Journal of Popular Film and Television

ISSN: 0195-6051 (Print) 1930-6458 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjpf20

What was new in the british New wave? Re-viewing Room at the Top

Barton R. Palmer

To cite this article: Barton R. Palmer (1986) What was new in the british New wave? Re- viewing Room at the Top , Journal of Popular Film and Television, 14:3, 125-135, DOI: 10.1080/01956051.1986.9943948

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01956051.1986.9943948

Published online: 14 Jul 2010.

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group of innovative and iconoclastic failure of artistic innovation in the through in the transition of British directors, among them Tony Richard­ New Wave: cinema from its established position son, Karel Reisz, and Jack Clayton. It as a supplier of escapist entertainment ... the films haveset out to investigate also saw provocative adaptations of a sociallandscape rather than to make to a new role as a more accurate mir­ fiction and drama that embodied a that discovery of a mediumwhich a di­ ror of social reality. A careful ex­ challenge to the status quo by accord­ rector such as Truffaut so rapturously amination of the film's construction ing a prominent place to working­ communicates. Our film-makers travel of social meaning, however, reveals class characters and concerns.4 Films as mass observers rather than as artists that its radicalism is confined to a dif­ prepared to turn the landscape upside such as Room at the Top (1959), down if it happens to suit their pur­ ferent concept of realism. On a deeper Lonelinessofthe Long DistanceRun­ poses." and more important level, the film ner (1962), and A Kind of Loving proves conservative and traditional. (1962) were made on the margins of New Wave filmmakers, it seems, For, although it deals with the issue of an industry that had long before de- failed to inaugurate a new formal tra­ getting ahead in a society no longer dition for British cinema. Did these ruled by a rigid sense of class demar­ directors, however, at least offer a cation, Room at the Top identifies as new and challenging social vision? a transgression of proper behavior The New Wave films John Hill, for example, has attacked and, worse yet, a betrayal ofauthentic were often huge box office what earlier critics usually faintly selfhood the success of its protagonist praised: the movement's representa­ in abandoning the poverty of his successes with an audience tion (however much dependent on working-class origins. Braine's novel that, apparently, was eager novels and plays) of a social landscape presents Joe Lampton's rise to the top for a different kind of that had, in the cinema, never previ­ of haut bourgeois respectability much ously been accorded a strong voice or more positively, and thus serves as a cinematic experience. telling image. Hill argues, however, useful background against which the that the New Wave, far from being film's quite different politics can be revolutionary, remained firmly within displayed. Before turning to a com­ the patriarchal constraints of the tra­ parison of Clayton's film with its ditional British film; therefore, veloped a very different concept of source, however, we need to consider the well-made film. These produc­ the breakthrough wasnot as important briefly both the multifaceted relation­ tions violated the conventional wis­ as has often been suggested and cer­ ship of a film text to the social dis­ dom of industry executives about the tainly cannot be accepted as an un­ courses that form its constituent parts problematically "Good Thing." 7 marketability of subjects such as so­ and the specific institutional con­ cial class, premarital sexuality, and straints that affected the production the flouting of authority. When they With such criticisms in mind, we of Room at the Top and whose func­ were finally given a national release, might well agree with Tony Aldgate tioning reveals much about the film's however, the New Wave films were and Jeffrey Richards that, since reception by a British audience in the often huge box office successes with "much of the heady optimism inher­ late 1950s. These preliminary consid­ an audience that, apparently, was ent in that era's strain of journalistic erations will help us define the "new­ eager for a different kind of cinematic cliches has dissipated," it is "time to ness" of the New Wave more pre­ experience. attempt a reassessment of . . . the cisely and also dismiss what has been Downloaded by [Purdue University Libraries] at 04:24 16 March 2016 Even at the time, however, some 'new wave' in general.?" often wrongly advanced as a reason critics suggested that what the New As Hill implies, the most important for the movement's failure to be more Wave directors were offering was question that such a reassessment innovative and politically radical: the hardly new. Calling the movement an must pose and answer relates to the presence of film censorship in Britain. "abortive renaissance," Peter Gra­ social functioning of the New Wave. What is the role of media like film ham, for example, declared that: How radical and innovative was the in modern culture? In an influential portrait of British life in these films? theoretical article Stuart Hall argues If one judges these films as films, rather than interpretations on film of It is my intention here to offer a par­ persuasively that media products such certain themes in books, it soon be­ tial answer to this general question by as films perform three related but dis­ comes apparent that the Britishsceneis discussing one of the movement's in­ tinct functions. The first task is "the scarcely more fertile than it was,say, at fluential and acclaimed early texts: provision and the selective construc­ the time of the Ealing comedies some Jack Clayton's Room at the Top, an tion of social knowledge, of social ten years ago." adaptation of John Braine's bestseller imagery, through which we perceive Echoing Graham's implicit com­ about social mobility and discontent the 'worlds,' the 'lived realities' of parison of British directors with their in postwar Britain. others." But the cinema or television more radical French contemporaries, Observers at the time generally con­ does more than select what is fit for Penelope Houston also discovered a sidered Room at the Top a break- representation; a second function is to British New Wave-Room at the Top 127

