Down & Dirty. British cinema of the 1980s.

The 1980s in Great Britain were a time of great political tension, suppression of trade union movements, the punk revolution in music, and the slow victory of neoliberal economic policy.

Against the backdrop of these turbulent events, portrayed by filmmakers such as Ken Loach and Bill Douglas, intimate films were made in the UK throughout the decade, focusing on portraits of various types of loners, individualists, people who were lonely by choice, abandoned despite their efforts, or fighting for themselves at all costs.

The protagonists of this review are people who have been let down in various ways by their closest relationships. Sometimes they destroyed these relationships themselves, and sometimes they stubbornly refuse to acknowledge them.

This spring, we will therefore immerse ourselves in the British shade of loneliness, from the melancholic (as in Terence Davies) to the anger-driven (as in John Mackenzie), irony (as in Bruce Robinson) or lack of self-esteem (as in Jack Clayton's work).

Who knows, perhaps at the end of the British gray there is a glimmer of spring sunshine waiting?

Series curator: Michał Oleszczyk

Program:

March 18, 7:00 p.m.

Distant Voices, Still Lives, dir. Terence Davies

March 25, 7:00 p.m.

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, dir. Jack Clayton

April 8, 7:00 p.m.

Withnail and I, dir. Bruce Robinson

April 15, 7:00 p.m.

The Long Good Friday, dir. John MacKenzie