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"I just accepted Vic for what he was. He seemed in one way to understand himself very well and at the same time not to be able to do anything about it. I think it's a quite unusual scene when he goes back home to his mother. Unusual in the sense that his mother does not take his side, she takes the side of the girl he's married and that's quite unusual. Mothers usually can see no wrong in their sons but this woman thought, no, he took a step and he must follow it through, and he must deal with the woman he's married."

-Alan Bates on his role in the film

f i l m

BETWEEN 1959 and 1963, the British film industry underwent a minor revolution. Called the new realism or the "kitchen sink" school of drama, this movement had its antecedents in the theater, where plays such as John Osborne's LOOK BACK IN ANGER had changed the face of British drama. Here, working-class life was presented without any frills and without the customary British politeness. It was natural that the film industry should follow suit, and in the early 1960's, a young group of film directors came into prominence who attempted to explore relationships among the working classes and to take films out of the studios and into the back streets of the small drab towns in which their characters lived. One of the most talented of the new directors to emerge in this period was John Schlesinger, who had been employed as an actor and as a BBC film producer. He had made a short documentary film for the British Transport Committee called Terminus which depicted a day at Waterloo Station; it attracted enough critical attention to enable him to direct his first feature film, A KIND OF LOVING. Adapted from a best-selling novel by provincial writer Stan Barstow, the script was well written by Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse, who were also to write the next film Schlesinger directed, BILLY LIAR (1963). The story of A KIND OF LOVING is set against the stark, wintry background of England's industrial North; a number of Lancashire towns were used for filming. Barstow wrote about the milieu in which he grew up and which he knew well -- the small-town engineering firm, the dance hall, and the local pub. Both these settings and the use of Lancashire colloquialisms were new to British films. Here was life as millions of people actually lived it, a far cry from Noel Coward drawing rooms. Alan Bates, who was known for his roles in THE ENTERTAINER (1960) and WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (1962), was cast as Vic Brown. For Ingrid, twenty-year-old newcomer June Ritchie was chosen. The film was similar to other treatments of the same theme. Audiences had already seen and liked SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING (1960), and some critics felt that the landmarks were becoming too familiar. But the revolution proved all too short-lived, and in retrospect, A KIND OF LOVING ranks as one of the few films from that period that remains true to its working-class origins and that still represents much that is true about life in industrial England today. | Courtship | As the film opens, Vic Brown is watching his sister's wedding and is thinking about his own future. Among the crowd of spectators at the church is Ingrid Rothwell, a pretty young secretary whom Vic first noticed at Dawson Whittakers, the engineering firm where they both work. Vic looks at her with new awareness, and in the next few days his attempts to attract her attention make him the butt of blunt humor among his draughtsmen colleagues at the factory. From her studied indifference to him, it is clear that Ingrid is also attracted to Vic. Their romance finally starts when Vic follows her onto a bus and invites her to the pictures with him the following Saturday night. They hold sweaty hands in the cinema and kiss nervously in the park. Between kisses, Ingrid tells Vic that she was named for actress Ingrid Bergman. It is in these early scenes of their courtship that Schlesinger catches so well the awkwardness of those too inarticulate to verbalize their feelings. Ingrid is worried that Vic thinks she is common, and Vic wonders whether she is really all that interesting. Their romance is presented with a notable lack of sentiment. Sometimes Vic thinks he is in love with Ingrid, and sometimes he cannot stand the sight of her. Behind all of this young adult horseplay lurks the specter of stability. What Ingrid wants is what every respectable young woman wants -- a man who loves her, who will marry her, and who will provide her with a home and children. Schlesinger sensitively shows the conflict in a man like Vic, who also thinks those things are worth having, but feels that maybe there is more in life. | Affair | When Ingrid's mother (Thora Hird) goes away for a few days leaving her daughter alone in the house, Vic and Ingrid begin a full-blown affair. As soon as they make love for the first time, Vic realizes that for him, Ingrid is merely another girl, only a conquest. He stops coming round to see her and weeks pass. When Vic and Ingrid next meet at the firm's annual party, Ingrid breaks the news to him that she is pregnant; with a tone of extreme resignation, he tells her he will marry her. The next and last section of the film deals with the married life of Vic and Ingrid, and at first glance, the material seems destined for cliche -- the vicious mother-in-law, the neglectful husband, and the pregnant wife. But here Schlesinger shows real mastery, for in many ways this is the finest and truest part of the film. Whereas the first part is about youth, horseplay, sex, and confrontation, the section on the couple's marriage is about maturity and real change. Vic and Ingrid are driven further and further apart by Ingrid's mother's constant interference and obvious dislike of Vic. When Vic tries to explain what he is going through to his married sister, she reminds him that he has made his own bed, and now he must lie in it. Vic feels that he and Ingrid would at least have a chance at contentment if they had a place of their own. Things come to a head when Ingrid has a miscarriage and Mrs. Rothwell does not even call Vic to come to the hospital. He sees, ironically enough, that he need not have married Ingrid after all, but his innate decency makes him determined to find a small home for himself and his wife, hoping that they can make a new start and that "a kind of loving" will carry them through. | Honesty and directness | The honesty and directness of A KIND OF LOVING impressed most critics. The film made an even bigger star of Alan Bates, and John Schlesinger went on to become a major director of both British and American films. By the mid-1960's Britain was going through more changes, and this type of film ceased to be popular. When the impact of the Beatles was felt and Mary Quant and swinging London emerged, audiences were less anxious to see films about working-class people's problems and instead wanted to peek in on the lives of those supposedly enjoying the new prosperity. Two years after A KIND OF LOVING, John Schlesinger forsook the industrial North for the world of fashion models and public relations men in DARLING; another era in British film was over. Not since that brief flowering in the late 1950's has the British film industry been able to command the writing, directing, and acting talent of so many gifted people and combine those talents to make a group of films so essentially British. A KIND OF LOVING represents British filmmaking at its finest. ||| © Magill's Survey of Cinema, 06-15-1995