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84-445: Poor Cow (also known as No Tears for Joy ) is a 1967 British kitchen sink drama film directed by Ken Loach and starring Carol White and Terence Stamp . It was written by Loach and Nell Dunn based on Dunn's 1967 novel of the same name . It was Loach's first feature film, after a series of TV productions. The film was re-released in the UK in 2016. 18-year-old Joy, who comes from

168-942: A Girl and a Bike (1949). Box remained determined on making social realism films, even after Gainsborough closed in 1951, when he said in 1952 "No film has yet been made of the Tolpuddle Martyrs , the Suffragette Movement , the National Health Service as it is today, or the scandals of the patent medicines, oil control in the World, or armaments manufactured for profit." However, he would not go on to make these types of stories into films, instead focusing on issues related to abortion, teenage prostitution, bigamy , child neglect , shoplifting , and drug trafficking in films such as Street Corner (1953), Too Young to Love (1959), and Subway in

252-479: A Socialist utopia in the process of creation. As such, social realism allows more space for the subjectivity of the author to be displayed. Partly, social realism developed as a reaction against Romanticism , which promoted lofty concepts such as the "ineffable" beauty and truth of art and music and even turned them into spiritual ideals. As such, social realism focused on the "ugly realities of contemporary life and sympathized with working class people, particularly

336-490: A big family with an alcoholic mother and womanising father, leaves home to marry Tom and they have a son, Johnny. Tom mentally and physically abuses Joy and shows little interest or affection. He has been in prison for four years and, when he is jailed again after being caught attempting a big robbery, Joy and her very young son are left on their own. After briefly sharing a room with her Aunt Emm, an aging prostitute , Joy moves in with Dave, one of Tom's criminal associates. Dave

420-409: A demolition site where he has gone to play. Realising how much Johnny means to her, Joy decides to stay with Tom despite the abuse, but continues to dream of a future with Dave. Credited despite scenes being cut Terence Stamp says Ken Loach was inspired to write the film after meeting Carol White during Cathy Come Home (1966): But he really didn’t write it; we didn’t really have a script. That

504-494: A kitchen sink. Bratby did various kitchen and bathroom-themed paintings, including three paintings of toilets. Bratby's paintings of people often depicted the faces of his subjects as desperate and unsightly. Kitchen sink realism artists painted everyday objects, such as trash cans and beer bottles. The critic David Sylvester wrote an article in 1954 about trends in recent English art, calling his article "The Kitchen Sink" in reference to Bratby's picture. Sylvester argued that there

588-426: A relationship with a black sailor and gets pregnant. After the sailor leaves on his ship, Jo moves in with a homosexual acquaintance who assumes the role of surrogate father. A Taste of Honey raises the issues of class, race, gender and sexual orientation. Later, as many of these writers and directors diversified, kitchen sink realism was taken up by television directors who produced television plays. The single play

672-576: A seedy photographers' club and drifts into promiscuity . She likes men giving her presents but is too impulsive and easygoing to make a living as a prostitute. Bored with her humdrum surroundings, she dreams of bettering herself. When Tom is released, Joy goes back to him after he promises to move her from her small grotty flat to a modern well-furnished house. However, one evening, after Tom has slapped her several times, Joy goes out and upon returning, she finds Tom watching TV and Johnny missing. Joy frantically searches for Johnny and finally finds him alone on

756-526: A society dominated by working-class values had to absorb all the lessons of bourgeois art before it could move forward at all. The taking of power by Joseph Stalin's faction had its corollary in the establishment of an official art: on 23 April 1932, headed by Stalin, an organization formed by the central committee of the Communist Party developed the Union of Soviet Writers . This organization endorsed

840-401: A stirring appeal to a mass audience." Social realism in cinema was reflecting Britain's transforming wartime society. Women were working alongside men in the military and its munitions factories, challenging pre-assigned gender roles. Rationing, air raids and unprecedented state intervention in the life of the individual encouraged a more social philosophy and worldview. Social realist films of

