Anyway, I watched it again this evening having found it on Amazon Prime. I do not believe that it has been available there for very long so I was delighted to locate it.
Of course I have been thinking about "Kes" a lot recently and in my conversations with Richard Hines and his wife Jackie, "Kes" has naturally featured as an on-going topic. Richard's more famous brother - Barry Hines - was the author of "A Kestrel for a Knave" upon which the film was based. However, it was Richard himself who inspired the idea that the central character would be a school write-off who trained a kestrel because that is exactly what he had done.
A couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to learn from Richard that Barry's principal motivation for the book had not really been to tell the story of a working class nobody who trained a kestrel but to "shake up the education system" in this country.
This evening, I re-engaged with what is one of my very favourite scenes in the film. In an English classroom, the teacher, Mr Farthing, is encouraging the class to grasp the difference between fact and fiction. Billy Casper, the main character, is urged to stand up and talk about his "hawk". Reluctant at first, he becomes more engaged and the rest of the class - including Mr Farthing listen with wrapt attention.
There are many different versions of what is England and indeed what is Yorkshire. "Kes" speaks for the downtrodden with kindness and anger as well as northern grittiness. This is testament to the team that made it - principally Barry Hines, the director Ken Loach and the producer Tony Garnett. Together, in spite of a very limited budget, they created a kind of magic.
"Kes" is admired to this day as a cinematic and cultural milestone. Just this morning, I listened to Mark Kermode and Jarvis Cocker discussing the film on BBC Radio 4. It means a lot to both of them just as it means a lot to me.
And who was the unseen falconry expert during the filming - never seen but just off camera? Why none other than Richard Hines himself. Those six weeks in the summer of 1968 changed Richard's life forever.
Chris Menges was the DOP and Roy Watts the editor.
ReplyDeleteMenges used long lenses and natural lighting, Cinema Verite.
David Bradley as Billy Caspar was outstanding as were the boys.
These moments in young lives pass so quickly and I was reminded of
Truffaut's The 400 Blows, The Red Balloon, The Spirit of the Beehive.
Kes belongs with those masterpieces. It may well rank the highest.
As a student I went back twice to the Friday evening debating society
in my comprehensive. Most of the children there were girls of 14-16.
I saw how quickly childhood passes. How children at that age are looking
for guidance, understanding, acceptance, meaning, creativity.
.
Then it passes and they go out to work and forget their dreams.
Even after 58 years - since the filming happened - "Kes" is still watched. It remains one of the best films ever made on this island. Ken Loach was and is a genius.
DeleteThe kestrel is IN the classroom. Billy makes it fly.
DeleteMr Loach has had an astonishing career in cinema like Mike Leigh.
His TV plays written by Jim Allen are (or were) on YouTube.
El Sur (The South) is a 1983 Spanish film directed by Victor Erice.
Set in Northern Spain, we only see the South through a child's eyes.
Estella is played by a child and then by a teenager. Haunting.
The widowed father of Estella is not an abuser.
Yet I could not forgive him for what he did at the end.
Very gripping. I find that at this age I don't get the English accent anymore so I miss most of it.
ReplyDeleteThat was ( very) broad Yorkshire so not surprised you struggled Red!
DeleteIn the film, the accents are peculiar to South Yorkshire. Why not play the clip for your good lady. Even after all these years, she should be able to translate for you.
DeleteWhen the Micro Manager gets excited it's hard to understand her!
Delete"wrapt"? and you an English teacher! tsk tsk.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching that I want to see the movie, so I shall search for it.
Perhaps it is because I was an English teacher that I used the the word "wrapt" and used it perfectly correctly Elsie.
DeleteWhat wonderful information has arisen from a simple introduction to a neighbour.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right. I feel that my life has been enriched... at least for a little while.
DeleteThanks for sharing this. Kes is available here on Amazon Prime. I should watch it.
ReplyDeleteI hope you do but please watch it with patient attention.
DeleteI count " Kes" as one of my favourite films, though I am not much of a film watcher...more so when I was younger.
ReplyDeleteThe boys in that class look very varied ages! Had to check to see who was playing the teacher.......(it's him..... you know..... what's 'is name! )
Colin Welland for anyone interested.
Yes. He was P.C. David Graham in "Z Cars". Sadly, he died in 2015 having been changed by Alzheimer's.
DeleteThis does indeed look like an amazing film.
ReplyDeleteI think I may have seen the film a very long time ago - probably on TV, but my memories of it are rather vague. The clip in your post also brought back memories from when I attended a school in Yorkshire as "guest" for a few weeks in June 1972, though. No kestrels involved in my experience, I was just reminded of the dialect and the school uniforms etc. (I probably mentioned it before. It was a kind of student exchange program, except that it was "one-sided". I.e. for me it was during my summer holidays, and the girl in the family I was staying with did not go to Sweden.)
ReplyDeleteIt is a wonderful, touching film.
ReplyDeleteI had a hard time understanding the accent but I'm sure with a few watches I'd get it. Looks like a good movie.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to watch this movie sometime. I've never seen it.
ReplyDeleteI've read the book but never seen the movie so I enjoyed that clip.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I missed the survey yesterday! I think you do a fine job, Neil.
I haven’t seen it either. I will give it a go. I say “give it a go” because I tend to find my tastes tend to be for the more modern in books and films - though some certainly stand the test of time. We watched the three Godfather films over Xmas…amazing.
ReplyDeleteHow’s the poem coming on?
I only just now got round to watching the video clip, Neil. Thank you for that. I have tears in my eyes as I am typing this comment.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a long time since I heard someone use words like "mesen".
I haven't seen Kes since I was a teenager, if its on Prime I'll be getting it watched again.
ReplyDelete