ThiefHott Too much of everything

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

elvircorhodzic Saturday NIGHT AND Sunday MORNING is a drama about a young and rebellious machinists, who shows a form of self-destructive behavior. Film is an adaptation of the 1958 novel of the same name by Alan Sillitoe.The main protagonist is a tough and robust worker at a Nottingham factory. He has a rebellious and somewhat cheeky attitude toward the lives of people around him. He is a diligent worker, but he spends his wages at weekends on drinking and having a good time. A wife of his older colleague is a his "pastime" during the weekend. However, he begins a more normal relationship with a beautiful single woman closer to his age. Problems start when his older mistress gets pregnant and demands his help in terminating the unwanted pregnancy...The main protagonist is a grouchy and skeptical young man. This is perhaps a disease of a young working class in industrial zones and traditional societies. The courage and dignity are, in some way, shaken in this film. Such relations seem impressive in an explicit and intimate story. A young man is faced with life's temptations. A solid relationship between people does not exist in this movie. It all boils down to a simple pleasure, as a form of escape from the loneliness and frustration. The word, responsibility, becomes very important.Albert Finney as Arthur Seaton is an unrealized hothead, which further emphasizes the rebellion in his character. Rachel Roberts as Brenda is a tragic character. In addition to her arrogance and shameless sexual relationship, Brenda is a reflection of an unfortunate women in a failed marriage.Shirley Anne Field (Doreen) is a quiet and beautiful girl, who is ready for marriage. Norman Rossington (Bert) is Arthur's faithful companion and sincere friend. Bryan Pringle (Jack) is a quite reserved Brenda's husband.Mr. Reisz has managed to make a credible drama based on realistic life situations in which there are no winners or losers.

lasttimeisaw On paper, Arthur Seaton (Finney) seems to be the trans-Atlantic cousin of James Dean's Jim Stark in Nocholas Ray's REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, he is a disgruntled Nottingham youth slogs away in the lathe unit on week-days, and finds solace in petticoat company in after-work hours (especially the slot which the movie's title indicates), but essentially his life is stuck in a rut, aimless, monotonous and painfully prosaic, but he has to abide by. British New Wave pioneer Karel Reisz's debut feature, a working-class kitchen-sink melodrama headlined by an exuberant 23-year-old Albert Finney in his very first star-making leading role. Arthur partakes in a love affair with Brenda (Roberts), the wife of his co-worker Jack (Pringle), there is no compunction in their way since Brenda believes what they have is love, but, for Arthur, one might think it is the thrill of their trysts keeps him hooked, because apparently this is the only exciting happening amongst the quotidian drabness.Then, he meets Doreen (Field), a comely beauty, seems a shade prim and proper, but she is available, maybe, even a marriage material for him. Arthur ambidextrously seesaws between adultery and romantic courtship, and rests assured that there would be no moral agony and ulterior motive behind, not like George Stevens' A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951), there is no social climbing or great fortune at stake. Plus, Arthur is a self-acclaimed, superb liar, he is cocksure that nothing can take him down, even when Brenda tells him she is pregnant with his child. Alan Sillitoe's script supplies the narrative with very realistic spins and trenchant attitudes, not at all consciously righteous, but they are an encapsulation of its times, the pervading ennui which in retrospect devours an entire youth generation in UK's industrialized era. Arthur would be sucker-punched for sleeping with another man's wife, but is he rueful afterwards? He can take a beat once in a while, a burly lad like that, but he will never change who he is, a good- looking reprobate has nothing to lose and nothing to hold dear, not even Doreen, she is too simple- minded to see through his macho charisma or maybe she is just a sucker for the sort. They will get married, as the film implies in the end, but felicity will plausibly keep eluding them. That's what a first-viewing of this picture feels smarting, as impressively effervescent as Finney's first-grade performance is, eventually the film comes off as a rather unfulfilled downer, our sympathy towards Arthur dissipates easily and emotional distance looms large. On the subject of the supporting cast, Shirley Anne Field is well-chosen in magnifying Doreen's glacial front against her pedestrian persona; Bryan Pringle contrives an understated but greatly ambivalent facade as the cuckolded husband. And Rachel Roberts is outstanding in a role diametrically dissimilar from another British New Wave hallmark she stars, Lindsay Anderson's THIS SPORTING LIFE (1963), it is not that often audience would give a free pass to an adulteress, but here, she imprints both body and soul of an entrapped woman who neither minces words about what she wants nor overstays her welcome when she feels that a closure is inevitable. While on the technical level, Karel Reisz's debut rams home the intimacy between his characters and their environs, a well-presented correlation between its sharp Black-and-White cinematography and its visual spectacle, it doesn't transpire to be a killing character study which can offer us something stimulating to chew on, other than its astute discernment of the acclimated torpor, which is so un-cinematically dispiriting.