924-501: A style of social realism which depicted the domestic situations of working-class Britons, living in cramped rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimy pubs , to explore controversial social and political issues ranging from abortion to homelessness. The harsh, realistic style contrasted sharply with the escapism of the previous generation's so-called " well-made plays ". The films, plays and novels employing this style are often set in poorer industrial areas in

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1008-549: A very good movie" but also labeled it as a potential sign for a new phase in recent British films of the time distinct from the social realism and satire films of the time as one made "in equal parts of squalor and techniques." On the film's re-release in 2016, Kate Muir in The Times gave the film four stars out of five and described the film as "incredibly moving". Clips of Stamp's performance in Poor Cow were used to show

1092-450: Is also different from realism as it not only presents conditions of the poor, but does so by conveying the tensions between two opposing forces, such as between farmers and their feudal lord. However, sometimes the terms social realism and socialist realism are used interchangeably. Social realism, as an art movement that became prominent in the US between the two world wars, as a reaction to

1176-749: Is now considered one of the most famous documentary photography projects ever. The Public Works of Art Project was a program to employ artists during the Great Depression . It was the first such program, running from December 1933 to June 1934. It was headed by Edward Bruce , under the United States Treasury Department and funded by the Civil Works Administration . Created in 1935, the Works Progress Administration

1260-461: Is sometimes more narrowly used for an art movement that flourished in the interwar period as a reaction to the hardships and problems suffered by common people after the Great Crash . In order to make their art more accessible to a wider audience, artists turned to realist portrayals of anonymous workers as well as celebrities as heroic symbols of strength in the face of adversity. The goal of

1344-430: Is tender and understanding, but the idyll is shattered when he is sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for leading a robbery which results in a woman being blinded, and given his long criminal record, early release seems unlikely. Intending to be faithful to Dave, Joy moves back with Aunt Emm, writes to Dave frequently, and initiates divorce proceedings against Tom. After taking a job as a barmaid , Joy starts modelling for

1428-630: The Philadelphia Record in April 1915. In paintings, illustrations, etchings, and lithographs, Ashcan artists concentrated on portraying New York 's vitality, with a keen eye on current events and the era's social and political rhetoric. H. Barbara Weinberg of The Metropolitan Museum of Art has described the artists as documenting "an unsettling, transitional time that was marked by confidence and doubt, excitement and trepidation. Ignoring or registering only gently harsh new realities such as

1512-685: The Ashcan School including Edward Hopper , and Thomas Hart Benton , Will Barnet , Ben Shahn , Jacob Lawrence , Paul Meltsner , Romare Bearden , Rafael Soyer , Isaac Soyer , Moses Soyer , Reginald Marsh , John Steuart Curry , Arnold Blanch , Aaron Douglas , Grant Wood , Horace Pippin , Walt Kuhn , Isabel Bishop , Paul Cadmus , Doris Lee , Philip Evergood , Mitchell Siporin , Robert Gwathmey , Adolf Dehn , Harry Sternberg , Gregorio Prestopino , Louis Lozowick , William Gropper , Philip Guston , Jack Levine , Ralph Ward Stackpole , John Augustus Walker and others. It also extends to

1596-506: The Farm Security Administration (FSA) project, from 1935 to 1943. After World War I , the booming U.S. farm economy collapsed from overproduction , falling prices, unfavorable weather, and increased mechanization . Many farm laborers were out of work and many small farming operations were forced into debt. Debt-ridden farms were foreclosed by the thousands, and sharecroppers and tenant farmers were turned from

1680-667: The North of England , and use the accents and slang heard in those regions. The film It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) is a precursor of the genre and the John Osborne play Look Back in Anger (1956) is thought of as the first of the genre. The gritty love-triangle of Look Back in Anger , for example, takes place in a cramped, one-room flat in the English Midlands . Shelagh Delaney 's 1958 play A Taste of Honey (which

