Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Anderson | |
---|---|
British India | |
Died | 30 August 1994 Angoulême, France | (aged 71)
Education | Cheltenham College, Gloucestershire |
Alma mater | Wadham College, Oxford |
Occupation | Film director |
Years active | 1948–1993 |
Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994)
Early life
Lindsay Gordon Anderson was born in
Both Lindsay and his older brother Murray Anderson (1919–2016) were educated at
Anderson served in the Army from 1943 until 1946, first with the 60th King's Royal Rifle Corps, and then in the final year of World War II as a cryptographer for the Intelligence Corps, at the Wireless Experimental Centre in Delhi.[7] Anderson assisted in nailing the Red flag to the roof of the Junior Officers' mess in Annan Parbat, in August 1945, after the victory of the Labour Party in the general election was confirmed.[16] The colonel did not approve, he recalled a decade later, but no disciplinary action was taken against them.
Lindsay returned to Oxford in 1946 but changed from classical studies to English;[11] he graduated in 1948.[7]
Career
Film criticism
Before going into film-making, Anderson was a prominent film critic writing for the influential
The problems of commitment are directly stated, but only apparently faced. …The denial of the critic's moral responsibility is specific; but only at the cost of sacrificing his dignity. … [These assumptions:] the holding of liberal, or humane, values; the proviso that these must not be taken too far; the adoption of a tone which enables the writer to evade through humour [mean] the fundamental issues are balked."[16][clarification needed]
Following a series of screenings which he and the
Anderson joined the British Film Institute's Board of Governors in 1969 with the aim of bolstering support for independent British directors, but left the role after only a year.[19]
Filmmaking
Along with
These films, influenced by one of Anderson' heroes, the French filmmaker Jean Vigo, and made in the tradition of the British documentaries of Humphrey Jennings, foreshadowed much of the social realism of British cinema that emerged in the next decade, with Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), Richardson's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) and Anderson's own This Sporting Life (1963), produced by Reisz. Anderson's film met with mixed reviews at the time, and was not a commercial success.
Anderson is perhaps best remembered as a filmmaker for his "
In 1981, Anderson played the role of the Master of Caius College at Cambridge University in the film Chariots of Fire.
Anderson developed an acquaintance from 1950 with John Ford, which led to what has come to be regarded as one of the standard books on that director, Anderson's About John Ford (1983). Based on half a dozen meetings over more than two decades, and a lifetime's study of the man's work, the book has been described as "One of the best books published by a film-maker on a film-maker".[21]
In 1985, producer
In 1986, Anderson was a member of the jury at the 36th Berlin International Film Festival.[24]
Anderson was also a significant British theatre director. He was long associated with London's Royal Court Theatre, where he was Co-Artistic Director 1969–70, and Associate Artistic Director 1971–75, directing premiere productions of plays by David Storey, among others.
In 1992, as a close friend of actresses
Every year, the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) gives an acclaimed filmmaker the chance to screen his or her personal Top 10 favorite films. In 2007, Iranian filmmaker Maziar Bahari selected O Dreamland and Every Day Except Christmas (1957), a record of a day in the old Covent Garden market, for his top 10 classics from the history of documentary.[3]
Personal life
Gavin Lambert's memoir, Mainly About Lindsay Anderson, wrote that Anderson was homosexual and repressed his orientation, which was seen as a betrayal by his other friends.[25] In November 2006 Malcolm McDowell told The Independent that he believed Anderson was gay, and said:
I know that he was in love with
heterosexual.[26]
Death
Anderson died from a heart attack on 30 August 1994 at the age of 71.
Theatre productions
All Royal Court, London, unless otherwise indicated:
- The Waiting of Lester Abbs (Kathleen Sully, 1957)
- The Long and the Short and the Tall (Willis Hall, 1959)
- Progress to the Park (Alun Owen, 1959)
- The Trial of Cob and Leach/Jazzetry (Christopher Logue, 1959)
- Serjeant Musgrave's Dance (John Arden, 1959)
- The Lily White Boys (Harry Cookson and Christopher Logue, 1960)
- Trials by Logue: Antigone/Cob and Leach (Christopher Logue, 1960)
- Gogoladaptation, 1963)
- Box and Cox (John Maddison Morton, 1961)
- The Fire Raisers (Max Frisch, 1961)
- Julius Caesar (William Shakespeare, 1964)
- Old Vic, 1964)
- The Cherry Orchard (Anton Chekhov, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1966)
- Inadmissible Evidence (John Osborne, Teatr Współczesny, Warsaw, 1966)
- The Contractor (David Storey, 1969)
- Home (David Storey, also Morosco Theatre NY, 1970)
- The Changing Room (David Storey, 1971)
- The Farm (David Storey, 1973)
- Life Class (David Storey, 1974)
- In Celebration (David Storey 1974)
- What the Butler Saw (Joe Orton, 1975)
- Lyric Theatre, 1975); in repertory with
- The Bed Before Yesterday (Ben Travers, Lyric Theatre, 1975)
- William Douglas Home, Lyric Theatre 1977, BiltmoreNY, 1978)
- Alice's Boys (Felicity Brown and Jonathan Hayes, Savoy Theatre, 1978)
- Early Days (David Storey, National Cottesloe Theatre, 1980)
- Hamlet (Theatre Royal, Stratford East, 1981)
- The Holly and the Ivy (Wynyard Browne, Roundabout New York, 1982)
- The Cherry Orchard (Anton Chekhov, Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1983)
- The Playboy of the Western World (John Millington Synge, 1984)
