Directed by Sue Clayton & Jonathan Curling • Documentary • With Martha Gibson, Geraldine Pilgrim, Anna Mcniff, Liz Myers, Jill Greenhalgh, • 1979 • 135 minutes
The plight of women in the 1840s London rag trade is explored and deconstructed. Informed by experimental film practice and evoking a serialised Victorian novel, this unusual film investigates the effects of protectionist ‘philanthropy’ in the sweatshop-style London clothes trade using contemporary text, archival material and reconstruction. The piece takes its name from the 1843 poem written by Thomas Hood about a seamstress living in appalling conditions. Emma Hedditch notes that the many different groups involved in its production meant the film became "a subject of debate in itself", and that "while it still addresses ideas of feminist history and Marxist theory, it can also be read as a rather more ambitious project that fuses the history of fashion, literacy and sexuality."
Directed by Stephen Frears & Michael Dibb • Documentary • With Gavin Lambert, Michael Apted, Alan Parker, Stephen Frears, Alexander Mackendrick • 1994 • 74 minutes
Shown on the set of `Mary Reilly', Frears hosts a guided tour through seventy-five years of British cinema from Hitchcock's `B...
Directed by Karel Reisz • Documentary • With John Rollason, Thomas Ahearne, Patrick Ahearne • 1959 • 53 minutes
Karel Reisz’s honest and sympathetic depiction of South London teens aimed to challenge the media perception of ‘Teddy Boys’, and would be one of the last films to appear under the Fre...
Directed by Andrea Arnold • Drama • With Kaya Scodelario, James Howson • 2010 • 129 minutes
Andrea Arnold's WUTHERING HEIGHTS is an excitingly fresh and distinct take on the classic novel by Emily Brontë. An epic love story that spans childhood well into the young adult years, the film follows H...
