Kenneth "Ken" Loach (born 17 June 1936) is an English Traditionally Christianity, mostly Anglicanism, but also non-conformists and also Roman Catholics (see Catholic Emancipation). Agnostics, atheist as well as other religions. (see Religion in England) film A film director is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Many people also consider film producers, cinematographers, film editors, and special effects experts to be filmmakers and television director In both types of productions, the director is responsible for supervising the placement of cameras , lighting elements, microphones, and props. In a dramatic production, the television director's role can be similar to that of a film director, giving cues to actors and telling the operator of the videotape recorder when to start and stop recording.
He is known for his naturalistic, social realist Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic. The movement is a style of painting in which the scenes depicted directing style and for his socialist Socialism is an economic and political theory advocating public or common ownership and cooperative management of the means of production and allocation of resources beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness Homelessness is the condition and social category of people without a regular house or dwelling because they cannot afford, do not desire, or are otherwise unable to maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence." The actual legal definition varies from country to country, or (Cathy Come Home) and labour rights Labor rights or workers' rights are a group of legal rights and claimed human rights having to do with labor relations between workers and their employers, usually obtained under labor and employment law. In general, these rights' debates have to do with negotiating workers' pay, benefits, and safe working conditions. One of the most central of (Riff-Raff).
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Early life and career
Loach was born in Nuneaton Nuneaton is the largest town in the Borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth and in the English county of Warwickshire, Warwickshire Warwickshire is perhaps best known for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon. Even today, road signs at the county boundary describe Warwickshire as "Shakespeare's County". The county has also produced other literary figures such as George Eliot , Rupert Brooke (from Rugby), and Michael Drayton from, the son of Vivien (née Hamlin) and John Loach.[1] He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and following two years in the RAF The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts read law at St Peter's College, Oxford The University of Oxford , located in the English city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back as the 11th century. The University grew. There he performed in the now well established comedy group, the Oxford Revue Former members include Michael Palin, Terry Jones, , Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, Rowan Atkinson, Ken Loach, Angus Deayton, Rebecca Front, Armando Iannucci, Richard Curtis, Philip Pope, Al Murray, Laura Solon, Katy Brand, Katherine Parkinson, Peter Harness, Sally Philips, Ben Moor, Emma Kennedy, Danny O'Brien, David Schneider, Geoffrey Perkins,. He initially worked as an actor in repertory theatre, but in the early 1960s moved into television direction and was credited in this role on early episodes of Z-Cars Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978 in 1964.
In 1966, Loach made the influential docu-drama Cathy Come Home portraying working class people affected by homelessness and unemployment, and presenting a powerful and influential critique of the workings of the Social Services. Soon afterwards with Poor Cow (1967) he started directing films for the cinema, and in 1969 made Kes, the story of a troubled boy and his kestrel, based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. The British Film Institute named it No 7 in its list of best films of the twentieth century, published in 1999.
During the 1970s and '80s, Loach's films were less successful, often suffering from poor distribution, lack of interest and political censorship. His film The Save the Children Fund Film (1971) was commissioned by the charity Save the Children is an international organisation helping children in need around the world. First established in the United Kingdom in 1919, separate national organisations have been set up in more than twenty-eight countries, sharing the aim of improving the lives of children through education, health care and economic opportunities, as well as, who subsequently disliked it so much they attempted to have the negative destroyed. It has never been shown in public.
In 1982, Loach and Central Independent Television Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited. The main news programme it broadcast for the were commissioned by Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel Four Television Corporation, a public body to make Questions of Leadership, a documentary series on the response of the British trade union movement to the challenge posed by the policies of the Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She is the only woman to have held either post government, which also gave members an opportunity to call their own leaders to account. However, the programmes were not broadcast by Channel 4, a decision Loach claimed was politically motivated. In 2004, for the first time, the real reason for this censorship was revealed, in Anthony Hayward's book Which Side Are You On? Ken Loach and His Films.[2] It emerged that the media tycoon Robert Maxwell had put pressure on Central's board, of which he had become a director, to withdraw Questions of Leadership at the time he was buying the Daily Mirror newspaper and needed the co-operation of union leaders, especially Frank Chapple of the electricians.
Another film, Which Side Are You On? (1985), about the songs and poems of the UK miners' strike The UK Miners' Strike was a major industrial action affecting the British coal industry. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the British trades union movement. It was also seen as a major political and ideological victory for Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party, was commissioned by ITV's The South Bank Show The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show, made by London Weekend Television, presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast on ITV and seen in over 60 countries worldwide — including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and the USA. Its stated aim is to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience, but also banned. The film was eventually transmitted on Channel 4, but only after it won a major prize at the Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978. With 274,000 tickets sold and 487,000 admissions it is considered the largest publicly-. Crucially, it was only shown towards the end of the miners' strike and not in the middle of the strike when it was originally scheduled.
However, the 1990s saw the production of a series of critically acclaimed and popular films. During this period he was also awarded prizes at the Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival , founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious film festivals. The private festival is held annually (usually in May) at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France on three occasions. He directed the Courtroom Drama reconstructions in the docu-film McLibel, concerning the longest libel trial McDonald's Restaurants v Morris & Steel was an English lawsuit filed by McDonald's Corporation against environmental activists Helen Steel and David Morris (often referred to as "The McLibel Two") over a pamphlet critical of the company. The original case lasted ten years, making it the longest-running court action in English history in English history, which became a promotional disaster for the fast food chain.