Joe (Laurence Harvey) and Alice (Simone Signoret) are contained by the shabby homeiness of working-class existence.

unacceptable contradiction by the es­ tablishment of a utopian (or, some­ times, dystopian) space where the an­ tinomies of a text's social raw materi­ als may be effectively closed up or off. 10 In short, if representation calls attention to what is, the narrative establishes what it means. Thus, as we shall see, the evolution of a different notion of "realism" does not neces­ sarily signal any radical change in a text's relationship toward the "neu­ tral and integrative coherence of pub­ lic opinion." New discourses, such as the discontent of the working-class angry young man, can be readily ac­ commodated within traditional orders of meaning through the evaluative dy­ namics of the storytelling process. Hall's model, of course, makes no insure that this "social knowledge ... of a world through representation, its provision for the description of the is ranked and arranged within the intention to connect with the specta­ mechanisms that give such evaluative great normative and evaluative classi­ tor's notion of the vraisemblable. dynamics their ordering force. We fications, within the preferred mean­ What kinds of social knowledge are must remember that, in speaking of ings and interpretations." At the final provided, moreover, furnish an im­ the "meaning" of a film, that "pro­ stages of this process "what had been portant key to the text's rhetorical in­ duction and text are articulated made visible and classified begins to tent, its stance toward effects such as through the 'machine' of social and shape into an acknowledged order." "realism" or "escapism." In other historical cinematic conventions and This order, Hall suggests, never di­ words, any alteration in the specific constraints." The notion of author­ rectly represents "real unities," such kinds of social knowledge made avail­ ship is of limited (but still important) as class and exploitation, but is a con­ able by a textual tradition signals not use in any assessment of the shaping struction similar to the "neutral and only a different attitude toward the forces of such institutions, for these integrative coherence of public opin­ "real" (aspects of which are now in­ "cannot be seen necessarily to corres­ ion," a representation, in short, of cluded or excluded from representa­ pond to a maker's personality or 'in­ ideology in its global, Althusserian tion), but also a different compact be­ tentions' nor likewise to his or her Downloaded by [Purdue University Libraries] at 04:24 16 March 2016 sense." tween producer and consumer about social and political beliefs." \I Like the structuralist Marxism on the purpose of such provision. As we As far as the New Wave is con­ which it is obviously based, Hall's shall see, the new "realism" of films cerned, the most important institu­ schemedoes present some drawbacks, like Room at the Top must be under­ tional constraint was the British most notably a monolithism that stood in this dual sense. Board of Film Censors (BBFC), a makes no room for a textual work More important than a text's repre­ quasi-official body whose stewardship that subverts the integrating force of sentation of social discourses, how­ of film production, while lacking the public opinion. His analysis, how­ ever, is its production of their interre­ absolute authority of the true censor, ever, is quite useful for our purposes lationships, a work that is carried on did greatly influence what was made here because, first, it theorizes the in fiction through the various chains in British studios and shown on Brit­ text's relationship to its raw material of narrative. As Hall suggests, the ish screens during this period." In as a process and, second, it identifies principal task of the narrative work is particular, some film criticsand direc­ that process as a series of stages con­ to assign various aspects of the repre­ tors called the BBFC to account at the gruent with various formal levels sented world their "preferred" mean­ time for the failure of the New Wave within the text itself. ings, a process that usually involves, to break more completely with the Thus the "provision of socialknowl­ as Frederic Jameson has demonstrated middlebrow model of the British in­ edge" relates to the text's evocation in great detail, the transcendence of dustry. Tony Richardson, for exam-

