Alan Clarke: The British director who changed American indie cinema
During the 1950s and ‘60s, a group of British filmmakers turned their focus to social issues, using naturalistic filming techniques to depict working-class characters and explore themes that had hardly been shown on screen before. From poverty to abortion and interracial relationships, these films established Britain as a hub for incredible social realist dramas.
At the end of the ‘60s, Alan Clarke made his first television plays, although it wasn’t until the ‘70s that much of his work began to receive both acclaim and controversy. The filmmaker, who came from a working-class background, was preoccupied with telling stories about people from less privileged upbringings, turning the spotlight on those who are rarely afforded accurate or complex depictions on screen. He made many of his films as part of the BBC’s Play for Today, including Scum, starring Ray Winstone.
The violent film depicted the harsh realities of British borstal life, but due to its relentless brutality, Scum was censored by the BBC, and it wasn’t broadcast until 1991. In the meantime, Clarke used the script to make a feature film version of Scum, which was still just as controversial. Many people, such as conservative activist Mary Whitehouse, wanted it banned. Clarke’s film didn’t hold back in showing various hard-to-watch scenes, including suicide and rape, conveying the desperate need for reform in the borstal system.
His film Made in Britain similarly shocked audiences with its depiction of an incredibly racist skinhead teenager, played by a young Tim Roth. The characters’ unwavering violence reflected an era where tensions were at an all-time high, fostered by Margaret Thatcher’s oppressive government. Clarke’s movies were honest and reflective of a rough period in British history, which echoes through the country today. With Christine, he explored the lives of children who took heroin, while the funnier Rita, Sue and Bob, Too, still dug deep into challenging themes, such as class relations and uneven power dynamics.
Clarke’s movies are unmistakably British, yet he has inspired many American filmmakers with his unflinching approach to social realism. Harmony Korine, who made his screenwriting debut with Kids when he was just 19, cites Clarke as one of his favourite filmmakers. The film is a raw and brutal look at New York teenagers dealing with the AIDs crisis, and you can certainly draw parallels between Kids and Clarke’s oeuvre.
However, Gummo, Korine’s directorial debut, bears even more influence from Clarke. The naturalistic movie – filmed almost like a documentary – follows different characters living in a poverty-stricken town. Korine doesn’t hesitate to show violence and griminess, peeling back the curtain on the kinds of people that clash with the idea of the American dream, something that Hollywood typically likes to promote. In a Sight and Sound interview from 1998, Korine explained, “Christine is a masterpiece, and I like The Firm and Made in Britain. What I like is that he approaches drama in a different way. There is never a beginning, middle, and end — the films just exist, the drama just seems to happen.”
He explained how, upon discovering Clarke, he was impressed by his distinctive style. Korine loves “the way the characters speak, as if they just exist, as if they’re organic” and cites “his use of violence” as “very interesting to me. It’s more than real.” The director also admires the way Clarke framed his characters, “There’s such an energy to his camera, such a fluidity to his movies. The steadicam shots can last for five minutes at a time.”
But Korine’s not the only American filmmaker with a liking for Clarke’s work. Gus Van Sant also loves the director, naming his movie Elephant after Clarke’s film of the same name. Not only that, but Van Sant took influence from Clarke’s use of tracking shots, which became a signature feature of the former’s film, based on the Columbine school shooting. In an interview with Filmmaker Magazine, Van Sant even revealed, “Harmony [Korine] had told me about Elephant — he claimed it was his favourite film and had explained every shot to me.”