On 28 May 2006, Loach won the Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded to competing films at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film. From 1964 to 1974 it was replaced again by the Grand Prix du Festival at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival The 2006 Cannes Film Festival ran from May 17, 2006 to May 28, 2006. Twenty films from eleven countries were in competition for the Palme d'Or. The President of the Official Jury was Wong Kar-wai, the first Chinese director to preside over the jury for his film The Wind That Shakes the Barley,[3] a movie about the Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed to a truce in July 1921, though violence continued in the northeast (mostly between and the subsequent Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire during the 1920s. Loach lives with his wife, Lesley, in Bath Bath is a city in the ceremonial county of Somerset in the south west of England. It is situated 97 miles (156 km) west of London and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Bristol. The population of the city is 83,992. It was granted city status by Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1590, and was made a county borough in 1889 which gave it, where he is a supporter of and shareholder A mutual shareholder or stockholder is an individual or company that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a joint stock company. A company's shareholders collectively own that company and are the members of the company by signing the memorandum of association . Thus, the typical goal of such companies is to enhance shareholder value in Bath City F.C.
Film style
Ken Loach at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival The 2006 Cannes Film Festival ran from May 17, 2006 to May 28, 2006. Twenty films from eleven countries were in competition for the Palme d'Or. The President of the Official Jury was Wong Kar-wai, the first Chinese director to preside over the jury.Loach's film work is characterised by a particular view of realism Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular empirical rules," as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation. As such, the approach inherently implies a belief that such reality is ontologically; he strives in every area of filmmaking to emphasise genuine interplay between actors, to the point where some scenes in his films appear unscripted. However, all scenes are carefully scripted, around which some improvisation can occur. The final script and the final film are actually very close. Loach values having a strong, creative partnership with scriptwriters, most recently with Paul Laverty, who has written 9 feature films for Loach (including The Wind That Shakes The Barley and Sweet Sixteen) and previously with Jim Allen (Land & Freedom) and Barry Hines (Kes).
Rather than employing method actors, he prefers unknown talent who have had some of the life experience of the characters they portray. Loach's film work has been described as naturalistic, he emphasises the genuine interplay between actors and foregoes any over-dependence on special effects. He succeeds in creating a spontaneous, realistic atmosphere in scenes and many actors, from Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable types of characters and Robert Duvall Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards to Robert Carlyle (Carla's Song and Riff-Raff) and Peter Mullan (My Name Is Joe) have praised the performances he coaxes from actors and how he treats them.
In Bread and Roses, a film about immigrant cleaners in LA, many of the actors appearing were actual Latino cleaners who were immigrants themselves. Some were also trade union and grassroot activists. Some knew from their own experience the dangers of crossing the border into the US. Adrien Brody, the main actor, spent time with activists to understand his role better. Pilar Padilla, a Mexican actress and protagonist of the film, had to learn English in a crash course to play the part.
Loach makes great efforts to help the actors express themselves naturally and honestly. He believes that shooting in order, from first scene to last, helps the actors enormously to find a truthful response to their circumstances. Many actors in his films are often not given the full script at the beginning of a shoot, but rather they experience the story just as a fictional character might do. He will often give actors their scenes a couple of days in advance so they can learn their lines but they still won't know what comes after that. If a scene involves shock or surprise for a character, the actor might not know what is about to happen. In Kes the boy actor, discovering the dead bird at the end, believed Loach had actually killed the bird that he had become quite close to during the filming (in fact the crew used a dead bird found elsewhere). What is more, in the scene where Mr Gryce is searching the schoolboys, the small first year holding everybody else's cigarettes was under the impression that he was to give the headmaster a note and leave the office. Subsequently, when he himself is searched and found to be "a right little cigarette factory", he is caned alongside the other boys; hence, his look of shock and tears of pain are in fact real. In Raining Stones one of the actresses visited at her house by a loan shark A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at high interest rates to individuals, often enforcing repayment by blackmail or threats of violence had no idea that he was going to force her to take off her wedding ring and give it to him as part payment. In Carla's Song, the bus driver, played by Robert Carlyle, knew nothing of Carla's attempted suicide until he discovered her in the bath. In Looking For Eric the main actor Steve Evets only realised that football icon Eric Cantona was actually in the film when he turned around to face him in a scene, with the camera rolling.
Loach is a strong opponent of censorship Strict censorship existed in the Eastern Bloc. Throughout the bloc, the various ministries of culture held a tight rein on their writers. Cultural products there reflected the propaganda needs of the state. Party-approved censors exercised strict control in the early years. In the Stalinist period, even the weather forecasts were changed if they in cinema and was outraged at the 18 certificate given to Sweet Sixteen. Loach himself said,
| “ | I think it was a very silly decision, such a patronising attitude as well. People are rarely hurt by swear words, yet you see scenes of violence depicted in films often with a 12 certificate. Some of these films have violence for the sake of it, try and push the certification boundaries. I think in my films that the violence is necessary to portray realism, it’s important to the narrative. And yes, it does put a smokescreen on society because it uses violence as a source of entertainment rather than its actual meaning. | ” |
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Mike Collett-White
Fri, 21 May 2010 16:38:55 GM
CANNES, France (Reuters) British director . Ken Loach. turns a critical eye on private security firms operating in Iraq in his new drama Route Irish, in which trigger-happy mercenaries appear to act above the law. ...