- In Celebration revival (David Storey, Manhattan Theatre Club, NY, 1984)
- Holiday (Philip Barry, Old Vic, 1987)
- The March on Russia (David Storey, National Lyttelton Theatre, 1989)
- The Fishing Trip (Frank Grimes, Warehouse Theatre, 1991)
- Stages (David Storey, National Cottesloe Theatre, 1992)
Filmography
Films
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1963 | This Sporting Life | Nominated—Palme d'Or |
1967 | The White Bus | Short film, also producer |
1968 | if.... | Also producer Palme d'Or Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Direction |
1973 | O Lucky Man! | Also producer Nominated—Palme d'Or |
1975 | In Celebration | |
1982 | Britannia Hospital | Fantasporto Audience Jury Award Nominated—Palme d'Or Nominated—Gold Hugo |
1986 | If You Were There | Documentary |
1987 | The Whales of August | |
1992 | Is That All There Is? | Mockumentary; also writer |
Television
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1956–1957 | The Adventures of Robin Hood | 5 episodes |
1972 | Play for Today | Episode: "Home" |
1979 | The Old Crowd | Television film |
1980 | Look Back in Anger | Television film |
1986 | Free Cinema | Television documentary |
1987 | Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow | Documentary (Narrator) |
1989 | Glory! Glory! | Television film |
Documentary short films
Year | Title |
---|---|
1948 | Meet the Pioneers |
1949 | Idlers that Work |
1952 | Trunk Conveyor |
1952 | Three Installations |
1954 | Thursday's Children |
1955 | The Children Upstairs |
1955 | Henry |
1955 | Green and Pleasant Land |
1955 | Foot and Mouth |
1955 | Energy First |
1955 | A Hundred Thousand Children |
1955 | £20 a Ton |
1956 | O Dreamland |
1957 | Wakefield Express |
1957 | Every Day Except Christmas |
1959 | March to Aldermaston |
1967 | The Singing Lesson |
Acting
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1973 | O Lucky Man! | Film Director | Uncredited |
1986 | Inadmissible Evidence | Barrister | |
1981 | Chariots of Fire | Master of Caius | |
1991 | Prisoner of Honor | War Minister | Television film |
1992 | Blame It on the Bellboy | Mr. Marshall | Voice |
See also
References
- ISBN 0-8379-0225-8.
- ISBN 0-906399-22-X
- ISBN 0-936839-23-6
- ^ "Cannes Film Festival archives". 1969. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011.
- ^ a b Catsoulis, Jeannette (14 August 2008). "An Actor's Playful Tribute to a Dissident Director". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c "Lindsay Anderson | Biography & Film Career". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
- ^ a b c Graham, Allison (1981). Lindsay Anderson. University of Stirling Archives: Twayne Publishers.
- ^ "Alexander Vass Anderson – National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk.
- ^ "Officers of the British Army 1939–1945 -- A". www.unithistories.com.
- ^ Lindsay Anderson Diaries, Lindsay Anderson, ed. Paul Sutton, Bloomsbury, 2004, Introduction, p.13
- ^ OCLC 44015535.
- ^ British Society Since 1945: The Penguin Social History of Britain, Arthur Marwick, Penguin Books, 1996, p. 127
- ^ Lindsay Anderson Revisited: Unknown Aspects of a Film Director, ed. Erik Hedling, Christophe Dupin, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p. 120
- ^ "Murray Anderson". 27 May 2016 – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
- ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
- ^ a b Sight and Sound, Autumn 1956, reprinted in Paul Ryan (ed) Never Apologise: The Collected Writings, 2004, London: Plexus, p218-32, 228, 226. This article was reprinted in a shortened form in Universities and Left Review 1:1, Spring 1957, p44-48, 46, 46, and is online here, though only part of the second reference is reproduced.
- ^ Childs, Peter; Storry, Mike, eds. (2002). "Anderson, Lindsay". Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture. London: Routledge. p. 23.
- ISBN 978-1-137-53943-4.
- ^ Sterritt, David (Winter 2012). "Book Review: The British Film Institute, the Government and Film Culture, 1933–2000 by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith; Christophe Dupin". Film Quarterly. 66 (2): 56.
- ^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
- Daily Telegraph, cited on back cover of UK paperback edition
- ^ Paul Sutton (ed) Lindsay Anderson: The Diaries, 2004, London: Methuen, p434
- ^ Tryhorn, Chris (7 July 2023). "Dead dogs, capitalist critique and only four songs: when Wham! squashed Lindsay Anderson's China film". The Guardian.
- ^ "Berlinale: 1986 Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 14 January 2011.
- ^ Lindsay Anderson: Let me tell you about Lindsay The Independent, 21 February 2002. Retrieved on 1 January 2017.
- ^ Geoffrey Macnab "Malcolm McDowell: Lindsay Anderson and me", The Independent, 15 November 2006. Retrieved 11 May 2009. For Anderson's feelings about Richard Harris at the time This Sporting Life was in production during 1962, see Paul Sutton (ed) The Diaries: Lindsay Anderson, 2004, London: Methuen, Chapter 3, especially p77-80.
Bibliography
- About John Ford (1983) ISBN 0-85965-014-6
- The Diaries of Lindsay Anderson ed. Paul Sutton (2004) ISBN 0-413-77397-3
- Never Apologise: The Collected Writings of Lindsay Anderson (2004) ISBN 0-85965-317-X
- Six English Filmmakers (2014) ISBN 978-0957246256- Anderson and his colleagues in conversation with Sutton.
External links
- Lindsay Anderson – A Celebration[permanent dead link]
- Lindsay Anderson at IMDb
- The Lindsay Anderson Memorial Foundation
- Portraits of Lindsay Anderson at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Watch O Dreamland on FourDocs
- The BFI's "screenonline" on Free Cinema
- The BFI's "screenonline" for Lindsay Anderson
- The Lindsay Anderson Archive at Stirling University, Scotland
- Lindsay Anderson Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)