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ple, accused the board of sabotaging a cause he was insensitive to changes new realism that would allow spec­ occurring in the'area of public taste tators to find more immediate rele­ and had refused to accommodate a vance in what they saw on the screen: growing demand for a very different kind of cinematic product. Audiences, it was implied, must not recognize their own world and must It thus seems fairly clear that the not relate what they see on the screen BBFC during the late 19505 and early to their social experience. It would be 1960s was not an enemy of the new too disturbing. 13 "realism" in cinema, but rather a As we will see, however, this view of fairly astute and conscientious judge the board's activities is mistaken; of what in the new "realism" would another explanation must be forth­ be generally acceptable to a British coming for what Richardson identifies audience. Audience expectations about correctly as the failure of the move­ the cinema experience were noticeably ment, in which he was himself a prin­ changing for a number of reasons. cipal force, to overthrow more tellingly The most important of these was the the traditions of British filmmaking. fact that television in Britain, as in the During the 19505 the general func­ United States, had largely assumed by tion and specific practices of the this time the role of providing fic­ BBFC were in the process ofchanging tional entertainment for a mass au­ from those of the 19305 and '4Os' dience. The success of art houses these had made evident an overt de: showing "highbrow" foreign films sire to keep controversial material during the 19505 (especially in the away from the viewing public. Nicho­ Greater London area) had certified las Pronay characterizes the BBFC's the commerciality of a different kind earlier activities as a thoroughgoing of filmic discourse-"adult," "so­ censorship: phisticated," and "realistic"-one that the native cinema soon began to The cinema audience ... were effec­ adopt. tively and successfully kept from being The new "realism" of these films subject to the powerful impact of im­ was no more "realistic" than previous ages and stereotypes designed to un­ dermine their faith in the good inten­ modes of representation had been. tions of their rulers and in the bene­ What was new was the drawing of a ficial effectiveness of the political different boundary between the system under which they lived. 14 realms of "fiction" and "life": Such This is an inappropriate account, a process subverted, but only for a however, of the BBFC's avowed aims time, the fictional effects of narrative and general practice during the period since it drew attention to the fact that of Room at the Top's production and narrative does construct the "real." Accounts of Trevelyan's reign at the Downloaded by [Purdue University Libraries] at 04:24 16 March 2016 release. John Trevelyan, secretary of the board during its period of transi­ BBFC suggest that the board was it­ tion, characterizes the censors' aims self complicit in this redefinition of in a much different way: the institutional vraisemb/ab/e. Some involved in the censorship operations The BBFC . . . cannot legitimately suggested that the BBFC was too slow refuse to pass films which criticize in adapting to the expectations of a "The Establishment" and films which different British viewership, but in­ express minority opinions. IS siders generally viewed Trevelyan as As Guy Phelps has outlined, the progressive. 17 BBFC gradually evolved into an ex­ Unfortunately the actual working pression of public taste from its self­ papers of the board's decisions are appointed shaper, and this meant that not available for general scholarly it "was forced to make a radical revi­ sion of its approach to cinema, and this Trevelyan was well-equipped to The gentility of Susan's (Heather Sears) effect.,,16 Indeed, Trevelyan's prede­ world seems to offer Joe no real comfort. cessor had been forced to resign be-

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use; my own attempts to see the cannot be traced to institutional cen­ Room at the Top file were met with sorship, which concerned itself more polite rebuffs. Jeffrey Richards and with the area of filmic representation Tony Algate, however, were given ac­ than that of storytelling. Rather, the cess to the BBFC file on the New film's politics result from other forces Wave film Saturday Night and Sun­ within the cinematic "machine" of day Morning (1961).18 The pre­ meaning, notably certain elements of production comments of the examin­ the narrative tradition that underlay ers on a working treatment center the fictionalizing functions of cinema about the area I have termed repre­ in late-1950s Britain. sentation; their criticism concerns These elements, of course, make itself mainly with language (bogger their presence felt not so much in in­ and other expressions were expunged) stitutions such as the BBFC, though and theme (the discussion of abortion the censors were undoubtedly guided was deemphasized). If this case was by some consensus about the well­ typical (and we have no reason to ex­ made or "proper" story; instead they pect that it was not), then we must can be traced in the work of those in­ discount the criticism of directors and volved in formulating the film narra­ others that the BBFC stifled their cre­ tive. In the case of Room at the Top, ativity and their aim to produce a director Jack Clayton was responsible more radical cinema. In fact, by pass­ for the final shape of the story. Thus ing New Wave films after only slight it is instructive to begin a considera­ changes in language, theme, and im­ tion of the film's narrative with some age, the BBFC was actually facilitat­ discussion of his attitude toward the ing the development of a different project. Clayton was attracted to contract between the film industry Braine's novel because, he confessed, and its consumers, one in which the it was "indicative of that fascinating relation of screen content to social ex­ period which I personally lived perience played a much more impor­ through; it was about what happened tant role. to England when everybody came Trevelyan was quite conscious at back from the war.":" But more im­ the time that the board was changing portant for Clayton than its concern long-standing policies (especially with social change was its love theme. those concerning sexual explicitness), George Gaston reports the director's but he believed that such changes feelings on this point: were necessary if the cinema were to continue to occupy a central role in ... it was the love story and the per­ British culture. Reviewing his career, version of love and innocence brought on by self-betrayal that stirred his he observes: imagination most of all." Downloaded by [Purdue University Libraries] at 04:24 16 March 2016 ... one can see that Jack Clayton's As we will see, in the novel the larger Room at the Top ... was a milestone issues of postwar society (demands in the history of British films and in a way a milestone in the history of Brit­ for equality, dissatisfaction with class ish society.19 hierarchies, a loss of patriotic feeling) are dealt with through the romantic Trevelyan is correct, but only in a triangle involving Joe, Alice Aisgill, limited sense, for films such as Room the older married "loving friend" at the Top only partially redefined the who initiates him into sexual joy, and relationship between the cinema and Susan Brown, the young and inexpe­ the viewing public. Like most other rienced daughter of a wealthy indus­ New Wave productions, Room at the trialist. In Braine's version Joe's drive Top, in fact, offers a picture of reality for upward mobility is made possible that is controlled by "the neutral and (and also legitimated) by his en­ integrative function of public opin­ counters with both Alice and Susan. ion," a picture that does not challenge For Clayton, however, the protag­ the status quo but rather reinforces it. onist's drive for economic success is The film's conservatism, however, achieved at the cost of romantic and 130 JPF&T-Journal of Popular Film and Television

