We Are the Lambeth Boys (1959) - extract

The complete film of 'We Are the Lambeth Boys' is available to buy on the BFI DVD 'Free Cinema' - http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_150.html

"A good evening for young people is much the same as it has always been", the voiceover informs us, attempting to get audiences to think back to their own youth before judging the teenager of the day. Karel Reisz's fantastic film was shot over six months at a "not typical" youth club (i.e. actually very good) in Lambeth.

The biggest change from today would almost certainly be that nearly all of these teens work for a living, making evenings with friends the only time in which they can express themselves. Dressed in suits and ties, or best dresses, they seem somehow to be simultaneously older and younger than their years. Watch as the camera fixes on faces as they observe each other, ultimately making the voiceover unnecessary. (Jez Stewart)

For more information about 'We Are the Lambeth Boys' and the Free Cinema movement see http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/444789/index.html

You can watch 'We Are the Lambeth Boys' and over 1200 other complete films and TV programmes at the Mediatheque at BFI Southbank - http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• BFI
• Free
• Cinema
• London
• Lambeth
• Kennington
• Oval
• SE11
• Whitehall
• Westminster
• Trafalgar
• Square
• 1950s
• Fifties
• teenagers

[spursloyal71]

Yeah because South London is very SAFE nowadays isnt it !???????

[georgelambshow]

Sounds like a truck full of Norman Wisdoms!

[georgegillette]

Proper bloomin' tinkers, and no mistake.

Nice upload. Thanks for the link, I might get that DVD.

[TheWhitehall]

@anonUK I never stated that there were no muggings or stabbings before 1970...certainly fewer. Deny it if you can. Stupid Boy.

[anonUK]

@TheWhitehall

Yes, no-one ever got mugged or murdered before 1970, did they?

Idiot.

[Molstep]

love this film <3

[nathan99118]

Its the Gas Gang of their day.

[ThomasRowsell]

if those lads had shouted at the copper like that now - they would all be given asbos, their dna would be taken down on record and the police would open a secret file on each of them as potential dissenters.

[chanctonbury63]

To be honest Im glad I didnt grow up in the 50s with all the smog, filth and poverty. The 60s tasted much nicer!!

[gamester57]

narrator sounds just like Richard Dawkins

[magcottrell]

I am over the moon to have found these clips. My brother-in-law died yesterday

and I went searching for the film because he was the saxophonist in the Band playing at the dance hall. Couldn't believe how much interest there was in the films. Does anyone remember there was a follow up on TV some years back, It caught up with some of the people in the film. Thanks for uploading these