Editing Lindsay Anderson (section)

== Career ==

=== Film criticism ===
Anderson was passionate about film and with his friend [[Gavin Lambert]], and Peter Ericsson and [[Karel Reisz]], co-founded ''[[Sequence (journal)|Sequence]]'' magazine (1947–52), which became influential. Anderson became a prominent film critic.<ref name=":2" /> He also later wrote for the [[British Film Institute]]'s journal ''[[Sight and Sound]]'' and the [[left-wing]] political weekly, the ''[[New Statesman]]''.<ref name=":0" /> 

In a 1956 [[polemics|polemical]] article, "Stand Up, Stand Up" published in ''Sight and Sound'', Anderson attacked contemporary critical practices, in particular the pursuit of [[objectivity (science)|objectivity]]. Taking as an example some comments made by [[Alistair Cooke]] in 1935, in which Cooke had claimed to be without politics as a critic, Anderson responded:
{{Blockquote|The problems of commitment are directly stated, but only apparently faced. …The denial of the critic's moral responsibility is specific; but only at the cost of sacrificing his dignity. … [These assumptions:] the holding of liberal, or humane, values; the proviso that these must not be taken too far; the adoption of a tone which enables the writer to evade through humour [mean] the fundamental issues are balked."<ref name="StandUp" />{{clarify|date=December 2017}}}}

Following a series of screenings which he and the [[National Film Theatre]] programmer [[Karel Reisz]] organized for the venue of independently produced short films by himself and others, he developed a philosophy of cinema that was expressed in what became known, by the late-1950s, as the [[Free Cinema]] movement.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | year = 2002 | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture | publisher = Routledge | location = London | editor1-first = Peter | editor1-last = Childs | editor2-first = Mike | editor2-last = Storry | title = Anderson, Lindsay | page = 23 }}</ref> He and other leaders in the field believed that the British cinema must break away from its class-bound attitudes and that non-metropolitan Britain ought to be shown on the nation's screens. Anderson had already begun to make films himself, starting in 1948 with ''Meet the Pioneers'', a documentary about a conveyor-belt factory.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hedling|first1=Erik|last2=Dupin|first2=Christophe|title=Lindsay Anderson Revisited: Unknown Aspects of a Film Director|date=2016|publisher=Springer|location=UK|isbn=978-1-137-53943-4|page=02|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CP1jDAAAQBAJ&q=Lindsay+Anderson+free+cinema}}</ref>

Anderson was invited to join the [[British Film Institute]]'s Board of Governors in 1969 with the aim of bolstering support for independent British directors, but left the role after a year.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sterritt |first=David |date=Winter 2012 |title=Book Review: The British Film Institute, the Government and Film Culture, 1933–2000 by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith; Christophe Dupin |journal=[[Film Quarterly]] |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=56|doi=10.1525/fq.2012.66.2.55 }}</ref>

=== Filmmaking ===
Along with [[Karel Reisz]], [[Tony Richardson]], and others, he secured funding from a variety of sources (including [[Ford of Britain]]). Each of these founders made a series of short documentaries on a variety of subjects. One of Anderson's early short films, ''[[Thursday's Children]]'' (1954), concerning the education of [[deaf]] children, was made in collaboration with Guy Brenton, a friend from his Oxford days; it won an [[Academy Awards|Oscar]] for Best Documentary Short in 1954.<ref name=":0" /> ''Thursday's Children'' was preserved by the [[Academy Film Archive]] in 2005.<ref>{{cite web|title=Preserved Projects|url=https://www.oscars.org/academy-film-archive/preserved-projects?title=&filmmaker=lindsay+anderson&category=All&collection=All|website=Academy Film Archive|access-date=15 April 2020|archive-date=9 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809182050/https://www.oscars.org/academy-film-archive/preserved-projects?title=&filmmaker=lindsay+anderson&category=All&collection=All|url-status=live}}</ref>

These films, influenced by one of Anderson's heroes, the [[French people|French]] filmmaker [[Jean Vigo]], and made in the tradition of the British documentaries of [[Humphrey Jennings]], foreshadowed much of the social realism of British dramatic cinema that emerged in the next decade. These included Reisz's ''[[Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (film)|Saturday Night and Sunday Morning]]'' (1960), Richardson's ''[[The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (film)|The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner]]'' (1962), and Anderson's own ''[[This Sporting Life]]'' (1963), produced by Reisz. Anderson's film met with mixed reviews at the time, and was not a commercial success.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