sexual happiness; to find his room at Alice's friend Elsbeth (Hermione the top Joe must violate the love he Baddeley) warns Joe about using Alice. feels for Alice and make a bad mar­ riage with Susan. This alteration works quite deliber­ rative working. Unlike John Osborne's atelyagainst the protests, albeit muted, Jimmy Porter, the archetypal angry that Braine's novel voices against the young man whose dissatisfaction with class system; Joe can rise above his the order of British society can only station, but he must do so at the cost manifest itself in self-congratulating of his "authentic" self. Though a di­ complaint, Braine's Joe Lampton is rect result of Clayton's reading of his bound to achieve the success society source materials, this particular focus would deny him. As the novel opens, on romantic coupling is hardly idio­ however, he has gone as far as the syncratic. Within the tradition of Brit­ mechanisms for advancement allow. ish as well as Hollywood filmmaking, Spending his years as a POW study­ the movement toward the constitution ing accounting, Joe has made the leap of the couple is a sociallyconservative from working class to the petty bour­ one that confirms the hero's social geoisie. His rewards include a ticket rank or discovershis true place within out of Dufton, the unbearably grim a social hierarchy. Clayton's handling factory town of his youth, and a of the romance also constructs certain white-collar job with local govern­ prominent and widespread discourses ment in Warnley, a city also in the in­ about the importance of "love" dustrial north but one with an afflu­ (these are stock-in-trade of cinematic ent middle classand the attendant cul­ storytelling as well). As part of its ap­ tural amenities. As Joe himself recog­ peal to a middlebrow audience, Room nizes, hard work will bring only at the Top offers the "adultness" of a limited advancement in the end. The kind of popular Lawrentianism as its creature comforts of haut bourgeois overriding personal value; as in Lady life lie impossibly beyond his grasp: sex becomes for Chatterly's Lover, . . . he has not the capacity to succeed Clayton's characters the overpower­ in our sense of the word. He lacks the ing authenticating force that makes ir­ necessary background, the poise, the relevant such issues as class exploita­ breeding; in short, he is essentially tion or inequality of opportunity. Un­ vulgar, and possesses no talents which might compensate for this drawback.22 fettered sexual expression leads to personal fulfillment (though the In this way Room at the Top ac­ mechanisms and precise nature of this knowledges the narrative dead end to character development are asserted, which its social raw material takes it not explored). Braine's story thus be­ (i.e., the mechanisms for upward mo­ comes a morality play in which "be­ bility are necessarily limited despite Downloaded by [Purdue University Libraries] at 04:24 16 March 2016 ing true to yourself" is opposed to up­ the war's promise of a new society ward mobility. In this way the film's more equal in its distribution of radicalism, its departure from re­ wealth). The novel, however, tran­ ceived modes of representation, be­ scendsthe contradiction between Joe's again in traditional fashion, his suc­ comes ironically compromised. The­ legitimate desire and the social forces cess in so doing is ratified by a crise matizing sexuality in a new and that contain it by formulating a per­ morale that exacts from Joe the shocking fashion (at least within the sonal rather than a social solution to appropriate self-examination and context of British film, if not that of his frustration. For Joe has one talent recriminations. the "art" film genre), Room at the whose worth he does not recognize: Joe eventually gets Susan's hand in Top makes romance the true end of his sexual power, something that gives marriage by a happy accident: She human desire, thus sidestepping the him an advantage in his rivalry for gets pregnant (this being the only social causes and consequences of the Susan's affections with Jack Wales, a reason her parents would accept Joe "angry young man's" desire for up­ handsome and poised member of her as a son-in-law). Surprisingly, how­ ward mobility. own class. Like his obvious literary ever, Joe's pursuit of Susan and what In the novel the triangular romance forebear, the picaresque hero, Joe she represents (a well-paying job in functions as part of a utopian drive transgresses social boundaries in the her father's company is part of the for transcendence that keeps the nar- name of his own desire; and, once marriage deal) is not developed by an BritishNew Wave-Room at the Top 131

