Alan Clarke: Difference between revisions

{{Shortshort description|English TVdirector & film director(1935–1990)}}

|death_place = [[London]], England

As Dave Rolinson's book details, between 1962 and 1966 Clarke directed several plays at [[The Questors Theatre]] in Ealing, London.<ref>{{Citecite web|url=http://archive.questors.org.uk/obit/C/clarkeA.html|title=The Questors Theatre Archive: Alan Clarke|website=archive.questors.org.uk}}</ref> Between 1967 and 1969 he directed various [[ITV (network)|ITV]] productions including plays by [[Alun Owen]] (''Shelter'', ''George's Room'', ''Stella'', ''Thief'', ''Gareth''), [[Edna O'Brien]] (''Which of These Two Ladies Is He Married To?'' and ''Nothing's Ever Over'') and [[Roy Minton]] (''The Gentleman Caller'', ''[[Goodnight Albert]]'', ''[[Stand By Your Screen]]'').<ref name=bfi/> He also worked on the series ''[[The Informer (TV series)|The Informer]]'', ''The Gold Robbers'' and ''A Man of Our Times'' (but not, as ''[[Sight and Sound]]'' once claimed, ''[[Big Breadwinner Hog]]'').<ref name=wheretobegin/>

Clarke continued to work for ITV through the 1970s, but during the decade made much of his work for the [[BBC]]. This included pieces for ''[[The Wednesday Play]]'' (''Sovereign's Company'' 1970), ''[[Play for Today]]'' and ''[[Play of the Month]]'' (''[[The Love-Girl and the Innocent]]'', 1973, and ''[[Danton's Death]]'', 1978). Distinctive work for these strands included further plays by Minton including ''[[Funny Farm (playPlay for Today)|Funny Farm]]'' (1975) and ''[[Scum (tv play)|Scum]]'' (further details below), but also ''Sovereign's Company'' (1970) by [[Don Shaw (screenwriter)|Don Shaw]], ''The Hallelujah Handshake'' (1970) by [[Colin Welland]] (both 1970) and ''[[Penda's Fen]]'' (1974) by [[David Rudkin]] (1974). He also made ''To Encourage the Others'' (1972), a powerful drama -documentary about the [[Derek Bentley]] case, (the case whichthat was later dramatised in the[[Peter Medak]]'s 1991 film '' [[Let Him Have It]] '' by [[Peter Medak]]), and several documentaries, including ''Vodka Cola'' (1981) on multinational corporations. Clarke's other work in the mid-to-late 1970s included the initially unreleased documentary ''Bukovsky'' about the Soviet dissident and defector [[Vladimir Bukovsky]] and a companion ''Play For Today'' follow-up entitledtitled ''Nina'' (1978), which starred [[Jack Shepherd (actor)|Jack Shepherd]] and [[Eleanor Bron]].<ref>{{Citecite web|url=https://www.thedigitalfix.com/television/disc_review/dissent-disruption-alan-clarke-at-the-bbc-1969-1989-bukovsky-nina/|title=Dissent & Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC (1969-1989): Bukovsky/Nina &#124; The Digital Fix|website=www.thedigitalfix.com}}</ref>

A number of his works achieved notoriety and widespread criticism from the conservative end of the political spectrum,{{cnCn|date=September 2020}} including ''[[Scum (filmtelevision play)|Scum]]'' (1977), dealing with the subject of [[borstal]]s (youth prisons), which was banned by the BBC, and subsequently remade by Clarke as a feature film released in 1979 (the original television version was only screened after his death).<ref>{{Citecite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/439310/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Scum (1977)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref> Clarke directed the television play ''[[Made in Britain]]'' (1982), starring [[Tim Roth]] (in his television debut) as a [[Nazi skinhead|racist skinhead]] and his negative relationship with authorities and [[Minority group|racial minorities]], from a screenplay by [[David Leland]].<ref>{{Citecite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/439360/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Made in Britain (1983)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref> The feature film ''[[Rita, Sue and Bob Too]]'' (1987), was adapted by the working -class writer [[Andrea Dunbar]] from her stage work.<ref name=wheretobegin/> The 1975 BBC play ''Diane'', starring [[Janine Duvitski]], which dealt with an incestuous relationship between a father and daughter was controversially received by the tabloid press.{{cnCn|date=September 2020}}

Clarke's work in the 1980s was fiercely stark and political, including the [[David Leland]] plays ''Beloved Enemy'' (1981) on multinational corporations and ''Psy-Warriors'' (1981) on military interrogation.<ref name=wheretobegin/> Clarke also directed [[David Bowie]] in ''[[Baal (play)|Baal]]'' (1982) for the BBC, part of Clarke's interest in [[Bertolt Brecht]].<ref name=wheretobegin>{{Citecite web|url=https://www2www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/fast-track-fandom-where-begin-alan-clarke|title=Where to begin with Alan Clarke|website=British Film Institute|date=31 March 2016 }}</ref> His film work became more sparse, culminating in ''[[Screen Two#Contact|Contact]]'' (1985) on the British military presence in Northern Ireland, ''[[Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire]]'' (1985), ''[[Road (play)|Road]]'' (1987), and ''[[Elephant (1989 film)|Elephant]]'' (1989).<ref name=bfi>{{Citecite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f1680d1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160208132519/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f1680d1|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 February 2016|title=Alan Clarke|website=BFI}}</ref>