Anderson is perhaps best remembered as a filmmaker for his "[[Mick Travis trilogy]]", all of which star [[Malcolm McDowell]] as the title character: ''[[if....]]'' (1968), a satire on public schools; ''[[O Lucky Man!]]'' (1973) a ''[[Pilgrim's Progress]]''-inspired road movie; and ''[[Britannia Hospital]]'' (1982), a fantasia taking stylistic influence from the populist wing of British cinema represented by [[Hammer Film Productions|Hammer]] horror films and Carry On comedies.<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|date=14 August 2008|author=Catsoulis, Jeannette|title=An Actor's Playful Tribute to a Dissident Director|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/movies/15ande.html?gwh=ECE27E9A00BD814CBE1C6C8784888E14|access-date=10 February 2017|archive-date=7 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607075329/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/movies/15ande.html?gwh=ECE27E9A00BD814CBE1C6C8784888E14|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1981, Anderson played the role of the Master of [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge|Caius College]] at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] in the film ''[[Chariots of Fire]]''.

Anderson developed an acquaintance from 1950 with [[John Ford]]. Anderson wrote what has come to be regarded as one of the standard books on that director, ''About John Ford'' (1983). Based on half a dozen meetings over more than two decades, and Anderson's lifetime study of the man's work, the book has been described as "One of the best books published by a film-maker on a film-maker".<ref>David Castell, ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'', cited on back cover of UK paperback edition</ref>

In 1985, producer [[Martin Lewis (humorist)|Martin Lewis]] invited Anderson to chronicle [[Wham!]]'s visit to [[People's Republic of China|China]], among the first-ever visits by Western pop artists. Anderson made the film ''[[Wham! in China: Foreign Skies]]''. He admitted in his diary on 31 March 1985, to having "no interest in Wham!", or China, and he was simply "'doing this for the money'".<ref>Paul Sutton (ed) ''Lindsay Anderson: The Diaries'', 2004, London: Methuen, p434</ref> Anderson's own cut of the tour, titled ''If You Were There'', was never released after [[George Michael]] objected to this version. It featured only four songs from the tour. Anderson was fired from the project, and Michael turned out the film that was entitled ''Wham! in China: Foreign Skies''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jul/07/dead-dogs-capitalist-critique-and-only-four-songs-when-wham-squashed-lindsay-andersons-china-film |title=Dead dogs, capitalist critique and only four songs: when Wham! squashed Lindsay Anderson's China film |work=The Guardian |date=7 July 2023 |first=Chris |last=Tryhorn}}</ref> 

In 1986, Anderson served as a member of the jury at the [[36th Berlin International Film Festival]], by invitation.<ref name="Berlinale">{{cite web |url=http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1986/04_jury_1986/04_Jury_1986.html |title=Berlinale: 1986 Juries |access-date=14 January 2011 |work=berlinale.de |archive-date=23 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023083751/http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1986/04_jury_1986/04_Jury_1986.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Anderson was also a significant British theatre director. He was long associated with London's [[Royal Court Theatre]], where he was Co-Artistic Director 1969–70, and Associate Artistic Director 1971–75. He directed premiere productions of plays by [[David Storey]], among others.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

In 1992, as a close friend of the late actresses [[Jill Bennett (British actress)|Jill Bennett]] and [[Rachel Roberts (British actress)|Rachel Roberts]], Anderson arranged a boat trip to scatter the women's ashes in the Thames River. Professional colleagues and friends were also on the boat and musician [[Alan Price]] sang the song "[[Is That All There Is?]]". Anderson included this event in his autobiographical [[BBC]] film ''Is That All There Is?''{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

Every year, the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam ([[International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam|IDFA]]) gives an acclaimed filmmaker the chance to screen his or her personal Top 10 favorite films. In 2007, [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]] filmmaker [[Maziar Bahari]] selected two of Anderson's short documentaries, ''[[O Dreamland]]'' and ''[[Every Day Except Christmas]]'' (1957), a record of a day in the old [[Covent Garden]] market, for his top 10 classics from the history of documentary.[3]