ROOMAT THE TOP is notable for its absence ofa fatherfigure who would represent the traditions and power against which the son must struggle in order to define his own destiny. Downloaded by [Purdue University Libraries] at 04:24 16 March 2016

opposition of Jack, the effete scion of As a bildungsroman, Room at the privilege, and Joe, the powerful and Top is notable for its absence of a hungry member of an oppressed class. father figure who would represent the Braine neatly sidesteps treating traditions and power against which Susan's reasons for preferring Joe the son must struggle in order to de­ and why she would violate the social fine his own destiny (in this respect rule enunciated by Joe's Aunt Emily: the book contrasts interestingly with "Money marries money, lad.... Get Lawrence's Sonsand Lovers, a novel one of your own class, lad, go to your to which, in other respects, it is ob­ own people" (98). Instead the novel viously indebted). Joe's mother and introduces the theme of "authentic­ father are dead, killed by the one ity," though, once again, not in a way bomb that fell on Dufton during the that would pose directlyand forcefully war. The improbability of the event the issues of class transgression. that has removed his parents under- 132 JPF&T-Journal of Popular Film and Television Downloaded by [Purdue University Libraries] at 04:24 16 March 2016 British New Wave-Room at the Top 133

lines the special circumstances of him no permanent relationship. Alone has a sense of moral responsibility). Joe's isolation; he is thereby freed to on a week's vacation, they do achieve With Susan he gains a beautiful wife pursue unfettered his own desire. And the emotional happiness necessary for who offers him both love and money, what has been repressed by the "un­ a good marriage: "The security, the for she is truly the princess able to likely" absence of his father is the op­ calm, the matter-of-fact tenderness make Joe's fairy story of upward mo­ position to any mobility that violates which came from her-that is what bility into a lived reality. Thus, with the authenticity of class affiliation, an was important; that, and talking to its avoidance of complex social issues opposition that his father would surely each other and having no dangerous and its reliance on romantic plotting, voice: "He was a good workman; too corners or forbidden subjects" (184). Room at the Top captures the emo­ good a workman to be sacked and too This happiness, however, is the tional tone and utopian vision of outspoken about his labour convic­ product of temporary release from so­ postwar dissatisfaction with the class tions to be promoted" (102). cial and personal constraints. In the system if not the historical reality. Thus the contradiction between class real world Alice is an older woman, Clayton's film, in contrast, creates loyalty and desire for advancement is a harsher vision of the same world in another issue sidestepped by Braine's which the protagonist's dream of tran­ story. Like most popular fiction, the scending his background proves a novel moves not toward the confron­ Clayton's postromantic false goal whose attainment means tation of social inequities but away rejection ofthe modem self-betrayal and moral failure. At the from them, attempting in the process outset the film's high contrast black­ to formulate a utopian solution that industrial cityfinds no and-white photography, consistent use would somehow transcend such anom­ equivalent in Braine's of sharp/deep focus, avoidance of alies. In this case that solution is to be novel, whose characters, glamorizing lighting, and choice of found in the marriage to Susan which, real location exteriors evoke a harsh as Joe himself recognizes, can only be particularly Joe, accept the environment much unlike the Warn­ envisaged as a "fictional" satisfaction world they have been given ley of Braine's novel, which is meant of his desires: "Susan was a princess and are eager only to to contrast favorably with the Dufton and I was the equivalent of a swine­ of Lampton's youth. With its atonal herd. I was, you might say, acting out make their way in it. and unromanticized quality, even the a fairy story" (62). film's background music suggests a As Frederic Jameson points out, lack of emotional or spiritual fit be­ popular fiction only works through to hopelessly married, with no financial tween the characters and the grim en­ a transcendence of social contradic­ advantages to bestow on Joe even if vironment in which their lives are tions by first somehow expressing she were free to marry him. His friend played out. This mise-en-scene finds them. And this is Alice's important Charles advises him to break with no equivalent in Braine's novel except role in the novel. For Alice becomes, Alice, and Joe does so after learning in the passages devoted to Dufton and in large measure, a representative of that she had an affair with Jack constitutes an important alteration, the authenticity that Joe's father Wales, his bitter rival. The sexual au­ for it creates a world incapable of would have urged upon him. The thenticity of his relationship with supporting the wish fulfillment struc­ novel, however, accords the authen­ Alice thus functions as a metonymy tures of Braine's story. Instead the

