Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Yesterday I was watching a film on television called Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, directed by Karel Reisz. The film was released in 1960 and based on a novel by Alan Sillitoe, who also wrote the script. It's set in an indutrial city in the north of England and revolves around rebellious Arthur Seaton (played by Albert Finney), who works as a lathe operator in a factory (and whose personal philosophy is summed up in such statements as "What I'm after is a good time, all the rest is just propaganda", "Whatever people say I am, that's what I'm not" and, most succinctly, "Don't let the bas**rds grind you down"). Seaton is someone who lives soley for the evenings and weekends, which he spends drinking, fighting and romancing women (in particular Shirley Anne Field and Rachel Roberts), one of whom is his friend's wife. He's constantly struggling against the limited opportunities available to him in his bleak world and trying to find something more in life than just work, booze and death, but he seems unable to change anything. It was one of the earliest and most influential of the British social realist (or "kitchen sink") dramas of the 1950s and 60s. Although the film is obviously very dated by today's standards, it still has a gritty, powerful feel to it, and a superb performance by Finney. A week on Wednesday I'll be seeing Alan Sillitoe in person at the Book Festival.

Today was the end of the first week of the training course, although there is still another week to go. I managed to leave at half past one, which I was very happy about.