34-442: Poor Cow (also known as No Tears for Joy ) is a 1967 British kitchen sink drama film directed by Ken Loach and starring Carol White and Terence Stamp . It was written by Loach and Nell Dunn based on Dunn's 1967 novel of the same name . It was Loach's first feature film, after a series of TV productions. The film was re-released in the UK in 2016. 18-year-old Joy, who comes from
68-479: A Socialist utopia in the process of creation. As such, social realism allows more space for the subjectivity of the author to be displayed. Partly, social realism developed as a reaction against Romanticism , which promoted lofty concepts such as the "ineffable" beauty and truth of art and music and even turned them into spiritual ideals. As such, social realism focused on the "ugly realities of contemporary life and sympathized with working class people, particularly
102-490: A big family with an alcoholic mother and womanising father, leaves home to marry Tom and they have a son, Johnny. Tom mentally and physically abuses Joy and shows little interest or affection. He has been in prison for four years and, when he is jailed again after being caught attempting a big robbery, Joy and her very young son are left on their own. After briefly sharing a room with her Aunt Emm, an aging prostitute , Joy moves in with Dave, one of Tom's criminal associates. Dave
136-409: A demolition site where he has gone to play. Realising how much Johnny means to her, Joy decides to stay with Tom despite the abuse, but continues to dream of a future with Dave. Credited despite scenes being cut Terence Stamp says Ken Loach was inspired to write the film after meeting Carol White during Cathy Come Home (1966): But he really didn’t write it; we didn’t really have a script. That
170-494: A kitchen sink. Bratby did various kitchen and bathroom-themed paintings, including three paintings of toilets. Bratby's paintings of people often depicted the faces of his subjects as desperate and unsightly. Kitchen sink realism artists painted everyday objects, such as trash cans and beer bottles. The critic David Sylvester wrote an article in 1954 about trends in recent English art, calling his article "The Kitchen Sink" in reference to Bratby's picture. Sylvester argued that there
204-426: A relationship with a black sailor and gets pregnant. After the sailor leaves on his ship, Jo moves in with a homosexual acquaintance who assumes the role of surrogate father. A Taste of Honey raises the issues of class, race, gender and sexual orientation. Later, as many of these writers and directors diversified, kitchen sink realism was taken up by television directors who produced television plays. The single play
238-576: A seedy photographers' club and drifts into promiscuity . She likes men giving her presents but is too impulsive and easygoing to make a living as a prostitute. Bored with her humdrum surroundings, she dreams of bettering herself. When Tom is released, Joy goes back to him after he promises to move her from her small grotty flat to a modern well-furnished house. However, one evening, after Tom has slapped her several times, Joy goes out and upon returning, she finds Tom watching TV and Johnny missing. Joy frantically searches for Johnny and finally finds him alone on
272-501: A style of social realism which depicted the domestic situations of working-class Britons, living in cramped rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimy pubs , to explore controversial social and political issues ranging from abortion to homelessness. The harsh, realistic style contrasted sharply with the escapism of the previous generation's so-called " well-made plays ". The films, plays and novels employing this style are often set in poorer industrial areas in
306-539: A very good movie" but also labeled it as a potential sign for a new phase in recent British films of the time distinct from the social realism and satire films of the time as one made "in equal parts of squalor and techniques." On the film's re-release in 2016, Kate Muir in The Times gave the film four stars out of five and described the film as "incredibly moving". Clips of Stamp's performance in Poor Cow were used to show
340-469: Is a term used to describe a piece of art considered to have deep emotions. Its origin is found in the word lyric , derived via Latin lyricus from the Greek λυρικός ( lurikós ), the adjectival form of lyre . It is often employed to relate to the capability of a lyricist . Lyricism is primarily used to give a description of art that is thought to have a particularly expressive quality. It
374-430: Is tender and understanding, but the idyll is shattered when he is sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for leading a robbery which results in a woman being blinded, and given his long criminal record, early release seems unlikely. Intending to be faithful to Dave, Joy moves back with Aunt Emm, writes to Dave frequently, and initiates divorce proceedings against Tom. After taking a job as a barmaid , Joy starts modelling for