1764-641: The Palme d'Or at the first Cannes Film Festival , and Bimal Roy 's Two Acres of Land (1953), which won the International Prize at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival . The success of these films gave rise to the Indian New Wave , with early Bengali art films such as Ritwik Ghatak 's Nagarik (1952) and Satyajit Ray 's The Apu Trilogy (1955–59). Realism in Indian cinema dates back to

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1848-484: The Royal Court Theatre , headed by George Devine and Theatre Workshop organised by Joan Littlewood were particularly prominent in bringing these plays to public attention. Critic John Heilpern wrote that Look Back in Anger expressed such "immensity of feeling and class hatred" that it altered the course of English theatre. The term "Angry theatre" was coined by critic John Russell Taylor . This

1932-623: The Socialist Realism used in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc , but the two are not identical – Social Realism is not an official art, and allows space for subjectivity . In certain contexts, socialist realism has been described as a specific branch of social realism. With the onset of abstract expressionism in the 1940s, social realism had gone out of fashion. Several WPA artists found work with

2016-736: The United States Office of War Information during WWII, making posters and other visual materials for the war effort. After the war, although lacking attention in the art market, many social realist artists continued their careers into the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and into the 2000s; throughout which, artists such as Jacob Lawrence , Ben Shahn , Bernarda Bryson Shahn , Raphael Soyer , Robert Gwathmey , Antonio Frasconi , Philip Evergood , Sidney Goodman, and Aaron Berkman continued to work with social realist modalities and themes. Whether in and out of fashion, social realism and socially conscious art-making continues today within

2100-543: The contemporary art world, including artists Sue Coe , Mike Alewitz, Kara Walker , Celeste Dupuy Spencer , Allan Sekula , Fred Lonidier, and others. Muralists active in Mexico after the Mexican Revolution of 1910 created largely propagandizing murals which emphasized a revolutionary spirit and a pride in the traditions of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, and included Diego Rivera 's History of Mexico from

2184-607: The " well-made play ", the kind which theatre critic Kenneth Tynan once denounced as being set in "Loamshire", of dramatists like Terence Rattigan . "Well-made plays" were a dramatic genre from nineteenth-century theatre which found its early 20th-century codification in Britain in the form of William Archer 's Play-Making: A Manual of Craftmanship (1912), and in the United States with George Pierce Baker 's Dramatic Technique (1919). Kitchen sink works were created with

2268-417: The 1920s and 1930s was an inspiration to many artists north of the border and an important component of the social realism movement. The Mexican muralist movement is characterized by its political undertones, the majority of which are of a Marxist nature, and the social and political situation of post-revolutionary Mexico. Diego Rivera , David Alfaro Siqueiros , José Clemente Orozco , and Rufino Tamayo are

2352-483: The 1940s, referring to the British industry's rivalry with Hollywood in terms of "realism and tinsel". Balcon, the head of Ealing Studios , became a key figure in the emergence of a national cinema characterized by stoicism and verisimilitude. Critic Richard Armstrong said: "Combining the objective temper and aesthetics of the documentary movement with the stars and resources of studio filmmaking, 1940s British cinema made

2436-627: The 1950s. Following the success of the Osborne play, the label "angry young men" was later applied by British media to describe young writers who were characterised by a disillusionment with traditional British society . The hero of Look Back In Anger is a graduate, but he is working in a manual occupation. It dealt with social alienation , the claustrophobia and frustrations of a provincial life on low incomes. The impact of this work inspired Arnold Wesker , Shelagh Delaney , and numerous others, to write plays of their own. The English Stage Company at

2520-505: The 1960s but is still influential in thinking and the art of today. In the more limited meaning of the term, Social Realism with roots in European Realism became an important art movement during the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s. As an American artistic movement it is closely related to American scene painting and to Regionalism . American Social Realism includes the works of such artists as those from

