This Sporting Life (1963)

Regisseur:

Lindsay Anderson

Drehbuchautoren:

David Storey (novel)
David Storey (screenplay)

Premierendatum:

Januar 1963 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Sportfilm

Plot:

In Northern England in the early 1960s, Frank Machin is mean, tough and ambitious enough to become an...

Plot Keywords:

Nonlinear Timeline | Yorkshire | Rags To Riches | Coal Miner | Bentley

Filmpreise:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 7 nominations

Nutzerkommentare:

Insolently sublime masterpiece

Besetzung

Richard Harris	...	Frank Machin
Rachel Roberts	...	Mrs. Margaret Hammond
Alan Badel	...	Gerald Weaver
William Hartnell	...	'Dad' Johnson
Colin Blakely	...	Maurice Braithwaite
Vanda Godsell	...	Mrs. Anne Weaver
Anne Cunningham	...	Judith
Jack Watson	...	Len Miller
Arthur Lowe	...	Charles Slomer
Harry Markham	...	Wade
George Sewell	...	Jeff
Leonard Rossiter	...	Phillips, Sports writer
Katherine Parr	...	Mrs. Farrer
Bernadette Benson	...	Lynda Hammond
Andrew Nolan	...	Ian Hammond

Alternativ:

Lockender Lorbeer (Österreich) (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) [de]
Sporting Life (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) [de]

Länge:

134 Min

Produktionsland:

UK

Sprache:

Englisch

Farbe:

Schwarzweiss

Seitenverhältnis:

1.66 : 1

Tonverfahren:

Mono

Altersfreigabe:

UK:X (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating) | UK:AA (re-rating) (1970) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | West Germany:16 (bw)

Drehorte:

Bolton Priory, Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire, England, UK

Firma:

Independent Artists

Dies und das:

It was William Hartnell's appearance in this film that brought him to the attention of Verity Lambert, producer of "Doctor Who" (1963).

Bezüge zu anderen Titeln:

Ausschnittsweise enthalten in 50 Films to See Before You Die (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Here In My Heart

Insolently sublime masterpiece

This title mostly stays obscurely distant to the wider audience, which is utterly sad, almost as the movie itself. "This sporting life" marks era of the British New Wave, but it is somehow off the French mellow tracks. Frank Machin is rude and robust, just like the circumstances of time and place. After swift uplift of cinematic themes, which almost totally set WWII into background, 1960ies made Brits turn the mirror inwards. Medium of film was open for investigating and reflecting what hides in one's inner and where could it lead. In circle, surely, as well-tried French recipe of the era already settled the never-ending mental pattern.

This is basically a love story, a tale of two fairly different people joined in their solitude. They glide through scenery of urban and mental squalor, wonderfully photographed by Denys N. Coop. Shades of the mind are so aptly blended with interiors and every feeling convincingly underlined by many (but never one too many) close-ups. By my account, the only moment which was superfluous happened in the fancy restaurant: Frank taking Margaret and her new fur-coat to dinner to the place which was never intended for them. Frank's rawness in the situation was a bit over the top, movie could have well done without it, or at least with having it toned down.

Nevertheless, poetry is inevitable. Lindsay Anderson managed to draw tenuity out of time, places and persons who struggled against each other. Finale offered the only possible solution: For those who stayed – "after all…tomorrow is another day."