LOOKS AND SMILES

UK, 1981, 104 minutes, Black and white.
Graham Greene, Carolyn Nicholson.
Directed by Ken Loach.

Looks and Smiles is a documentary drama about unemployment in Britain at the beginning of the -80s. Australian films reflecting this theme include Mouth To Mouth and Freedom. The director is Kenneth Loach, who made a number of telling documentaries including Cathy Come Home and hard-hitting feature films like Poor Cow, Kes, Family Life. As with Kes, the film has a Yorkshire background - which makes it a bit difficult for appreciation with the accent and dialect. The film has been made in black and white, a striking example of the use of black and white photography. The film records city life, home life, the atmosphere of social disturbance in England. The cast of non-professionals is also excellent.

Looks and Smiles explores youth and unemployment but does not offer any solutions. In fact, its exploration is not particularly new - it is a matter of recording the situation, characters and their interactions. The film is useful as a record of the times and an invitation to audiences to experience this way of life.

1. The work of Ken Loach and his power of social observation? The local Yorkshire focus? Universal appeal and application?

2. The quality of the black and white photography, Yorkshire, the city and its environment, homes, work places, dole offices, social life, the roads etc.? The score? The authentic atmosphere and accents and dialect?

3. The title and its ironies? Mick and his world? the receiver of looks and smiles? The irony for homes and security in the future?

4. How well does the film observe England 1980-81? The city and traditions of work and industry in Yorkshire? Families and values? The breaking up of traditions? The breaking up of families? Education - for what? Social life and growing pains? Competitiveness for job positions? Dole and dependence, humiliation? The young men joining the army etc.? A world of anger and resentment?

5. Did the film contribute anything new in its exploration of the situation? The accuracy of its observation? The invitation to the audience to feel with the characters?

6. Mick as focus of the film: seeing him in his family, his strengths and his weaknesses, relationship with mother, clashes with his father and support of his father? His capacity for communication? The detail of family life? His work at school and gaining certificates for a job? The screening of the army documentary and the possibility of joining the army? Social life, friends? The encounter with Karen? Job interviews and tests? Waiting for letters and for the processing of job applications? Failing to get jobs? His work on his bike? His being influenced by his peer group? Alan and his army experiences, his return from Ireland and the discussions about Northern Ireland? The friend and the taking of the car and the break-in?

7. The encounter with Karen, being ousted from the disco? Seeing her at the shoe shop? The outing, the pictures, his not having any money, her supplying the money and giving it to him to pay? The meal, the walk home, the kiss? The continued friendship and the growing bond? Coaching him for his test? The football match and her feeling sick, setting him up for a clash? Her cutting his off? His going after her to the bus stop? His being hurt?

8. Karen and her mother? Seeing her at the pictures with her boyfriend? Dating Mick and her hopes? The continued clashes with her mother, her idolising her father? The break and its effect on her? Reconciliation? The bonds between them growing again? The bedroom sequence and her mother's intruding? The build-up to the clash and her leaving home?

9. Mick and his attachment to Karen? Tenderness towards her? The embarrassment with her mother's intrusion? Taking her to Bristol? the journey, the meal? The encounter with the woman in the flat? Staying the night, the breakfast? Karen's upset at not knowing about the child? The discussions about Karen's returning home? Mick taking her home? The possibility of the friendship growing ? love?

10. Mick and the insight into the ordinary young man, his lifestyle, his work on his bike, job applications, sense of hopelessness, sleeping in, the football match and his choices to go with Karen? His reconciliation with her? Helping her? His anger at the refusal about the job? Seeing him at the end in the dole queue?

11. The film's exploration of the financial and economic situation of Britain? Work problems, unemployment? Mick's comment about the stupidity of money for the dole when it could be invested in building projects?

12. The background to the opportunities in the army ? the opening propaganda film, an alternative to the dole, the excitement? Alan's experience in Northern Ireland, the violence and deaths? His prejudices?

13. How well observed were the characters? The attention to detail? Strengths and weaknesses? Qualities? The film as a dramatic documentary to make audiences sensitive to economic and social situations?