2604-573: The 20th century. With the communist revolution came also a cultural revolution. It also gave Stalin and his Communist Party greater control over Soviet culture and restricted people from expressing alternative geopolitical ideologies that differed to those represented in socialist realism. The decline of social realism came with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Social realism in cinema found its roots in Italian neorealism , especially

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2688-932: The American James Abbott McNeill Whistler , as well as English artists Hubert von Herkomer and Luke Fildes had great success with realist paintings dealing with social issues and depictions of the "real" world. Artists in Western Europe also embraced social realism in the early 20th century, including Italian painter and illustrator Bruno Caruso , German artists Käthe Kollwitz , George Grosz , Otto Dix , and Max Beckmann ; Swedish artist Torsten Billman ; Dutch artists Charley Toorop and Pyke Koch ; French artists Maurice de Vlaminck , Roger de La Fresnaye , Jean Fautrier , and Francis Gruber and Belgian artists Eugène Laermans and Constant Permeke . The political polarization of

2772-468: The British middle-class generally responded to realism and restraint in cinema, while the working-class generally favored Hollywood genre movies. Thus realism carried connotations of education and high seriousness. These social and aesthetic distinctions would soon become running themes as social realism is now associated with the arthouse auteur, while mainstream Hollywood films are shown at the multiplex. Producer Michael Balcon revived this distinction in

2856-695: The Conquest to the Future , José Clemente Orozco 's Catharsis , and David Alfaro Siqueiros 's The Strike . These murals also encouraged social realism in other Latin American countries, from Ecuador ( Oswaldo Guayasamín 's The Strike ) to Brazil ( Cândido Portinari 's Coffee ). In Belgium, early representatives of social realism are found in the work of 19th century artists such as Constantin Meunier and Charles de Groux . In Britain, artists such as

2940-551: The Sky (1959). A British New Wave movement emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. British auteurs like Karel Reisz , Tony Richardson , and John Schlesinger brought wide shots and plain speaking to stories of ordinary Britons negotiating postwar social structures. Relaxation of censorship enabled film makers to portray issues such as prostitution, abortion, homosexuality, and alienation. Characters included factory workers, office underlings, dissatisfied wives, pregnant girlfriends, runaways,

3024-504: The WPA are associated with social realism. Social realism became an important art movement during the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s. As an American artistic movement encouraged by New Deal art , social realism is closely related to American scene painting and to Regionalism . In Mexico, the painter Frida Kahlo is associated with the social realism movement. The Mexican muralist movement that took place primarily in

3108-399: The art of photography as exemplified by the works of Walker Evans , Dorothea Lange , Margaret Bourke-White , Lewis Hine , Edward Steichen , Gordon Parks , Arthur Rothstein , Marion Post Wolcott , Doris Ulmann , Berenice Abbott , Aaron Siskind , and Russell Lee among several others. In Mexico, the painter Frida Kahlo is associated with the social realism movement. Also in Mexico

3192-404: The artists in doing so was political as they wished to expose the deteriorating conditions of the poor and working classes and hold the existing governmental and social systems accountable. Social realism should not be confused with socialist realism , the official Soviet art form that was institutionalized by Joseph Stalin in 1934 and was later adopted by allied Communist parties worldwide. It

3276-409: The best known proponents of the movement. Santiago Martínez Delgado , Jorge González Camarena , Roberto Montenegro , Federico Cantú Garza , and Jean Charlot , as well as several other artists participated in the movement. Many artists who subscribed to social realism were painters with socialist (but not necessarily Marxist ) political views. The movement therefore has some commonalities with

3360-408: The best known proponents of the movement. Santiago Martínez Delgado , Jorge González Camarena , Roberto Montenegro , Federico Cantú Garza , and Jean Charlot , as well as several other artists participated in the movement. Many artists who subscribed to social realism were painters with socialist (but not necessarily Marxist ) political views. The movement therefore has some commonalities with

