 1967 short film by British director Lindsay Anderson. The screenplay was jointly adapted with Shelagh Delaney from a short story in her 1963 collection Sweetly Sings the Donkey....
(1967) - if.... (1968)
- O Lucky Man!O Lucky Man!O Lucky Man! is a 1973 British comedy-drama fantasy film, intended as an allegory on life in a capitalist society. Directed by Lindsay Anderson, it stars Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis, whom McDowell had first played as a disaffected public schoolboy in his first film performance in Anderson's...
(1973) - In CelebrationIn CelebrationIn Celebration is a 1975 film directed by Lindsay Anderson. It is based in the 1969 stage production of the same name by David Storey which was also directed by Anderson. The movie was meant to be shown theatrically with tickets sold in advance....
(1975) - Look Back in AngerLook Back in Anger (1980 film)Look Back in Anger is a 1980 British film starring Malcolm McDowell, Lisa Banes and Fran Brill, and directed by Lindsay Anderson and David Hugh Jones...
(1980) - Britannia HospitalBritannia HospitalBritannia Hospital is a 1982 black comedy film by British director Lindsay Anderson which targets the National Health Service and contemporary British society...
(1982) - The Whales of AugustThe Whales of AugustThe Whales of August is a 1987 film starring Bette Davis and Lillian Gish as elderly sisters. Also in the cast were Ann Sothern as one of their friends, and Vincent Price as a peripheral member of the former Russian aristocracy. The film was shot on location on Maine's Cliff Island. The house...
(1987)
Documentary and TV
- Meet the Pioneers (1948)
- Idlers that Work (1949)
- Three Installations (1951)
- Wakefield Express (1952)
- Thursday's ChildrenThursday's ChildrenThursday's Children is a 1954 short documentary film directed by Lindsay Anderson about The Royal School for the Deaf in Margate, Kent, UK. It won an Academy Award in 1955 for Documentary Short Subject....
(1953) - O DreamlandO DreamlandO Dreamland is a 1953 documentary by British film director Lindsay Anderson.The documentary was made in 1953 by Anderson and his camerman/assistant, John Fletcher, using a single 16mm camera and an audiotape recorder...
(1953) - Trunk Conveyor (1954)
- Foot and Mouth (1955)
- A Hundred Thousand Children (1955)
- The Children Upstairs (1955)
- Green and Pleasant Land (1955)
- Henry (1955)
- £20 a Ton (1955)
- Energy First (1955)
- Every Day Except ChristmasEvery Day Except ChristmasEvery Day Except Christmas is a 37-minute documentary film filmed in 1957 at the Covent Garden fruit, vegetable and flower market, then located in the Covent Garden area of East central London...
(1957) - March to Aldermaston (1959)
- The Singing Lesson (1967)
- Home (1971)
- The Old Crowd, screenplay by Alan BennettAlan BennettAlan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
(LWT, 1979) - Foreign Skies: Wham! In China (also known as "If You Were There") (1985)
- Glory! Glory! (1989)
- Is That All There Is? (Autobiographical film for BBC, 1993)