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#1733085126118408-645: The North of England , and use the accents and slang heard in those regions. The film It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) is a precursor of the genre and the John Osborne play Look Back in Anger (1956) is thought of as the first of the genre. The gritty love-triangle of Look Back in Anger , for example, takes place in a cramped, one-room flat in the English Midlands . Shelagh Delaney 's 1958 play A Taste of Honey (which
442-475: The Royal Court Theatre , headed by George Devine and Theatre Workshop organised by Joan Littlewood were particularly prominent in bringing these plays to public attention. Critic John Heilpern wrote that Look Back in Anger expressed such "immensity of feeling and class hatred" that it altered the course of English theatre. The term "Angry theatre" was coined by critic John Russell Taylor . This
476-595: The " well-made play ", the kind which theatre critic Kenneth Tynan once denounced as being set in "Loamshire", of dramatists like Terence Rattigan . "Well-made plays" were a dramatic genre from nineteenth-century theatre which found its early 20th-century codification in Britain in the form of William Archer 's Play-Making: A Manual of Craftmanship (1912), and in the United States with George Pierce Baker 's Dramatic Technique (1919). Kitchen sink works were created with
510-622: The 1950s. Following the success of the Osborne play, the label "angry young men" was later applied by British media to describe young writers who were characterised by a disillusionment with traditional British society . The hero of Look Back In Anger is a graduate, but he is working in a manual occupation. It dealt with social alienation , the claustrophobia and frustrations of a provincial life on low incomes. The impact of this work inspired Arnold Wesker , Shelagh Delaney , and numerous others, to write plays of their own. The English Stage Company at
544-676: The confusion and the spontaneity. Set in London, the Winstanley and York Road Estates in Battersea were amongst the locations featured prominently in the background. The opening credits attribute the film music to Donovan , although many pop songs like "Funny how love can be" by the Ivy League and "Not Fade Away" by the Rolling Stones from the era are heard in the film. Three Donovan songs are heard in
578-500: The early life of Wilson, the character he portrays in Steven Soderbergh 's film The Limey (1999). Kitchen sink realism Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama ) is a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose protagonists usually could be described as " angry young men " who were disillusioned with modern society. It used
612-511: The emancipation of the proletariat , in a realistic manner. Unlike Socialist realism, social realism is not an official art produced by or under the supervision of the government. The leading characters are often ' anti-heroes ' rather than part of a class to be admired, as in Socialist realism. Typically, protagonists in social realism are dissatisfied with their working class lives and the world, rather than being idealised workers who are part of
646-474: The film as "downright awful" and particularly criticised "the tiresomely obvious documentary shots constantly thrown in to emphasise the ugliness of our couple’s surroundings", although he did praise Terence Stamp's performance as "superb". Film critic Renata Adler of The New York Times wrote in her review: " Poor Cow , which opened yesterday at the Murray Hill and other theaters, begins with some shots of
680-417: The film, including the title song. The melody of the title song is repeated instrumentally in diverse arrangements in several parts of the film. It was released as single B-side to " Jennifer Juniper " in early 1968 in a different arrangement and with altered lyrics. For example, the standard release version opens with the line "I dwell in the north in the green country", while the version in the film opens with
714-399: The genre. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is about a young machinist who spends his wages at weekends on drinking and having a good time, until his affair with a married woman leads to her getting pregnant and him being beaten by her husband's cousins to the point of hospitalisation. A Taste of Honey is about a 16-year old schoolgirl with an abusive, alcoholic mother. The schoolgirl starts
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#1733085126118748-431: The intention of changing that. Their political views were initially labeled as radical , sometimes even anarchic . John Osborne 's play Look Back in Anger (1956) depicted young men in a way that is similar to the then-contemporary " Angry Young Men " movement of film and theatre directors. The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in
782-517: The line "I dwell in the town in the grey country". Other songs by Donovan in the film are "Be Not Too Hard" and " Colours ", the latter of which is sung by the character played by Terence Stamp . The film was a surprise success at the box office. It sold to the US for more than its production cost and did extremely well in Italy and Britain. According to Kinematograph Weekly , it was one of four British films in