3444-704: The confusion and the spontaneity. Set in London, the Winstanley and York Road Estates in Battersea were amongst the locations featured prominently in the background. The opening credits attribute the film music to Donovan , although many pop songs like "Funny how love can be" by the Ivy League and "Not Fade Away" by the Rolling Stones from the era are heard in the film. Three Donovan songs are heard in

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3528-412: The development of socialist realism , which was to dominate Soviet culture and artistic expression for over 60 years. Socialist realism, representing socialist ideologies , was an art movement that represented social and political contemporary life in the 1930s, from a left-wing standpoint. It depicted subjects of social concern; the proletariat struggle – hardships of everyday life that

3612-587: The documentary traditions of the late 19th century, such as the work of Jacob A. Riis , and Maksim Dmitriyev. In about 1900, a group of Realist artists led by Robert Henri challenged the American Impressionism and academics, in what would become known as the Ashcan school . The term was suggested by a drawing by George Bellows , captioned Disappointments of the Ash Can , which appeared in

3696-508: The early life of Wilson, the character he portrays in Steven Soderbergh 's film The Limey (1999). Kitchen sink realism Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama ) is a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose protagonists usually could be described as " angry young men " who were disillusioned with modern society. It used

3780-516: The emancipation of the proletariat , in a realistic manner. Unlike Socialist realism, social realism is not an official art produced by or under the supervision of the government. The leading characters are often ' anti-heroes ' rather than part of a class to be admired, as in Socialist realism. Typically, protagonists in social realism are dissatisfied with their working class lives and the world, rather than being idealised workers who are part of

3864-422: The era include Target for Tonight (1941), In Which We Serve (1942), Millions Like Us (1943), and This Happy Breed (1944). Historian Roger Manvell wrote, "As the cinemas [closed initially because of the fear of air raids] reopened, the public flooded in, searching for relief from hard work, companionship, release from tension, emotional indulgence and, where they could find them, some reaffirmation of

3948-619: The exaggerated ego encouraged by Romanticism. Consequences of the Industrial Revolution became apparent; urban centers grew, slums proliferated on a new scale contrasting with the display of wealth of the upper classes. With a new sense of social consciousness, the Social Realists pledged to "fight the beautiful art", any style which appealed to the eye or emotions. They focused on the ugly realities of contemporary life and sympathized with working-class people, particularly

4032-480: The film as "downright awful" and particularly criticised "the tiresomely obvious documentary shots constantly thrown in to emphasise the ugliness of our couple’s surroundings", although he did praise Terence Stamp's performance as "superb". Film critic Renata Adler of The New York Times wrote in her review: " Poor Cow , which opened yesterday at the Murray Hill and other theaters, begins with some shots of

4116-417: The film, including the title song. The melody of the title song is repeated instrumentally in diverse arrangements in several parts of the film. It was released as single B-side to " Jennifer Juniper " in early 1968 in a different arrangement and with altered lyrics. For example, the standard release version opens with the line "I dwell in the north in the green country", while the version in the film opens with

4200-665: The films of Roberto Rossellini , Vittorio De Sica , Luchino Visconti and to some extent Federico Fellini . Early British cinema used the common social interaction found in the literary works of Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy . One of the first British films to emphasize realism's value as a social protest was James Williamson's A Reservist Before the War, and After the War in 1902. The film memorialized Boer War serviceman coming back home to unemployment. Repressive censorship during 1945–54 prevented British films from displaying more radical social positions. After World War I ,

4284-399: The genre. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is about a young machinist who spends his wages at weekends on drinking and having a good time, until his affair with a married woman leads to her getting pregnant and him being beaten by her husband's cousins to the point of hospitalisation. A Taste of Honey is about a 16-year old schoolgirl with an abusive, alcoholic mother. The schoolgirl starts

