Born on the 25th of November of 1938, Shelagh Delaney was a British dramatist and screenwriter, best know for her revolutionary collaboration with the British director Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson in A Taste Of Honey. A Taste Of Honey is a multi-awarded British New Wave film that tells the problematic story of Jo, a 17-year-old girl played by Rita Tushigam, who gets pregnant at a young age by a black sailor named Jimmy and has to deal with the adversities of being pregnant in an intolerant society, whose ideals are represented by Jo's mother, Helen. Figure Nº.1 - A Taste Of Honey - One of the official movie's poster.. The British New Wave directors shot their films on location with an unqualified team and were focused on portraying a realistic depiction of the British society since there are "several pertinent features of the form of social realism associated with these films, and prominent among these is the way character and place are linked in order to explore aspects of contemporary life" (Taylor, 2006, p.3), making "these films (...) generally seen by critics of the time as a step forward for British cinema, a move towards a mature, intelligent engagement with the contemporary British social life and a welcome breath of fresh air after the conformist entertainment provided by studio-bounded British film-makers" (Hutchings, 2002, cited by Taylor, 2006, p.2). Theorist B. F. Taylor argued that British New Wave films, "the name conventionally given to a series of films released between 1959 and 1963" (Taylor, 2006, p.1), are films that intended to reveal through an innovating socio-aesthetically approach a society that was haunted by numerous social issues like adultery, taking in consideration that "these films place their greatest emphasis upon viewing them as a series, stressing their similarities, and use these similarities to include the films in broader debates about class, gender and/or ideology" (Taylor, 2006, p.2). In A Taste Of Honey, the spectators are able to see the characteristics theorized by Taylor being stylized in this cinematographic work. There is a realistic exploration of the concept of human relationships and a recurrent use of an artistic documentary style of cinema since Richardson made the decision that his creation "should be made entirely on location and he worked productively with Delaney to flesh out the characters and set it among the locations in which she had grown up" (Murphy, 2014, p.383), as visible in the next two multimedia files. Clip Nº.1 - A Taste Of Honey - Portrayal of human relationships through character's emotions and dialogue. Figure Nº.2 - A Taste Of Honey - Example of on-shot location. However, A Taste Of Honey isn't your typical New Wave film. Most British New Wave films built their female characters around the concepts of sex, marriage and domesticity. However, A Taste Of Honey set the difference by its effort in displaying women through a different perspective, a more independent one considering the film was "startlingly original in its focus on two working-class women. (...) Jo and Helen were also startling in refusing to be stoical or martyrs" (Todd, 2017). Furthermore, director Tony Richardson and screenwriter Shelagh Delaney went along with the ideals of British New Wave by capturing the essence of British society in the film, but as misfits they also had an interest in exploring a hopeful vision for a better future where unique individuals have a place to dream since they "identify rather than patronize Jo and Geoff. They are all outsiders whose unwillingness or inability to conform to society's conventions is a spur to independence and creativity rather than a handicap for which we pity them" (Murphy, 2014, p.384), visible on the next clip. Clip Nº.2 - A Taste Of Honey - A dialogue between Jo and Geoff about the future. Another argument used to support the idea that A Taste Of Honey isn't a typical film in the British New Wave movement is the fact that it includes a positive view on minorities, like the LGBTQ+ community. Selina Todd proposes in her academic research that Geoff is a special character since his "sexuality does not dominate his character - he wants to talk about art, baking and babies, rather than "what you do" in bed. He's an indication that being a working-class man doesn't have to mean being a randy, violent docker" (Todd, 2017). Figure Nº.3 - A Taste Of Honey - The nurturing relationship between Jo and Geoff. To conclude, the social aesthetic point of view presented in A Taste Of Honey could make the spectators believe that this was just another archetypal British New Wave film, however the awareness of how an individual's uniqueness could build a better future and the innovating construction of characters make this an atypical cinematographic work for that period.
Word Count: 460. Reference List: - Murphy, R. (2014). New Morning: Optimism and Resilience in Tony Richardson’s A Taste of Honey and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Journal of British Cinema & Television, 11(2/3), 378–396. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2FIBHUw. - Richardson, T. (Director). (1961). A Taste of Honey [Motion Picture]. United Kingdom: Woodfall Film Productions. - Taylor, B. F. (2006). The British new wave : a certain tendency? Manchester : Manchester University Press. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2FNOnK1. - Todd, S. (2017). An Introduction to "A Taste Of Honey". Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2FN4pUn.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |