Audience Member
This early Ken Loach film (his third â" and the one that immediately followed his first big hit, Kes, 1969) shows him continuing in a social realist vein, detailing the often grim lives of the working class in Britain. In a style that echoes the concurrent documentaries by Frederick Wiseman or the Maysles, we observe interactions between members of a family in a tenement house and sometimes discussing their problems with a psychiatrist. Wiseman may be the better reference point because Loach holds similar concerns about the amount of control placed on individuals by institutions â" in this case, parents/family but also the psychiatric institution and society itself. The screenplay was by David Mercer from his play, In Two Minds. Sandy Ratcliff (who died this year, 2019) plays a 19-year-old-girl, living with her domineering parents. She is clearly a victim of the generation gap and when she falls pregnant to her open-minded boyfriend, her mother forces her to have an abortion. The resulting depression leads to much conflict at home and eventually her parents put her into a mental institution. Fortunately, her ward/group is run by a progressive Laingian who clearly believes that parental and societal control are to blame for Janice's problems; however, soon he is fired by the hospital and she is moved to a new ward and given drugs and shock therapy. And things only get worse from that point on. Some consider this film propaganda but despite the nonstop oppressive things that happen to Janice, this is a story that deserves to be told, even though it is over the top (or perhaps especially because it is over the top). Loach is polemical but still allows us to see the confusion of the parents, themselves the product of a different era and subjected to the same types of control that they now seek to impose. Obviously, it is a vicious cycle that keeps the working class in their place (in a factory or similar). You probably want to choose an appropriate time to expose yourself to this one.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
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Audience Member
Life of a Schizophrenic girl!
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/15/23
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Audience Member
Ken Loach's Family Life is a harrowing film which examines the Generational gap which exists between the older and the younger generations pertaining to morals, ambtiions, and pretty much just cultural in general. Somewhere in between a documentary and fiction, Loach's realist style really aids the film in delivering a frighteningly real, honest depiction of how a young woman's slow mental deterioration because of her authoritative parents. Being that the film was released in 1971, I imagine this is Loach's commentary on the 60's, but all of it is equally profound and valid in today's society. I literally found myself physically disgusted at times witnessing the unwillingness of this girl's parents to put themselves in their daughter's shoes and view the world outside of their pre-conceived notions of the world around them. Loach clearly identifies much more with the daughter in the film, and while the parents are shown in a rather vile way, it never becomes unnatural or overbearing--they really are just trying to do what is best for their daughter. The relationship between Control and Nurturing seemed to be the overall theme of the film and it's pulled off well.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
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Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I just finished watching this movie that was part of the Rosetta collection. It was a very emotionally-intense movie. Almost like "Girl, Interrupted" but British and crazier. I was only half paying attention to it, but it was a seriously draining movie. A lot of drama. I recommend it if you are into psychology and understanding teen girls, or just need a good cry.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/23/23
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Audience Member
okay, am i trippin or is this film not "reviewed" yet? okay, the film is mostly focused on a psychiatric treatement of a girl that begins to get out of her parents agressively puritan grip, after being persuaded to abort her child she feels more and more lost and her existance seems more and more pointless, she is caught between her parents agressive imbecility and trying to fill up the void and find her place in life somehow by drifting, hanging out, doing a bit of shoplifting etc. its a more or less typical story of a child comming into adulthood and trying to get loose of its parents pathological grip.. but what makes this film outstanding, besides a coherent ideological approach (leftist anti-psychiatry) is ken loaches terrifying realism that makes a much stronger impression of a direct peek into the private lives of those people than any documentary seems capable to make.. you are witnessing something that you kind of know is happening very often and thee isnt much you can do, just watch the girl slowly drift away into total emotional blankness, at the end serving as an example that "there was something wrong within her, after all" and "parents and institutions tried their best to help".. its a brutal film that show how society leaves little space for disobedience and tries as much as it can to marginalize and choke subjects that are practicing it, using their confusion and mental fragility to squash them while they still can.. its the law of the evil and the stupid and while this film is in genre terms clearly not a horror it did leave a very horror like impression and shock to my stomache, feeling of watching a fresh lively thing systematically decay, trapped in a cage, squashed.. in other words- it really pushed my emotional button.. there ARE some scenes i found too commonplace and cheesy BUT those are very rare and can be easily forgiven if we take the film as a whole which is very good and i certainly reccomend, both for emancipatory and aesthetical value!
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
Full Review
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