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4368-516: The goals of many realists as Gustave Courbet . The French Realist movement had equivalents in all other Western countries, developing somewhat later. In particular, the Peredvizhniki or Wanderers group in Russia who formed in the 1860s and organized exhibitions from 1871 included many realists such as Ilya Repin and had a great influence on Russian art. From that important trend came

4452-667: The increasing hardship for ordinary people, was influenced by the social realist tradition in France which had existed for decades. Social realism traces back to 19th-century European Realism , including the art of Honoré Daumier , Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet . Britain's Industrial Revolution aroused concern for the poor, and in the 1870s the work of artists such as Luke Fildes , Hubert von Herkomer , Frank Holl , and William Small were widely reproduced in The Graphic . In Russia, Peredvizhniki or "Social Realism"

4536-431: The intention of changing that. Their political views were initially labeled as radical , sometimes even anarchic . John Osborne 's play Look Back in Anger (1956) depicted young men in a way that is similar to the then-contemporary " Angry Young Men " movement of film and theatre directors. The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in

4620-426: The introduction of photography  – a new visual source that created a desire for people to produce things that look "objectively real". Realism was heavily against romanticism , a genre dominating French literature and artwork in the mid-19th century. Undistorted by personal bias, Realism believed in the ideology of external reality and revolted against exaggerated emotionalism . Truth and accuracy became

4704-507: The land. When Franklin D. Roosevelt entered office in 1932, almost two million farm families lived in poverty, and millions of acres of farm land had been ruined from soil erosion and poor farming practices. The FSA was a New Deal agency designed to combat rural poverty during this period. The agency hired photographers to provide visual evidence that there was a need, and that FSA programs were meeting that need. Ultimately this mission accounted for over 80,000 black and white images, and

4788-476: The line "I dwell in the town in the grey country". Other songs by Donovan in the film are "Be Not Too Hard" and " Colours ", the latter of which is sung by the character played by Terence Stamp . The film was a surprise success at the box office. It sold to the US for more than its production cost and did extremely well in Italy and Britain. According to Kinematograph Weekly , it was one of four British films in

4872-440: The marginalized, the poor, and the depressed. The New Wave protagonist was usually a working-class male without bearings in a society in which traditional industries and the cultures that went with them were in decline. Mike Leigh and Ken Loach also make contemporary social realist films. Social realism was also adopted by Hindi films of the 1940s and 1950s, including Chetan Anand 's Neecha Nagar (1946), which won

4956-533: The mid-19th century. Social realism in the 20th century refers to the works of the French artist Gustave Courbet and in particular to the implications of his 19th-century paintings A Burial At Ornans and The Stone Breakers , which scandalized French Salon –goers of 1850, and is seen as an international phenomenon also traced back to European realism and the works of Honoré Daumier and Jean-François Millet . The social realist style fell out of fashion in

5040-428: The movement has some commonalities with Socialist Realism , another style of realism which was the "official art" advocated by the governments of the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries, the two had several differences. While social realism is a broader type of art that realistically depicts subjects of social concern, Socialist realism is characterized by the glorified depiction of socialist values, such as

5124-494: The newly designated ideology of social realism. By 1934, all other independent art groups were abolished, making it nearly impossible for someone not involved in the Union of Soviet Writers to get work published. Any literary piece or painting that did not endorse the ideology of social realism was censored or banned. This new art movement, introduced under Joseph Stalin, was one of the most practical and durable artistic approaches of

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5208-402: The people and should stand on the side of the proletariat. "Art should be based on their feelings, thoughts, and demands, and should grow along with them", said Lenin. He also believed that literature must be part of the proletariat's common cause. After the revolution of 1917, leaders of the newly formed communist party were encouraging experimentation of different art types. Lenin believed that

5292-483: The period resulted in social realism's distinction from socialist realism becoming less obvious in public opinion, and by the mid-20th century abstract art had replaced it as the dominant movement in both Western Europe and the United States. Realism , a style of painting that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see, was a very popular art form in France around the mid- to late-19th century. It came about with

