Nice Time is a 1957

1957 in film

The year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:...

 documentary film

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...

 made by Alain Tanner and Claude Goretta

Claude Goretta

Claude Goretta is an internationally successful television producer and film director. His 1981 film La provinciale was entered into the 31st Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:...

 in Britain and included in the third 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...

 programme at the National Film Theatre, London in May 1957. It won the Experimental Film

Experimental film

Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...

 prize at the film festival in Venice and much critical praise.

It is approximately 17 minutes in length, and comprises 190 shots of crowds of leisure-seeking people taken over 25 weekends in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly...

. There is no narration, and no dialogue; a soundtrack consisting of several folk songs (including the American song "Greenback Dollar" and other skiffle

Skiffle

Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk, roots and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in the UK in the 1950s, where it was mainly...

 songs) ties shots together into groups, while there is little recorded sound from the scenes shown on screen.

The filmmakers, both in their early twenties, made the documentary on a shoestring budget after receiving a grant of £240 from 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...

. Chief among the film's subjects are movies and other entertainment; flirting, sex, and prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

; and salesmanship and commodity culture.