Downloaded by [Purdue University Libraries] at 04:24 16 March 2016 ticity represented by Alice no legiti­ for the forces that attract him to stay­ cold exteriors, with their sharply fo­ mate social or material space, no ing put in the social order. But since cused plainness and inhospitality, are room in the project of growth that he and Alice can in effect share no so­ meant to contrast with the interior catches Joe up. Hence she can be left cial space, continuing with her is an scenes shot in the apartment of one of behind and allowed to self-destruct in option that Joe cannot choose. Alice's Alice's friends, where the intimacy of order to facilitate a satisfactory close subsequent death after an alcoholic the adulterous couple is cleverly con­ to the story of Joe's success. Alice of­ binge makes Joe regret his actions. veyed by informal and often risque fers Joe love and attention but she is, The novel's interpretation of his dialogue and casual, asymmetrical as he says, "an inhabitant of a shut-in choice, as enunciated by his friend groupings; in these scenes deliberate musty world, tatty as running grease­ Eva, is quite different: "You don't deglamorization suggests not inhospi­ paint" (114). Because her husband re­ see it now, but it was all for the best. tality but rather an honesty upon fuses divorce and even threatens to She'd have ruined your life. Nobody which true love can be based. This ruin Joe in the courts, Alice can offer blames you, love" (256). honesty, however, implies denying Joe pays an emotional price for ris­ any importance to the unpleasant, un­ ing to the top, but his deep sadness changing world without, a place of Although Alice loves him, Joe finally over Alice's death is yet another justi­ social realities with no real connection chooses Susan's youth and money instead. fication for this social promotion to the microcosmic couple within. In (for, unlike those around him, Joe other words, Clayton's use of various 134 JPF&T-Journal of Popular Film and Television