Sindre Kaspersen British New Wave director and producer Karel Reisz' feature film debut, one of the earliest films from the kitchen sink realism movement, is an adaptation of the first novel by English writer Alan Sillitoe (1928-2010) from 1958. It tells the story about Arthur Steaton, a confident, charming and indignant young man who looks forward to every weekend when he can go out and have fun with women and his friends on the local pub. Arthur works at a factory operating on machines and lives a rather quiet life with his parents in Nottingham, England, but he has gotten himself involved in a secret relationship with a married woman named Brenda whom he has strong feelings for.This engagingly directed British production which was produced by director Tony Richardson (1928-1991) and Canadian producer Harry Saltzman (1915-1994) and shot on location in Nottingham and London in England, is a well-paced character-driven and dialog-driven romantic drama with acute portrayals of young love, interpersonal relations and everyday life. With his first feature film from 1960, Czech-born filmmaker Karel Reisz (1926-2002) creates exceptionally realistic milieu depictions of industrial working-class England during the early nineteen sixties and an accomplished study of character about a young man who keeps getting himself into trouble for acting on his strong opposition against a system which he thinks is suppressing the working-class and has left their evident mark on his parents.The prominent and heartened acting performance by English actor Albert Finney and the significant and understated acting performances by Welsh actress Rachel Roberts (1927-1980) and British actress Shirley Anne Field underlines the power of this unsentimental, humorous and gripping independent film which gained BAFTA Awards for Best British Film, Best British Actress Rachel Roberts and Most Promising Newcomer Albert Finney in 1961. The cheerful score and the great black-and-white cinematography by English cinematographer and director Freddie Francis emphasizes the poignant atmosphere in this ardent piece of social realism.

Boba_Fett1138 You could say that this movie is being more of a low-key and black & white version of the Michael Caine movie "Alfie". It handles basically all of the same themes and even the main character is comparable (actress Shirley Anne Field is also in both movies by the way). But by saying this I'm not claiming "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" is a bad or unoriginal movie. On the contrary really!It's a special little movie, that is being simplistic and minimal in every way. Perhaps somewhat inspired by the more European movies from France and Italy, that are being like a random slice of life and follow one main character who goes by his life on his very own way but not without paying the price for it. Yes, it's a drama but it is being one that is very realistic with its approach, events, characters and emotions.I think it helped this movie that it had a fresh director at the helm. Czechoslovakian born Karel Reisz had shot some documentaries in the past but this movie was his first ever attempt at directing a motion picture. It shows but in a very refreshing way. He approaches some crucial sequences brilliantly, which also provides the movie with some powerful, effective but also beautiful looking moments.I'll admit that I only knew and had seen actor Albert Finney as an old man and in his newer movies. Even though I have always liked him a lot, I never seen any early movies with him, till this one. It's great to see him as a young 24 year old in this movie, playing a typical rebellious, post-WW II, British young bloke, who is working hard and enjoying his free time with chasing down women. It's funny how not much later after this movie he started playing old men already, that's why you probably will also have some difficulties recognizing him in this movie. You will probably recognize his voice before you'll recognize his face.This are the type of movies I often like watching and this movie is one fine genre example!8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/