Screening

The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner

13 May 2010

Regular hours

Thursday
11:00 – 18:00

Cost of entry

£3/2

Save Event: The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner

I've seen this

People who have saved this event:

close

The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner

About

Based on Alan Sillitoe's autobiographical novel about a rebellious 18-year-old living in dreary Lancashire, this film stars Tom Courtenay as disaffected Colin Smith, who ends up in a reform school after robbing a bakery. The Governor, played by Sir Michael Redgrave, believes in physical training as a means of rehabilitating his charges. Despite Colin's contempt for all authority, he one day inadvertently outruns the school's leading long-distance runner, and the Governor immediately assigns him to be trained for an imminent competition with a well-known public school. During his solitary training exercises, Colin flashes back to scenes of his chaotic youth: his father, a blue-collar worker dying of cancer, and his mother, a foul-mouthed harridan, blowing the insurance settlement on a new lover and TV. Employing jump cuts and under-cranked scenes borrowed from the Nouvelle Vague, the film emphasises the oppressiveness of the boy's environment and the temporary freedom that running offers him.

What to expect? Toggle

Comments

Have you been to this event? Share your insights and give it a review below.