cinematic codes whose meaning is Alice becomes the locus of protest with Alice, and he therefore must be­ "realistic" by convention (largely be­ against and difference from the social tray that "real self" he has revealed in cause they are opposed to other system, an emotional space where Joe his relationship with her. codes, such as soft focus, which con­ cannot only take comfort but also The film, however, is not satisfied ventionally connote idealization) is deconstruct the false values that com­ with this deterministic end; the moral twofold. On the one hand, the "real­ pel him to want more and more ofthe lesson of Joe's experience must be istic" exteriors evoke a world opposed unsatisfying goods that the outside pointed out, even if his rejection of to the hero's desire for transcendence, world has to offer. Alice cannot legitimately express it. In while, on the other hand, the "real­ Such a characterization of Alice, the novel Joe is friends with a fellow istic" interiors in large part establish however, must take into account the clerk named Charles who, like him­ the narrative and thematic space for fact that the film, for all its Lawren­ self, is anxious to get ahead. As we an escape from that harsher realm of tian nostalgia and protest, never ac­ have seen, it is Charles who in fact class systems, economic imbalance, cords her an intellectual center to sup- convinces Joe not to continue with and bleak urban life. Alice. In the film, however, Charles's Clayton's postromantic rejection of role is quite different. In the opening the modern industrial city finds no sequences, Charles finds himself at­ equivalent in Braine's novel, whose The film version of tracted to a fellow clerk named June, characters, particularly Joe, accept ROOMAT THE TOP is but he sees no advantage for himself the world they have been given and in a serious relationship with her: are eager only to make their way in it. ultimately a cautionary Significantly, the character most dis­ June's a good kid. But she's got an in­ tale that identifies the valid mother, and they live off June's satisfied with her life in both novel dangers ofpursuing up­ salary, the pair of them. So whoever and film is Alice, who is oppressed marries June marries an invalid mother and humiliated by a bad marriage to a ward mobility instead of too. What you and me should be look­ philandering and overbearing hus­ emotional transformation. ing for is a girl with no brothers or band. In the novel, however, Alice sisters and a nice family business in the background. has been beaten down not only by her circumstances but by time itself; her port her emotional role. For example, Later, having "fallen in love" with physical beauty is inexorably sagging when Joe rejects her she proclaims: June, Charles changes his mind; these into matronliness, and there is no practical considerations are thus no question that Susan, though she lacks There's something you've never under­ longer important, but simply "don't stood, Joe. These people at the top, womanly experience, is the more at­ they're the same as anybody else. But seem to matter much any more." At tractive. In the film, on the contrary, you had it inside of you to be so much film's end Charles and June, barely Alice is played by the glamorous Si­ bigger than any of them. You just had able to hide their disapproval, form mone Signoret, while Susan is played to be yourself . . . and with me you an appropriate chorus at the wedding by Heather Sears, who is cute rather were yourself. Only with me. Don't you understand what you've done? of Joe and Susan. Also present is than beautiful and who lacks the star Alice's friend Elspeth who, in the quality of Signoret. Eager at first to Unfortunately, Alice's plea for Joe to novel, accepted resignedly the death sleep with Susan, Joe falls into a pro­ understand her key role in developing of her companion without blaming found postcoital depression after they and maintaining an authentic sense of Joe. The wedding scene features reac­ Downloaded by [Purdue University Libraries] at 04:24 16 March 2016 finally make love; this sequence has self lacks real force because she is still, tion shots of Elspeth's face, a visible no source in the novel and thus serves in large measure, the hopelessly mar­ reminder of her earlier condemnation to underline strongly the contrast be­ ried and aging woman of Braine's of Joe's action ("You filthy, rotten tween Clayton's and Braine's differ­ novel. In other words, Clayton's film bastard; she was in your way, wasn't ing views of the story. Alice becomes inevitably marginalizes her as well, ac­ she!"). In the novel Joe's marriage to the center of the film because she rep­ cords Alice no real social space; from Susan is not represented; as a happy resents something foreign and intrigu­ this point of view her foreignness be­ end, it will be spoiled, the reader is ing in its grim world of social types; comes an index of the distance between left to infer, only by Joe's private re­ her Frenchness signifies not only that her and the society she inhabits. What grets. In the film, on the other hand, she is out of place in provincial is interesting here is the fact that Clay­ the wedding is defined by the social Warnley but that she has the right to ton's postromantic anti-modernism disapproval that obliquely but tellingly speak more authoritatively about can, naturally, locate Alice only as accompanies it. In marrying for human experiences and values be­ difference, as a kind of protest against money, Joe violates the principle of cause of her wider, more sophisticated a world that inevitably swallows up being true to your feelings that knowledge. Instead of a desperate, the innocent young man and dooms Charles honors by choosing June in aging woman who would drain Joe of him to a life of unsatisfying material spite of the difficulties such a match his urge for betterment, the film's goods and marital sex. Joe cannot stay will entail. Instead of a fairy story British New Wave-Room at the Top 135

