Dir. Ken Loach, UK , 1966, 77 mins
Cast: Carol White, Ray Brooks, Winifred Dennis, Wally Patch
Made in 1966, Cathy Come Home was originally screened as part of the Wednesday Play series for BBC Television, dramas that focused on topical, and often controversial, subject matter. Starring Carol White as Cathy, and Ray Brooks as her husband, Reg, the film tracks the demise of their relationship as they move from hopeful and relatively affluent newly weds to destitution, poverty and homelessness. In the opening scenes, Cathy has arrived in London and has met her dream man in Reg, a cheery, optimistic fellow with a decent job. Director Ken Loach saw these scenes as being similar to a commercial, capturing the idealism and romance of the young couple and, indeed, ahead of his time with their courtship played out to the strains of Ben E. King's 'Stand by me'. These carefree days, slightly stylised, have the desired effect of contrasting starkly with what is to come, and serves as a bitter reminder that this man and woman could be anyone - the homeless were not always so. They were once respectable citizens much the same as everyone else.
However, once their downward spiral begins, it continues hard and brutal. Their comfortable lifestyle, in their house with 'double-glazing and tin-openers on the wall', comes to an abrupt end when Reg is injured in a road accident and finds he is unable to claim compensation from his boss. He finds himself on sickness benefit, just as the now pregnant Cathy is no longer able to work. The film follows a traditional linear narrative, as they find themselves first in slum housing, a caravan park, and a hostel, before finally being made homeless and the devastating consequences it has for their family. Time and again, Cathy finds herself bewildered at the lack of understanding from bureaucrats, the white collar workers who are merely 'doing their job', as she is forced to leave yet another accommodation. "I will pay - I only need a few weeks" she keeps repeating to various poker-faced individuals. To their credit, the filmmakers intended to show that these faces at the bottom of the hierarchy were not the ones responsible for Cathy's situation but merely those administering. In many cases, they are sympathetic but in much the way one would look at a dirty stray dog and shake their head with pity.
The Wednesday Play producer, Tony Garnett, wanted to 'show society to itself, without glossing over the reality of the situation'. He succeeded in doing so, and in the process he and Loach and Sandford have been responsible for creating a whole new genre for both British television and cinema. Authenticity was added in the form of voiceovers from people who had been in the same situation as Cathy, and their words seem to address the nation, again drawing one in. Loach also pioneered the use of improvisation, encouraging his actors to ad-lib. Atmospheric sounds were allowed to infiltrate the soundtrack, with the noise of cars, and people speaking over on another, and babies crying, all being given equal airtime. Very often a voice may be obscured, the words difficult to hear, but Loach points out that this is exactly how we hear things in real life. Similarly, with the camerawork, the couple walk through some trees and instead of cutting away when they become hidden by branches in the foreground of the frame, the viewer is forced to wait until they emerge the other side.
While the story has all the right ingredients for a full-blown melodrama, Loach and writer Jeremy Sandford wanted the film to be portrayed as realistically as possible. They took the rare step of shooting on location - mainly in Birmingham and London - at a time when most television dramas were still shot in the studio. Cathy Come Home paved the way for docu-dramas. The camerawork was ingeniously simple, making use of the new lightweight 16mm cameras that had previously been used in news reporting. In particular, the scene in which the caravan burns is shot as if a documentary - a one shot 'get it or miss it' opportunity. The camera is seen to shake and dart from one person to the next, moving in close to a person's face, shaking considerably, and then moving in and out of the fire, taking us right into the scene itself, forcing us to become involved. And people did. Questions began being asked of Parliament as to why so many families were split apart, with husbands and wives forcibly separated and children put into care, because of being homeless. The play featured strongly in the launch of the charity 'Shelter', which featured a still as part of its publicity campaign.
Cathy Come Home is available on DVD from BFI Video Publishing.
Jean Lynch
|