816-483: The movement has some commonalities with Socialist Realism , another style of realism which was the "official art" advocated by the governments of the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries, the two had several differences. While social realism is a broader type of art that realistically depicts subjects of social concern, Socialist realism is characterized by the glorified depiction of socialist values, such as
850-548: The poor." (The quotation is from George Shi, of the University of Fine Arts, Valencia). Kitchen sink realism involves working class settings and accents, including accents from Northern England. The films and plays often explore taboo subjects such as adultery, pre-marital sex, abortion, and crime. In the United Kingdom, the term "kitchen sink" derived from expressionist paintings by John Bratby that contained an image of
884-494: The real birth of a baby, and goes on to become one of those ringingly false Technicolor British films about working-class life in London. It is not very good; but January has been, in general, a poor month for movies, and it might be a good idea to look at the bright side—which, since the quality of the color makes England look like April in Disneyland, is very bright indeed." In his 2½ star review, Roger Ebert stated that it "isn't
918-543: The top ten general releases of 1968. The Monthly Film Bulletin was critical of the film, summing it up as a "superficial, slightly patronising incursion into the nether realms of social realism ". The review characterised Loach's direction as an "incongruous mixture of realism and romanticism" that, along with the cinematography, "suffuses the material in a cheery glow of lyricism that often verges on sentimentality." Writing in The Guardian , Richard Roud criticised
952-480: Was a new interest among young painters in domestic scenes, with stress on the banality of life. Other artists associated with the kitchen sink style include Derrick Greaves, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith . Before the 1950s, the United Kingdom's working class were often depicted stereotypically in Noël Coward 's drawing room comedies and British films. Kitchen sink realism was seen as being in opposition to
986-608: Was all part of the British New Wave —a transposition of the concurrent nouvelle vague film movement in France, some of whose works, such as The 400 Blows of 1959, also emphasised the lives of the urban proletariat. British filmmakers such as Tony Richardson and Lindsay Anderson (see also Free Cinema ) channelled their vitriolic anger into film making. Confrontational films such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and A Taste of Honey (1961) were noteworthy movies in
1020-568: Was first used in the visual arts, where the art critic David Sylvester used it in 1954 to describe a group of painters who called themselves the Beaux Arts Quartet, and depicted social realist –type scenes of domestic life. The cultural movement was rooted in the ideals of social realism, an artistic movement expressed in the visual and other realist arts which depicts working class activities. Many artists who subscribed to social realism were painters with socialist political views. While
1054-442: Was made into a film of the same name in 1961) is about a white teenage schoolgirl who has an affair with a black sailor, gets pregnant and then moves in with a gay male acquaintance; it raises issues such as class, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. The conventions of the genre have continued into the 2000s, finding expression in such television shows as Coronation Street and EastEnders . The term "Kitchen Sink School"
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1088-492: Was one of the things that was interesting about it. It was just wholly improvised. He had the idea, he had the overall trajectory in his mind, but we didn’t have a script. And, consequently, it had to be Take One because each of us had cameras on us. So before a take, he’d say something to Carol, and then he would say something to me, and we only discovered once the camera was rolling that he’d given us completely different directions. That’s why he needed two cameras, because he needed
1122-464: Was then a staple of the medium, and Armchair Theatre (1956–68), produced by the ITV contractor ABC , The Wednesday Play (1964–70) and Play for Today (1970–84), both BBC series, contained many works of this kind. Jeremy Sandford 's television play Cathy Come Home (1966, directed by Ken Loach for The Wednesday Play slot) for instance, addressed the issue of homelessness. Kitchen sink realism
1156-576: Was used in the novels of Stan Barstow , John Braine , Alan Sillitoe and others. The influence of kitchen sink realism has continued in the work of other more recent British directors such as Ken Loach (whose first directorial roles were in late 1960s kitchen sink dramas) and Mike Leigh . Other directors to continue working within the spirit of kitchen sink realism include Shane Meadows , Andrea Arnold , Clio Barnard , and Lynne Ramsay . The term "neo kitchen sink" has been used for films such as Leigh's 2004 Vera Drake . Lyricism Lyricism
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