come true, the film version of Room working through and closing off of 7. John Hill, "Working Class Real­ at the Top is ultimately a cautionary these social threats that these "new" ism and Sexual Reaction: Some Theses tale that identifies the dangers of pur­ discourses, by their very presence, on the British 'New Wave,' " in Curran and Porter, p. 304. suing upward mobility instead of pose to the established social order as 8. Richards and Aldgate, p. 131. emotional transformation. It argues usually represented. A thoroughgoing 9. Stuart Hall, "Culture, the Media, that the unpleasantness of petit bour­ examination of New Wave films will, and the 'Ideological Effect,' " in James geois and working-class life can be I believe, reveal the movement's un­ Curran et al., eds. Mass Communication transcended but only by an escape questioning endorsement of the tradi­ and Society (London: Edward Arnold, 1977), pp. 337, 338-339, 342. from the outer world of social realities tional fictionalizing function of Brit­ 10. Frederic Jameson, "Reification into the inner, personal world of sex­ ish cinema: to provide "closed texts" and Utopia in Mass Culture," Social ual truth. In so doing, the film, unlike that preserve the goal of entertaining Text, 1 (Winter 1979), pp. 14lff. its fictional source, provides a power­ a mass audience by processing effec­ 11. John Hill, "Ideology, Economy, ful rejection of the angry young tively any challenges to the "neutral and the British Cinema," in Michele Bar­ rett et al., eds. Ideology and Cultural man's desire to express his dissatisfac­ and integrative function of public Production (New York: St. Martin's tion with the system by changing his opinion." In any case, we can cer­ Press, 1979), p. 115. place within it. tainly affirm that Room at the Top, 12. See Paul O'Higgins, Censorship in In other New Wave films the narra­ one of the New Wave's early and dar­ Britain (London: Nelson, 1972), and Guy tive works in a similar fashion to de­ ing explorations of new cinematic Phelps, Film Censorship (London: Gol­ lancz, 1975) for useful histories of the fuse or marginalize the angry young "territory," is this kind of film. BBFC. man's protests against the social 13. Richardson's comment appears as order. In Saturday Night and Sunday NOTES an addendum to Derek Hill's article, Morning, for example, the social "The Habit of Censorship," Encounter, threat posed by Arthur Seaton's flout­ 1. Among the most important of July 1960, p. 65. 14. Nicholas Pronay, "Film Censor­ ing of conventional sexual mores is these studies have been James Curran and Vincent Porter, eds., British Cinema His­ ship in Liberal England," in K. R. M. sealed off by his marriage to a re­ tory (Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble Short, ed., Feature Films as History spectable girl. In two later films by Books, 1983); Jeffrey Richards and An­ (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Karel Reisz, the working-class hero is thony Aldgate, British Cinema and Soci­ Press, 1981), pp. 124-125. excluded from the social order alto­ ety 1930-1970 (Towota, N.J.: Barnes & 15. Quoted in Phelps, p, 43. 16. Phelps, p. 44. gether. Night Must Fall (1964) offers Noble Books, 1983); Don MacPherson, ed., British Cinema: Traditions of Inde­ 17. See, for example, the complaints the angry young man as a psychopathic pendence (London: BFI, 1980); and Jef­ of Enid Wistrich, who served on the Lon­ killer, whose sexual magnetism proves frey Richards, The Age of the Dream don County Council, and who believed the downfall of the upper middle-class Palace: Cinema and Society in Britain that Trevelyan did not move quickly women he seduces; his anger, how­ 1930-1939 (London: Routledge & Kegan enough in allowing more sexual explicit­ ness on the screen. Her book is entitled "I ever, eventually self-destructs, and he Paul, 1984). 2. Recent studies devoted to British Don't Mind the Sex, It's the Violence": is defeated at film's end by simply directors have often made use of both au­ Film Censorship Explored (London: psychological rejection. Morgan! teurist and sociocultural approaches. See, Boyars, 1978). (1966) is also constructed around the for example, Ian Christie, ed., Powell, 18. See Richards and Aldgate, pp. rejection of the working-class hero, Pressburger and Others (London: BFI, 131-145. 19. John Trevelyan, What the Censor whose delusions prevent him from 1978), and Geoff Brown, Launder and Gil/iat (London: BFI, 1977). Saw (London, Joseph, 1973), p, 41. finding a place in an upscale London Downloaded by [Purdue University Libraries] at 04:24 16 March 2016 3. Somewhat surprisingly the stan­ 20. Quoted in George M. A. Gaston, society devoted to the pursuit of ma­ dard history of the movement remains the Jack Clayton: A Guide to References and terial pleasure. Like Room at the outdated and superficial book by Roger Resources (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1981), Top, these films should make us ques­ Manvell, New Cinema in Britain (Lon­ p.4. 21. Gaston, pp, 9-10. tion the received view of the British don: Studio Vista, 1969). 4. For an account of the fictional and 22. John Braine, Room at the Top New Wave as a movement offering a dramatic movements that supplied the (London: Methuen, 1957), p, 161. All fu­ radical and innovative view of British New Wave with much of its material see ture quotations will be to this edition and culture, especially class relations. Blake Morrison, The Movement: English will be noted in the text. As I have shown, it is true, of Poetry and Fiction ofthe 1950$ (London: course, that these films manifest a Oxford University Press, 1980), and John Russell Taylor, The Angry Theatre: New new aesthetic of representation, mak­ British Drama (Revised and Expanded R. BARTON PALMER teaches courses ing room for unfamiliar discourses Edition: New York: Hill and Wang, in English at Georgia State University and that, either obliquely or directly, raise 1969). is co-editor of Studies in the Literary social issues such as that of class. It is 5. Peter Graham, The Abortive Ren­ Imagination. His articles on film have ap­ important to remember, however, that aissance: Why Are Good British Films So peared in such journals as Cinema Jour­ Bad (London: BFI pamphlet, 1963), p. 2. nal, Wide Angle, Mosaic, Canadian Re­ the narrative work in these films is 6. Penelope Houston, The Contem­ view of American Studies, Film Criti­ much more conservative and tradi­ porary Cinema 1945-1963 (Harmonds­ cism, and Persistence of Vision. tional, that it constitutes, in effect, a worth: Penguin Books, 1963), p. 123.

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