http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swinging_London
Swinging London
- Swinging London was a term applied to the Dynamic cultural trends of the UK and mainly London.
- It was youth-orientated and emphasized the new and modern.
- It was a period of ‘optimism’ and ‘hedonism’, the thoughts that the pursuit of life is for pleasure and self indulgence.
- A cultural revolution in music, fashion, film and a lot more.
Music, fashion and photography were all key and well focused on in this era. Icons were formed and everything became modern. British film thrived and focused on the this society throughout the 60’s, the didn’t seem to be any one outside the bubble.
Films
- Michelangelo Antonioni – ‘Blowup’ (1966)
- Darling (1965)
- Alfie (1966)
- James Bond ‘Casino Royal’
- A Hard Days Night.
These are the films i have choose to look into as i feel they relate to Closet to the way the characters were represented, in terms of age, gender and class.
Blowup (1966)
Director- Michelangelo Antonioni
Distributed by ‘Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’ (MGM)
British Italian film based around a London photographer whose habits and mannerisms are focused on the Swinging London photographer ‘David Bailey’. Fashion, art, photography and film were key in this era. This film concentrates on these certain aspects ands shows the life and representation of a character in this society.
- This clip has a very strong relation to ‘Alfie’.
- Representation of women is beyond similar both show women as objects and don’t have names.
- In this clip there is no dialect from the females.
- His first line is a order, represents him as in command and powerful. He physically moves one of the models and raises his voice, this makes the women look vulnerable and delicate.
- In relation to Alfie the characters behave and act in the same way, the format is also similar… as though we are following a day in the life, both films do this. Both characters in terms of class are middle class but want to be upper, Thomas (Blowup) is a very demanding and arrogant character, he thinks he is more important than he actually is. In the same way with alfie, he acts upper class to get the girls.
Darling (1965)
Darling is a film about a Female model who is described to sleep her way to success, this can relate again to Alfie and Blowup in terms of gender, commenting on how women were only good for sexual companions and how they had to use they’re looks to get some where. In Alfie this is shown from the male point of view, seeing how women will be with him, but they might think that they’ll get somewhere from it. Blowup, Thomas uses the Women for modeling, treating them like manikins and they settle for this cause they know it will help them, again using looks and body to get some where.
Class differences between Alfie and Darling
A Hard Days Night (1964)
Directed by Richard Lester
Representation of women relates to most of the films in the 60’s. This for example only has one female character with a name, the rest are shown as young and screaming fans. The characters, band members are all keen to get close to the girls and are very relaxed.
With all films there is a massive sense of ‘Hedonism’ all characters and films follow the journey which is fun living and enjoyable, A hard Days Night being the best example, Alfie being a good one although it does seem to have a depressing out look towards the end.