Many of the films that Clarke directed from this period are often seen as bleak and lacking redemptive qualities – the 1986 BBC film ''Christine'' dealt with teenage drug addiction whilst ''Road'' featured a cast of characters in the depressed estates of Northern England. ''Elephant'', lasting only 37 minutes, dealt with '[[the troubles]]' in [[Northern Ireland]] by featuring a series of shootings with no narrative and minimal dialogue; all were based on accounts of actual sectarian killings that had taken place in Belfast.<ref>{{Citecite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/439410/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Elephant (1989)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref> The film took its title from [[Bernard MacLaverty]]'s description of the troubles as "[[Elephant in the room|the elephant in our living room]]" – a reference to the collective denial of the underlying social problems of Northern Ireland. His final production of Al Hunter's ''[[The Firm (1989 film)|The Firm]]'' (1989), covered [[football hooliganism]] through the lead character played by [[Gary Oldman]], but also explored the [[politics of Thatcher]]'s Britain.<ref>{{Citecite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/439285/|title=BFI Screenonline: Firm, The (1989)|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref> Like several of Clarke's previous films, the screening of ''[[Screen Two#The Firm|The Firm]]'' as part of BBC 2's ''[[Screen Two]]'' series was controversial and criticised by some of the British Press as being too violent and sexually explicit. Like ''Christine'', ''Road'' and ''Elephant'', ''The Firm'' was also notable for Clarke's use of the [[steadicam]], partly inspired by its earlier use in films by Stanley Kubrick like ''The Shining''.

In 1990, Clarke travelled to America in order to pursue the idea of developing a US-based career in filmmaking. Prior to his death, he was making initial plans to film ''Assassination On Embassy Row'', later retitled ''An American Murder'', about a murder filmed from the assassin's point-of-view. The film never came to fruition, partly due to a lack of interest from the major US film studios and Clarke's declining health. Another project, a script by David Yallop entitled ''In God's Name'', also went unmade as Clarke began radiotherapy for cancer which by that time had spread from his lungs to his spine.{{cn|date=September 2020}}

In 1991, a documentary on him, ''Director Alan Clarke'' by [[Corin Campbell-Hill]], aired on British TV.<ref>{{Citecite web|url=http://chicagoreader.com/film/director-alan-clarke-and-psy-warriors/|title=Director: Alan Clarke and Psy-warriors|first=Chicago|last=Reader|date=26 October 1985|website=Chicago Reader}}</ref> In 2016, all of Clarke's surviving work for the BBC was released in a 2two-part DVD/Blu-Ray collection titled ''Dissent & Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC''. This set included the first official release of the 1976 documentary ''Bukovsky'' alongside extensive interviews with many of Clarke's collaborators and contemporaries.

Clarke has inspired others, such as the director [[Nick Love]], to direct films founded upon social realism.<ref>{{Citecite webnews|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nick-love-wild-boy-finally-shines-82q00h3gcqj|title=Nick Love: wild boy finally shines|via=www.thetimes.co.uk}}</ref> Love stated that it was watching Clarke's "''[[The Firm (1989 film)|The Firm]]"'' thathad motivated him to become a film maker rather than just a spectatorfilmmaker.<ref>{{Citecite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMyHdi95IcE|title=- YouTube|website=www.youtube.com}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead Youtube links|date=February 2022}}</ref>

Musician Annie Locke<ref>{{Citecite web|url=http://www.innerharmoniesmusic.co.uk/annie-locke/alprofile.htm|title=Annie Locke profile {{!}} Inner Harmonies Music|website=www.innerharmoniesmusic.co.uk|access-date=27 July 2016|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120803210033/http://www.innerharmoniesmusic.co.uk/annie-locke/alprofile.htm|archive-date=3 August 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> was a close friend of Clarke for many years, and they worked together on ''[[The Love-Girl and the Innocent]]''. After Clarke's death, she wrote a suite of pieces in his memory, entitled "A Man Called Alan".

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* {{cite book |last1last=Kelly |first1first=Richard |title=Alan Clarke |date=1998 |publisher=Faber & Faber Limited |location=London |edition=first |date=1998 |page=216 |isbn=0-571-19609-8 |page=216|edition=First}}

*[http://www.hull.ac.uk/filmstudies/FilmPFTHandshake.htm "The Hallelujah Handshake"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926234828/http://www.hull.ac.uk/filmstudies/FilmPFTHandshake.htm |date=26 September 2007 }} from [http://www.hull.ac.uk/filmstudies/FilmPFT01.htm "Play for Today website"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618173302/http://www.hull.ac.uk/filmstudies/FilmPFT01.htm |date=18 June 2008 }}