±«Óãtv

If you're out for a good time and are a fan of vintage British cinema, you'll want to spend more than just a Saturday Night and Sunday Morning with this kitchen sink classic - and that's no propaganda. The BFI has invested some TLC into all of its British New Wave releases, and this is a far superior release to 2002's Region 1 effort. Albert Finney's working class rebel, Arthur Seaton, has never looked better on the small screen.

TECHNICAL FEATURES

Picture The print on this disc scrubbed up nicely for the film's cinematic re-release in late 2002. It's a bit Jack Douglas (ie jumpy) in places but is otherwise fine. For proof of the decent transfer, check out the, er, check pattern on Arthur Seaton's shirt as he 'toils' at the lathe.

Sound The peculiar joy that is the Nottingham accent ("Yes me duck") can be heard relatively clearly - allowing for 60s British technology, anyway - alongside Johnny Dankworth's surprisingly upbeat jazz score.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Commentary Film historian Robert Murphy delivers an entertaining lecture on British New Wave cinema, with additional comments edited in from writer Alan Sillitoe and cinematographer Freddie Francis.

Murphy's background (professor in Film Studies at Leicester University) makes you feel like you should be taking notes as he imparts fact after fact about the late Karel Reisz's breakthrough movie. Murphy is an expert on the kitchen sink genre (he revels in the BBFC's problems with the use of the word "bogger" in "SNASM"), and you will be too by the end.

There's not much technical detail, although Sillitoe does chronicle his working class hero's roots (in Nottingham's Raleigh bicycle factory). Freddie Francis admits that one of his main duties was "holding the [rookie] director's hand" on the shoot. Given the film's enduring appeal, it was a job well done.

Interview with Albert Finney This five-minute audio clip is an excerpt from an interview at the NFT in 1982. You won't learn much, although the actor - who'd appeared briefly in "The Entertainer" before blazing onto cinema screens here - reveals that he learned to use a lathe during filming. He also discusses the film's then shocking sexuality, recalling how the film broke the current sex-in-movies guidelines ("One foot on the floor, like in snooker"). Forty years on, what was once considered X-rated is now merely PG.

Additional Extra Features A self-loading stills gallery (there are some superb images here, as well as the original poster), and text biographies of Karel Reisz, Alan Sillitoe, and the Free Cinema movement.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Region: 2
Chapters: 12
Ratio: 1.66:1
Sound: 2.0
Audio Tracks: English
Subtitles: None
Captions: None
Menus: Static, with no music
Special Features Subtitles: None of the special features come with English subtitles.