How would you classify this movie
I would be tempted to say "British New Wave" for lack of film history, but i am not sure if this type of movies is already defined by some other term.
sharegood guess. I was thinking the same thing.
share
MovieChat Forums > The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965) Discussion > How would you classify this movie
"Swinging London"
sharePersonally I'd classify it as "must've been funny 40 years ago but not today." And yes, I was alive during those years. It's wacky in the way the Monkees TV series was wacky, and I realize the Monkees were a copy of this type of film, but Lester's movies seem far more dated somehow.
shareWhat like about Richard Lester's films is the subtle tongue and cheek humor. Today was the first time I had seen this film, I had seen the other Beatles Movies Hard Days Nights and Help. I can see the type influence in this movie. It seemed rather fresh then dated. I guess what could make dated is the subtlness, black/white film, almost borderline of pure innocents. Even Tolen revealed at the end of the movie, he was never good at satisfing a woman. He is scared of Nancy's accusation of Rape.
To me is far from the Monkees, The Monkees were more physical humor, the tv series not the movie The Head which to me today is still out there in outer space in Jack Nickleson's mind.
EGAD but this film was hard to sit through! It was like watching Frank Zappa's 2000 Motels, Blow Up or one of those freeform Sonny and Cher films.
Apparently, during the Sixties directors thought they could do away with continuity, a sensible script and logical dialog. WRONG.
However, I did enjoy the vintage John Barry soundtrack. What a gifted composer.
"Brittish New Wave"... that's a good term, jestes21. While I was watching this movie, immediately related it to the works by Godard, Truffaut, Demy, Varda and even Resnais.
However I would classify it as "avant-garde farce" with a touch of slapstick comedy.
"French New Wave meets British humor, filmed by an American expatriot who made Advertising campaigns a TV sketch comedy."
It is certainly dated, but what a date. It was THE social turning point in history and this film tackles it with Godard visuals and a comedic forethought towards Monty Python. What could have been better in that time?
A perfect film, for what it was meant to convey.
"What rotten sins I've got working for me. I suppose it's the wages." -Bedazzled (1967)
British New Wave: (eg. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1959); Look Back in Anger (1959); A Taste of Honey (1961); Room at the Top (1959) et al) is seen as having run its course with Schlesinger's Billy Liar (1963); however the modernist style, drawn partly from French New Wave (Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol) - and which partly depended upon twisting the guidelines set by the classical continuity system of pre-1960s Hollywood, along with location shooting - not studio) was swiftly taken up by films defined as "swinging London" (Help!; Hard Day's Night; Smashing Time etc). The characters are always young, hip, vibrant and idealistic; narrative time is stretched, speeded up, frozen, even briefly reversed; camera techniques draw attention to themselves; performances similarly so, often seeming spontaneous or cartoonish; dialogue frequently carries a Brechtian distanciation and surrealist tone; the older generations are frequently mocked for their narrow-mindedness, and the upper-classes for their hypocracy! Lester's 'Knack' obviously falls into this category! Added to this, John Barry's swirling, cello/cymbols/organ-infused, sexy Jazz score synchronises Carnaby Street with classicism, making this film truly swinging!
sharewhen I was in my film class, this film and most of Lester's films were classified as influences of french new wave like "breathless" and "a woman is a woman." Breathless looks exactly like this movie.
WHO SAID IT WAS DATED? HELL NO! I thought it was so funny and it reminded of me and my friends and what I've experienced and I'm around the age the characters are right now. It's a funny tribute to immaturity when your in your 20s.
I do love the mod fashions and teddys and ambiance that is in this film which was so awesome, I wish I lived in that era.
Film classifications are necessary for discussion but are often inexact. It's part of British New Wave and even includes Rita Tushingham, but it's after the "kitchen sink film" era. It takes place in the Swinging London period but does not really depict that particular scene. It's early Richard Lester so I'd just call it idiosyncratic surrealism. If you look at the threads here you can see it really divides people.
share