Sheffield Film Festival - Closing Film: Looks and Smiles 15
Following screenings of Kes and opening film Threads, both written by Barry Hines, the first Sheffield Film Festival closes with Ken Loach’s 1981 adaptation of Looks and Smiles.
Based on Barry Hines’ acclaimed novel, and made at a time when British unemployment was already reaching record levels, Looks and Smiles follows Mick, a teenager looking for work in recession-hit Sheffield. Featuring a cast of unknown leads, with hauntingly lyrical black and white cinematography of bleak industrial scenes, this gritty portrait is as important a film to watch today as it was on first release.
Ken Loach was awarded the 1981 Young Cinema Award at Cannes for this naturalistic study of one young man’s struggle to find his way in the world set against a backdrop of Thatcherism and the Irish troubles.
Gallery 3 images
- Director
- Ken Loach
- Year
- 1981
- Duration
- 1 hour 44 minutes
- Language
- English
- Cast
- Carolyn Nicholson, Graham Green, Phil Askham
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