- Anderson, Lindsay
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died Aug. 30, 1994, near Angoulême, Fr.English critic and director.He was a founding editor of the film magazine Sequence, and from 1948 he directed a series of documentaries, including Thursday's Children (1955, Academy Award). He coined the term "Free Cinema" for the British cinematic movement inspired by John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger. His first feature film, This Sporting Life (1963), is a classic of the British social realist cinema. He directed several theatrical productions before making his next film, If... (1968). After directing the premieres of David Storey's plays, he went on to make such films as O Lucky Man! (1973) and The Whales of August (1987).
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▪ British critic and directorin full Lindsay Gordon Andersonborn April 17, 1923, Bangalore, Indiadied Aug. 30, 1994, near Angoulême, FranceEnglish critic and stage and motion-picture director.Anderson received a degree in English from the University of Oxford and in 1947 became a founding editor of the film magazine Sequence, which lasted until 1951. Subsequently he wrote for Sight and Sound and other journals. Anderson began directing in 1948, making documentaries for an industrial firm, and in 1955 he won an Academy Award for his short documentary Thursday's Children. In 1956 he coined the term Free Cinema to denote that movement in the British cinema inspired by John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger (1956). Anderson and other members of the movement allied themselves with left-wing politics and took their themes from contemporary urban working-class life.Anderson's first feature-length motion picture, This Sporting Life (1963), adapted by the English writer David Storey from his novel, is about a brutish miner who succeeds as a professional rugby player but who fails in love. The film is a classic of the British social realist cinema of the 1960s. Anderson directed productions at the Royal Court and other theatres before making his next film, If . . . (1968), in which three English students violently rebel against the conformity and social hypocrisy of their boarding school. Anderson then directed the premieres of Storey's plays In Celebration (1969), The Contractor (1969), Home (1970), and The Changing Room (1971). His subsequent films included O Lucky Man! (1973), In Celebration (1974), Britannia Hospital (1982), and The Whales of August (1987). His later stage productions included Storey's The March on Russia (1989).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
