If... Turner Classic Movies British Film Guide

by Sutton, Paul

• ISBN13: 9781850436720
• ISBN10: 185043672X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-11-05
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris

Summary

Lindsay Anderson's provocative, savage and wickedly funny 1968 masterpiece, If.... , deals fundamentally--and controversially--with England and quintessential "Englishness." If.... was the first film ever with a British setting and cast to win the Palme d'Or for Best Film at Cannes. The fruit of Anderson's first-hand studies of the Czech, Polish and Indian New Waves led by Milos Forman, Andrzej Wajda and, most famously, Satyajit Ray, it prophesied--and then mirrored--an international outbreak of youthful rebellion. An authority on Lindsay Anderson and his films, Sutton here draws on massive quantities of original material: Anderson's private archive, which illuminates the film's autobiographical elements; the original script Crusaders ; the sequel on which he was working at the time of his death; interviews with key members of cast and crew including lead Malcolm McDowell, all are here explored to unravel the mysteries of a film which continues to delight, enrage and inspire.

Author Biography

Paul Sutton was the founding editor of Camera Journal, the Cambridge University film journal, and is the editor of The Lindsay Anderson Diaries (2004).

Table of Contents

Ackowledgements * Film Credits * Introduction * One: The Context * The Student * The Soldier * Sequence * Free Cinema * The Royal Court Theatre * Cannes, Pesaro, India, Poland and Czechoslovakia * The White Bus * David Sherwin's Crusaders * Casting and Production * Two: The Narrative * The Film * College * Term Time * Ritual and Romance * Discipline * Resistance * Forth to War * Crusaders * Cut Scenes * The Reception. The sequel: The * Paramount * Cheltenham College * Fellow Artists * The Critics * The Public * O Lucky Man! & If (2) * Conclusion * Appendix

Excerpts

"Lindsay Anderson's provocative, savage and wickedly funny 1968 masterpiece, If ...., deals fundamentally - and controversially - with England and 'Englishness'. Coming six years after Anderson's double Oscar-nominated debut feature This Sporting Life, and based in part on the director's own experiences of British public school and of the military, If ..., was the first film with a British setting and cast to win the Palme d'Or for Best Film at Cannes. The fruit of Anderson's first-hand studies of the Czech, Polish and Indian New Waves led by Milos Forman, Andrzej Wajda and Satyajit Ray, it prophesied - and then mirrored - an international outbreak of youthful rebellion. Sutton here draws on a number of sources: Anderson's private archive, which illuminates the film's autobiographical elements; the original script Crusaders which would be transformed into If ....; the sequel on which he was working at the time of his death; and interviews with key members of cast and crew including actor Malcolm McDowell. Disentangling Anderson's work from the social realist tag, Sutton also discusses the film's experimental mix of realism and fantasy, the responses from censors, audiences and the public schools on which it was based."--BOOK JACKET.