5376-575: The poor. They recorded what they saw ("as it existed") in a dispassionate manner. The public was outraged by Social Realism, in part, because they didn't know how to look at it or what to do with it. Social realism in the United States was inspired by the muralists active in Mexico after the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Social realist photography reached a culmination in the work of Dorothea Lange , Walker Evans , Ben Shahn , and others for

5460-561: The poor." (The quotation is from George Shi, of the University of Fine Arts, Valencia). Kitchen sink realism involves working class settings and accents, including accents from Northern England. The films and plays often explore taboo subjects such as adultery, pre-marital sex, abortion, and crime. In the United Kingdom, the term "kitchen sink" derived from expressionist paintings by John Bratby that contained an image of

5544-536: The problems of immigration and urban poverty, they shone a positive light on their era." Notable Ashcan works include George Luks ' Breaker Boy and John Sloan 's Sixth Avenue Elevated at Third Street . The Ashcan school influenced the art of the Depression era , including Thomas Hart Benton 's mural City Activity with Subway . The term dates on a broader scale to the Realist movement in French art during

5628-500: The real birth of a baby, and goes on to become one of those ringingly false Technicolor British films about working-class life in London. It is not very good; but January has been, in general, a poor month for movies, and it might be a good idea to look at the bright side—which, since the quality of the color makes England look like April in Disneyland, is very bright indeed." In his 2½ star review, Roger Ebert stated that it "isn't

5712-406: The socialist realism used in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc , but the two are not identical – social realism is not an official art, and allows space for subjectivity . In certain contexts, socialist realism has been described as a specific branch of social realism. Social realism has been summarized as follows: Social Realism developed as a reaction against idealism and

5796-584: The struggle to produce a successful socialist nation. The Unions Newspaper, the Literaturnaya Gazeta , described social realism as "the representation of the proletarian revolution". During Joseph Stalin's reign, it was considered most important to use socialist realism as a form of propaganda in posters, as it kept people optimistic and encouraged greater productive effort, a necessity in his aim of developing Russia into an industrialized nation. Vladimir Lenin believed that art should belong to

5880-516: The style of art the USSR should endorse would have to be easy to understand (ruling out abstract art such as suprematism and constructivism ) for the masses of illiterate people in Russia. A wide-ranging debate on art took place; the main disagreement was between those who believed in "Proletarian Art" which should have no connections with past art coming out of bourgeois society, and those (most vociferously Leon Trotsky ) who believed that art in

5964-549: The top ten general releases of 1968. The Monthly Film Bulletin was critical of the film, summing it up as a "superficial, slightly patronising incursion into the nether realms of social realism ". The review characterised Loach's direction as an "incongruous mixture of realism and romanticism" that, along with the cinematography, "suffuses the material in a cheery glow of lyricism that often verges on sentimentality." Writing in The Guardian , Richard Roud criticised

6048-507: The values of humanity." In the postwar period, films like Passport to Pimlico (1949), The Blue Lamp (1949), and The Titfield Thunderbolt (1952) reiterated gentle patrician values, creating a tension between the camaraderie of the war years and the burgeoning consumer society. Sydney Box 's arrival as head of Gainsborough pictures in 1946 saw a transition from the Gainsborough melodramas , which had been successful during

6132-953: The war years, to social realism. Issues such as short-term sexual relationships, adultery, and illegitimate births flourished during the Second World War and Box, who favoured realism over what he termed as "flamboyance fantasy", brought these and other social issues, such as child adoption , juvenile delinquency , and displaced persons to the fore with films such as When the Bough Breaks (1947), Good-Time Girl (1948), Portrait from Life (1948), The Lost People (1949), and Boys in Brown (1949). Films of new rapidly expanding forms of leisure by working class families in postwar Britain were also represented by Box in Holiday Camp (1947), Easy Money (1948), and A Boy,

