BSR Timeline

Look Back In Anger-50's

In Room At The Top the themes covered are Abuse, Equal Rights, Poverty and Regional Identity.  This film was made during a time when women did not have equality to men and were still seen as inferior. This is particularly clear when in this shot at 8:01 where the 2 men are reading newspapers but the woman is ironing. Domestic abuse is also covered in this film as we denote the husband saying to his wife "you haven't had a thought in years"

We can denote the theme of poverty is established in this film through the use of setting, in the screenshot taken at 6:38 we can see chunks of plaster have peeled off from the walls, there are cracks in the walls and it's a very small room in itself. This has been a constant theme used throughout British Social Realism up until modern day as well as the use of real locations and not sets.

However in this one of the actors speaks with a very posh middle class accent which goes against the theme, more modern day films use type casting to get a person who suits the character they want so they do not as good acting skills as they are similar to who they are portraying, this film uses chose acting skills over the more recent trend of similarities with the character.

Kes-1960's

In this scene from Kes we can denote that they are in a classroom at a school which connotes to us that one of the locations of the film and also that one of the themes is childhood and growing up as we denote that the main character of this film is a kid connoting that it is about the theme is childhood. We can denote that the costume the kid is wearing very run down shabby clothes connoting to us that another theme is poverty. Through dialogue we can denote that the characters have northen accents connoting to the audience that this is where the film is set. The north of England is still a popular choice for British Social Realism Films and has been throughout it's timeline as we can see in films like The Full Monty, The Selfish Giant and Billy Elliot as it is an area riddled with poverty. British Social Realism before this film had rarely used such young characters as their main characters and it's normally been middle aged people and haven't dealt with the theme of growing up before. We can see this film was quite influential on future pieces as Bronco Bullfrog then in the next decade used young characters an dealt with the theme of growing up.

Bronco Bullfrog- 1970's

In the trailer for Bronco Bullfrog we can denote that the main characters are a group of teenagers and the love interest of one of the boys, this connotes that a theme in this film is growing up.  Near the end of the trailer we can denote the boys breaking into the back of a truck connoting to us a theme in this film is crime.Another instance of crime is when they break into the shop seen in the shot here.

 Through dialogue we can denote that they have cockney accents and use some slang like "init" connoting to us that this film is set in London and these characters live and grew up there

Rita, Sue and Bob Too-1980's

In this clip from rita sue and bob too we can denote that the dad is drunk and being abusive to his daughter and wife connoting to us that the some of the themes in this film are drug abuse and domestic abuse which at the time was a new installment into the genre as it previously was rarely covered. In the argument their having in the street their talking about who's been having sex with who and the dad calls one of the girls a slut this connotes that a theme in this film is sex and sexuality. A prop used in this film is the old television connoting that this film is set in the same period it was made another connotation for this are the costumes worn  which are brightly coloured which was the trend at that time. In the 1980's race started becoming a big issue and we began to see it covered in more British Social Realism films whereas in earlier British Social Realism films it was not covered as much as there was not as much controversy around the subject.We can see this issue being played upon in the film when the father shouts racial abuse at the Indian man.

It uses a typical estate area which is has been a common choice of setting for BSR films up until this point and it is clear that all shots have been filmed at real locations which is a convention for British Social Realism films and I imagine it being so for a very long time as it helps to establish the realism style of the genre. Natural lighting is something I also forsee being used in British Social Realism indefinitely for the same reason and we can see in this gif that natural lighting has been used.

Trainspotting-1990's

In the clip from Trainspotting we can already see that there is a lot more violence in this decade of film than there ever was before, as we can see a man beating up someone else in such a viscous way never seen before and had the intent to stab him until his friend stopped him, also in another shot from this clip we can see the woman is covered in blood after the glass was thrown at her. This connotes that audiences over the years have changed and they have become more tolerable to violence and expect more of it so therefore the Britsh Social Realism genre changed too to meet their audiences needs.

In this screenshot taken at 0:08 we can see that the colours used in The British Social Realism genre has changed as before very bland colours were used but we can denote here that the people are wearing brightly coloured clothes. However even though the clothes are brightly coloured it still connotes the sense of poverty as they aren't very fancy clothes and are very basic.

From the accent we can hear during the voice over we can detect that the character speaks with a scottish accent connoting that he is Scottish and the film is set in Scotland which was not a very common setting before in British Social Realism. This shows that the genre has began to move from the usual setting of somewhere in England and has moved to other places in Britain. The use of the voiceover in the clip is an uncommon use of sound in British Social Realism and shows that the genre has adapted.

This is England-2000's

In comparison this film and Rita,Sue and Bob too we can see a drastic change in the way Racism is dealt with as in Rita,Sue and Bob it's only a mild verbal abuse whereas in This is England we can see a character call another the "n" word and viciously beat him up. Both these films were set in the !980's but since This is England is a newer film we can see the drastic change in representation of racism.

At 1:09 we can hear non diegetic music start to play and began to stand out as the volume increases more and more mirroring Combo's jealousy of Milky when he talks about his family. Non diegetic music in British Social Realism is a fairly new addition to the genre and has very rarely been used in British Social Realism before. When he is beating up Milky to music plays at its loudest to help establish the drama of the scene.

The group of characters in the film are part of a gang and the film helps connote this by their similar clothing as some characters are wearing straps and similar clothing. Gang culture is something which hasn't been covered in British Social Realism before and in the 2010's especially becomes a big part of the genre. However the types of gang seen have changed over time.

Ill Manors-2010's

The main theme in this film is drugs and drug abuse as we can denote that in the shot is a man making some drugs and another man paying him for it connoting the theme. This isn't a new installment into the genre but it takes a different approach to it as we've only seen it from the user's point of view not the producer's.

In this film there is a use of voice over but where it differs from Trainspotting is that this uses it for narration however trainspotting uses it for a monologue. 

This film is very different from most British Social Realism films as the main character of this film is reasonably successful and is not living in poverty due to his successful drug empire.