Family Life (Directors Suite) (1971)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Audio Commentary-by Dr. Brian McFarlane, Hon. Assoc. Professor, Monash Uni. Trailer-Four Directors Suite trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	1971
Running Time	103:34
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (62:06)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Ken Loach
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Sandy Ratcliff Bill Dean Grace Cave Malcolm Tierney Hilary Martin Michael Riddall Alan MacNaughton Johnny Gee Bernard Atha Edwin Brown Freddie Clemson Alec Coleman Jack Connell
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Marc Wilkinson

    Ken Loach is a British filmmaker whose style of filmmaking is often compared to the 'kitchen sink realism' of 1960s British cinema. His films often involve lower classes and characters struggling with real-life issues. He mainly uses non-professionals or unknown actors, simply relying on people who have similar backgrounds or experiences to the characters in his scripts. Although Loach is British, he famously refused an OBE citing his opposition to the monarchy and the historic British Empire which he categorised as exploitative, a theme he commonly employs in his films. Ken Loach is a noted socialist who met producer Tony Garnett while working for the BBC in the mid-1960s. Together with scriptwriter David Mercer, he embarked upon his distinctive film style from the beginning with his first film, Poor Cow in 1967 and his follow-up Kes in 1969. Family Life was his third film to deal with people from lower classes struggling to cope with established middle-class values and society. Kes, a story about a young boy from a lower class background who finds solace in his training of a kestrel remains Loach's most famous film. Family Life may not be as well known, but it still leaves an impact upon the viewer after they have watched the film.

    Family Life stars Sandy Ratcliff as Janice Baildon, (her name is spelt differently on the DVD cover, I've used the IMDb spelling) a 19 year-old young girl struggling to find her independence from her conservative parents. Her parents are so controlling she has issues with her emotions and her desire to maintain her own autonomy. It seems that every character that Janice meets in the duration of the film wants to exercise some sort of control over her life, usually with benevolent motives, without realising the harm they are collectively inflicting upon Janice's psyche. Bill Dean and Grace Cave play Janice's parents expertly. They are blindly convinced that they are simply doing the best for their daughter, they have no responsibility in Janice's problems. They simply can't understand why Janice can't hold down a job, choose a more responsible boyfriend, or just simply be normal like other girls her age.

    Janice falls pregnant to Tim (played by Malcolm Tierney) and this is where her problems begin, with pressure put upon her by her parents to abort the child, due to economic hardship. Janice doesn't want to do this, eventually her emotional outbursts lead her to require therapy and institutionalisation where she receives help again from well-meaning people who want to help her, but in an authoritative way via coercive means. Even Dr Donaldson (played wonderfully by non-actor Michael Riddall in his only film performance), who seems to be making some headway into helping Janice by empathetic means, is ultimately removed from Janice's life. It seems no-one can help her from spiralling into despair. By the end of the film you wonder as a viewer whether Janice has schizophrenia as diagnosed by the medical staff at the hospital, or whether she is a victim of her upbringing and circumstances.

    It has been said that Loach's films have 'documentary' feel to them and I must say that this is certainly the impression I got when I viewed this film. You feel that you are peeking in on someone's real-life struggles, you want to turn away from the hopelessness and despair, but you simply can't. Family Life is a real criticism upon the hypocrisy of lower-class people adopting middle-class or upper-class values. Mr and Mrs Baildon are not presented as unsympathetic characters, rather hey are portrayed as ignorant and self-justified. The outcome of Janice by the end of the film will leave a real impression upon you, Family Life is not for the faint-hearted.

Video

    The transfer is 1:33:1 fullscreen, however the image has been cropped on the left and right sides of the transfer by three-quarters of a percent. This means that the aspect ratio is closer to 1.315:1. Family Life is not 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

    The main feature on the DVD takes up about 4gb of space with an average bitrate of 5.28 m/b per sec. There is slight grain present in the transfer, but this may be due to the low budget of the film and the quality of the film stock and filming methods used. Overall, the film looks quite good for its age.

    Colour is muted to represent the dullness of northern England lower-class living. Grey is a dominant colour in this film. It hardly seems as if any primary colours are used at all.

    Film artefacts are not really present in this transfer, the video quality of the image is quite clean.

    Unfortunately, there are no subtitles included with this film, which is a great shame in my opinion.

    The RSDL change occurs at 66:02.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

    Music is used sparingly on the soundtrack. The film is mainly dialogue-driven.

    There are two audio tracks on the main feature. The main soundtrack is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 track encoded at 192 kbps. The other track is an audio commentary track encoded at 224 kbps.

    The dialogue is not always easy to follow due the northern English accents. There are also colloquial slang terms used. Subtitles would have been a great assistance for this reason. The audio is synchronised throughout.

    The music is mainly melancholic, with emphasis on piano, cello and flute which drives the main musical theme of the film. At times folk music is referenced which is more upbeat. perhaps this was done to emphasise the contrast between different generations of people.

    There is no surround channel usage on what is essentially a mono soundtrack.

    The subwoofer is not utilised either.

Audio Ratings Summary

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Audio Commentary by Dr. Brian McFarlane, honorary Associate Professor, Monash University and Visiting Professor (Film Studies) at the University of Hull, UK

Four Directors Suite Trailers

    Family Life has had a limited release on DVD. Basically, it was released in a bare bones version in Region 2 in the United Kingdom in 2007 by Optimum Releasing. In 2004 it was released in France (Region 2) with Loach's 1967 film, Poor Cow. This 2009 release by Madman Entertainment's Directors Suite label, with an excellent commentary by Dr. McFarlane is certainly the best version available of the movie on DVD.

    Family Life is confronting, real and at times, bleak. It is not for everyone and it was never intended by Loach as simply entertainment. The outcome of Janice Baildon's journey throughout the film will leave the viewer contemplating what happened, how did Janice come to this set of circumstances in her life?

    If you are a fan of 'kitchen-sink' cinema then check this film out. Madman Entertainment's Directors Suite label have done another great job in producing a great DVD, mainly due to the quality extra of Dr. McFarlane's commentary which added so much to my understanding of the film.

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