Saw
"I, Daniel Blake"- It was in Walthamstow with my friend who lives there for £8 on a Saturday evening. Unlike Ritzy high prices.
Its on at Ritzy.
My (not a Corbyn supporter) Labour party friend I saw it with liked it. Said Theresa May and her Tory friends should be made to see it.
TBH I was not over keen on idea of seeing it. Seeing the trailer and I was afraid it would be to worthy. Honest worker up against the system.
It verged on that at times. Saved from this by Daniels young neighbours who know how to use the system and scam there way to survive. One point telling Daniel , the paragon of old school honest hard worker, that the system is there to grind him down. Its intentionally set up to do that. Something he is slow to learn. A different generation who have learnt to survive unlike him who naively believes in "doing the right thing" as politicians often say.
What also makes the film work is the other main character the single mum Katie. An outstanding performance by Hayley Squires. I , by chance , heard her talking about the film earlier in the day. She was passionate about it and the politics around it.
The growing relationship between her ( and her children) with the lonely widowed Daniel is very touching.
Despite my reservations about seeing the film I was swept up in it. It develops into a moving film. Juxtaposing the humanity of ordinary people under pressure with the alienating State bureaucracy that is humiliating them and destroying them. And is set up to do so. Interesting touch was that not everyone in the Job Centre is nasty. Its the (Capitalist) State that is the problem. With ordinary people caught up in it.
Benefits Street this is not. And from the radio interview with Hayley that is something that the film wanted to oppose.
Loach has worked with the same scriptwriter for years- Laverty. IMO they work as an equal partnership. Laverty is very much on the Left and sees his work as part of that.
They had done a lot of research. The scene in the Food Bank was apparently based on a real incident.
It has had good reviews.
The critical one was the Evening Standard. By the ES normally good critic David Sexton. I wouldn’t read it if ur going to see the film as it gives to much away.Read it after or go to last couple of paragraphs.
Sexton says that Loach is not telling us anything "we" didn’t already know. Which is true in a way. So my question is why is this still going on? How is it that society hounds and punishes people with the least ? Does film make any difference?
Sexton does not have the imagination to ask these questions.
The one thing I think Loach/ Laverty succeed in is giving back those on benefits there humanity. TV like Benefits Street is as much "agitprop" as this film. Sexton is quick to accuse this film of being agitprop. But does not see the insidious way that media portrayals can work the other way.
Sexton spends the last two paragraphs of his review slagging off Loachs Marxist politics. ( He is a Marxist). Sexton says he should look up what it was really like in Soviet Union and North Korea. Loach has already dealt with Stalinism in his film about the Spanish Civil War. So really Sexton should take a closer look at that film.
In this country Loach does not have the regard he gets in France. Sexton has a dig at the film for this reason as well. It won at Cannes.
Sexton is interesting to read as the mainstream political class do there best to ignore Loach. He has had major awards in his long career. This countries most famous living film director and one wouldn’t think so with the reaction he gets from the establishment. Sexton inadvertently gives an example of the way he is viewed.
Sexton attitude, common in this country, is the middle of the road concern. Of course the way the system treats people is wrong but simple black and white views of people like Loach simply wont do. And would lead to totalitarian state if they did. Its all a very complicated issue and of course one would like to see things improved.
I got the feeling from Sexton review is that he didnt like having to see this all up on screen. Makes it all to personal and real. Made him uncomfortable.
And that maybe why film still has a purpose.
