FEBRUARY 11, 2023
By Harry Mottram: Ken Loach is perhaps known in Bath as a football fan first and a film director second although most people of a certain age can recall his TV play Cathy Come Home.
The Bath City FC fan can be seen on BBC i-player talking to John Wilson about his films and work in television. He has twice won the prestigious Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2006 for The Wind That Shakes the Barley, and twenty years later, for I, Daniel Blake, a contemporary British story about unemployment and poverty.
One of the most fascinating sequences is his notes on post war Czech movies in particular a moment in the comic movie Loves of a Blonde. He was interested in how one particular scene was shot in a dance hall as young disillusioned young women observe ageing soldiers across the room.
There’s plenty more on the making of Kes, Poor Cow and I, Daniel Blake and in particular his influences from ordinary people which at the age of 86 has kept him inspired and motivated.
The programme This Cultural Life, is to be found at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001h886/this-cultural-life-series-2-6-ken-loach