6216-427: The working class had to put up with, and heroically emphasized the values of the loyal communist workers. The ideology behind social realism, communicated by depicting the heroism of the working class, was to promote and spark revolutionary actions and to spread the image of optimism and the importance of productiveness. Keeping people optimistic meant creating a sense of patriotism , which would prove very important in

6300-486: Was a new interest among young painters in domestic scenes, with stress on the banality of life. Other artists associated with the kitchen sink style include Derrick Greaves, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith . Before the 1950s, the United Kingdom's working class were often depicted stereotypically in Noël Coward 's drawing room comedies and British films. Kitchen sink realism was seen as being in opposition to

6384-567: Was all part of the British New Wave —a transposition of the concurrent nouvelle vague film movement in France, some of whose works, such as The 400 Blows of 1959, also emphasised the lives of the urban proletariat. British filmmakers such as Tony Richardson and Lindsay Anderson (see also Free Cinema ) channelled their vitriolic anger into film making. Confrontational films such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and A Taste of Honey (1961) were noteworthy movies in

6468-644: Was critical of the social environment that caused the conditions pictured, and denounced the Tsarist period . Ilya Repin said that his art work aimed "to criticize all the monstrosities of our vile society" of the Tsarist period. Similar concerns were addressed in 20th-century Britain by the Artists' International Association , Mass Observation and the Kitchen sink school . Social realist photography draws from

6552-576: Was first used in the visual arts, where the art critic David Sylvester used it in 1954 to describe a group of painters who called themselves the Beaux Arts Quartet, and depicted social realist –type scenes of domestic life. The cultural movement was rooted in the ideals of social realism, an artistic movement expressed in the visual and other realist arts which depicts working class activities. Many artists who subscribed to social realism were painters with socialist political views. While

6636-442: Was made into a film of the same name in 1961) is about a white teenage schoolgirl who has an affair with a black sailor, gets pregnant and then moves in with a gay male acquaintance; it raises issues such as class, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. The conventions of the genre have continued into the 2000s, finding expression in such television shows as Coronation Street and EastEnders . The term "Kitchen Sink School"

6720-492: Was one of the things that was interesting about it. It was just wholly improvised. He had the idea, he had the overall trajectory in his mind, but we didn’t have a script. And, consequently, it had to be Take One because each of us had cameras on us. So before a take, he’d say something to Carol, and then he would say something to me, and we only discovered once the camera was rolling that he’d given us completely different directions. That’s why he needed two cameras, because he needed

6804-541: Was the Mexican muralist movement that took place primarily in the 1920s and 1930s; and was an inspiration to many artists north of the border and an important component of the social realism movement. The Mexican muralist movement is characterized by its political undertones, the majority of which are of a Marxist nature, and the social and political situation of post-revolutionary Mexico. Diego Rivera , David Alfaro Siqueiros , José Clemente Orozco , and Rufino Tamayo are

6888-409: Was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency , employing millions of unemployed people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. In much smaller but more famous projects the WPA employed musicians, artists, writers, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. Many of the artists employed under

6972-467: Was then a staple of the medium, and Armchair Theatre (1956–68), produced by the ITV contractor ABC , The Wednesday Play (1964–70) and Play for Today (1970–84), both BBC series, contained many works of this kind. Jeremy Sandford 's television play Cathy Come Home (1966, directed by Ken Loach for The Wednesday Play slot) for instance, addressed the issue of homelessness. Kitchen sink realism

7056-581: Was used in the novels of Stan Barstow , John Braine , Alan Sillitoe and others. The influence of kitchen sink realism has continued in the work of other more recent British directors such as Ken Loach (whose first directorial roles were in late 1960s kitchen sink dramas) and Mike Leigh . Other directors to continue working within the spirit of kitchen sink realism include Shane Meadows , Andrea Arnold , Clio Barnard , and Lynne Ramsay . The term "neo kitchen sink" has been used for films such as Leigh's 2004 Vera Drake . Social realism The term

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