Karel Reisz And British Free Cinema

Known as the representative figure of British Free Cinema, Karel Reisz is one of the most important British filmmakers after World WarⅡ. Throwing himself into film critique since 1950, Reisz wrote for Sequence and Sight and Sound at the same time, and gradually formed his own point of view about cinema; In 1953, with Gavin Millar, Reisz compiled The Technique of Film Editing for British Film Academy, in which he systematically discussed the methods of the film editing.Meanwhile, Reisz worked as Programmes Officer of the National Film Theatre from 1952 to 1955, and served as head of the Ford Motor Company's TV and Films Programme from 1956 to 1959.During this period, he met Lindsay Anderson, Tony Richardson, John Fletcher and Walter Lassally. These laid a good foundation in the occurrence and development of Free Cinema; six groups of films were shown from 1956 February to 1959 September. Then Free Cinema ended because of economic reasons. In 1960, Reisz finished his first feature film:Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.According to Reisz's three-stage experience, this article is composed of three parts:Before Free Cinema is the first part, in which Reisz was engaged in film critique and monograph writing, using the paper-based media to express his viewpoints; During Free Cinema is the second part, in which Reisz's ideas were put into practice by making documentaries; After Free Cinema is the third part, in which Reisz directed Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and pushed forward the development of British New Wave Cinema. Although it was not a documentary, it kept the spirit of British Free Cinema.Like the other representatives of British Free Cinema, Reisz took the cinema as an art and found faults with Grierson's films which were used for propaganda. He considered poetry as the criterion of film art, freedom for the filmmaker as the central idea of Free Cinema, and he thought more attention should be paid to individual and its life, and to the relationship between art and society."A style means an attitude. Implicit in our attitude is a belief in freedom, in the importance of people and in the significance of the everyday." These were parts of First Free Cinema Manifesto, which summarized their aesthetical standpoints and artistic attitudes refinedly. Similar to Grierson, Reisz and Anderson also thought highly of the power of the film as mass media. They expressed themselves by making use of the film medium. However, there is one difference between them, which is Reisz used the medium expressively and personally.The influence of British Free Cinema was limited, but there were some aspects that affected the following film creation:exercising high sensitivity negative, hand-held camera with 16mm bolex, synchronized sound, and the miniaturization of film-making team. In addition, Free Cinema was fundamental to Direct Cinema.In the context of Free Cinema, knowing Reisz's opinions which were published in his earlier articles and analyzing creative features of his documentaries and feature film, this article is aimed to discuss how Reisz became a broadcaster, realized the process of media democracy, expressed himself, and achieved the transition between documentary and feature film.