The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (film)

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner  is a British film directed by Tony Richardson, released in 1962 .

Summary

 * 1 Overview
 * 2 Themes and Background
 * 2.1 Perspective criticism
 * 3 Data Sheet
 * 4 Distribution
 * 5 Awards
 * 6 Videography
 * 7 See also
 * 7.1 Related article
 * 7.2 Bibliography
 * 7.3 External Links
 * 8 Notes and references

Synopsis [ edit | edit the code ]
Colin Smith is a young rebel, who, following a robbery at a store, is placed in a reformatory. Practicing distance running, he escaped in his dreary daily musings during his solitary walks. He earns its reputation in the establishment with his racing performance and takes the side track has ambitions for him Ruxton Towers, the center's director ...

Themes and Background [ edit | edit the code ]

 * This film is an adaptation of the story by Alan Sillitoe The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner .
 * The film's title could give his name to the syndrome of "the loneliness of the long distance runner": the child or adult deliberately refusing to succeed because he thinks, rightly or wrongly (in the film is rightly) that success will make the game of those who oppressed. Successfully would be betraying her background and even if the failure must devote it to a hard life, this is the solution he chooses. We often see this in young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who, with some sadomasochism, seem to be a glory of their failures, stopping just before touching the finish line. They believe that success would be like cutting "of their" those they love, as if they despised, those who have failed and they sacrifice a sign of loyalty. A symbolic image of the film: the Smith refuses to move forward, hands on hips.

Perspective of criticism [ edit | edit the code ]

 * Bory : "The beautiful title. Like all beautiful titles, he first met his own harmony. Satisfaction reporting to the "charm" poetic. Then come the interpretations. They are at least two like any poetry. In the first stage we remain in terms of appearances, the stark reality: there is indeed a runner who, along the grueling race is alone, left to his own resources and physical moral. [...] In the second stage, in terms of the symbol: throughout his life, likened to a sporting event, every man is the lone runner, especially when he chose rebellion. The whole film Richardson is built on the narrow embrace two suites agreement in scenes with this double interpretation, [...] The success of this film has a lot to the amazing presence of Tom Courtenay . From a rather unattractive - that evokes a bird fallen from the nest, the little animal chilly - he plays with an amazing variety. [...] Excellent soundtrack where music, far from duplicating the image contrast plays squeaky (hymns on the beating of images) or indicates the sense suggested by the camera movement (jazz, for example, to highlight joy or burlesque) authorized grafting mounting one on the other two series of images of an arbitrary manner stripped. [...] But the camera works to suggest movement by movement on which the story unfolds. [...] It endeavors, short breath, panting, dazzles in agreement with Smith, or stops (general plan) to better expand on the landscape when the four young dogs at the edge of the sea, gesticulate at the edge of the horizon or the rider soars in the vast freshness of dawn. »

Data Sheet [ edit | edit the code ]

 * Title: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
 * Original title: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
 * Director: Tony Richardson
 * Screenplay: Alan Sillitoe according to his story of the same name
 * Music: John Addison
 * Director of photography: Walter Lassally
 * Cameraman: Desmond Davis
 * Assistant Director: Basil Rayburn
 * Sound engineers: Stephen Dalby, Norman Bolland
 * Art Director: Ted Marshall
 * Designer: Ralph W. Brinton
 * Costume Designer: Sophie Devine
 * Makeup Artist: Jimmy Evans
 * Hairdresser: Bobbie Smith
 * Editor: Antony Gibbs
 * Country of origin: United Kingdom
 * Producer: Tony Richardson
 * Supervising producer Leigh Aman
 * Associate Producer: Michael Holden
 * Executive Producer: Alan Kaplan
 * Production Manager: Robert Sterne
 * Production company: Woodfall Film Productions ( UK )
 * Original distribution company: British Lion-Columbia
 * Outside shooting in the UK :
 * Camber ( East Sussex )
 * Claygate ( Surrey )
 * Nottingham ( Nottinghamshire )
 * Skegness ( Lincolnshire )
 * Format: black and white - 1.66: 1 - monaural (Westrex Recording System) - 35 mm
 * Genre: Drama
 * Duration: 104 minutes
 * Release dates:
 * 21 September 1962 at  United Kingdom
 * 8 October 1962 to  US

Awards [ edit | edit the code ]

 * 1963 : BAFTA Award for a new actor in a leading role for Tom Courtenay
 * 1963 : International Film Festival of Mar del Plata ( Argentina ), Best Actor Award for Tom Courtenay

Videography [ edit | edit the code ]

 * 2009 : The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, 1 DVD  PAL Zone 2, Doriane Films

Related article [ edit | edit the code ]

 * British cinema

References [ edit | edit the code ]

 * Monthly Film Bulletin, No. 346
 * Sight and Sound, Winter 1962-63, p. 16
 * Cahiers du Cinema, No. 165, April 1965