Family Life

It isn't often that a film scares me, but with this one even the theme music was disquieting. It isn't often that a film plays on my mind to the point where I lose sleep, but this one did...

I could write a great deal about the plot of Family Life, but I won't. It would be pointless, for this is a film you just have to see. Admirers of Ken Loach moved by his controversial,(albeit fictional) docudrama Cathy Come Home and his North of England classic Kes who have not for some reason taken in this movie should do so now to gain additional insight into Loach's creative abilities. His detractors - and there are a few - should also obtain a copy, as I guarantee it will purge them of any ideas they have of KL as a 60s-70s overlap sentimentalist. There is no sloppiness here, and anyone who gets this film desiring some real or imagined nostalgia of the time when hair was long and tramps well-mannered is likely to be disappointed.

The film stars (future EastEnders) actress Sandy Ratcliff as Janice Bailden, the late teens-early 20s daughter of middle class parents on a new estate. Already the veteran of several dead-end jobs, including one sweeping up in a hairdresser's salon, her behaviour starts to show signs of being erratic, and after an altercation with her mother results in her picking up a breadknife with possible intent, medical help is sought.

What follows is a harrowing portrayal of mental health care as it was at that point in British history, and a grimly factual outlining of the conflict between modern methods in psychiatric treatment and more archaic ones. When care in an open ward, where help is offered via counselling, group therapy and one-to one-analysis is curtailed "for administrative reasons", poor Janice, sometimes cajoled, sometimes almost heckled by her overbearing and even agressive parents, finds herself in the world of locked wards, asylums and ECT, which she is given despite refusing. "The days of long stays in mental hospitals are over" says a brisk psycho-bod confidently - but the end result is complete breakdown. The film ends in silence, after a virtually catatonic Janice is exhibited to medical students as a "classic case of mutism".

This film is perhaps not one for the fainthearted, and there are many who will find it decidedly hard to watch. However, its message to the world, where there are still people willing to call sufferers from emotional illness "nutters" and "head-bangers", is as relevant as ever.

British social realist director Ken Loach`s third feature film, an adaptation of the television play "In Two Minds" (1967) which was written by David Mercer (1928-1980) and directed by Ken Loach, was shot on location in Britain, and tells the story about 19-year-old Janice who has been brought up in a very strict working-class family. She lives with her mother and father who thinks she is irresponsible because she often changes jobs. Janice doesn`t do what her parents want her to do and she stands up to them, so they decide that she is sick, talks her into having an abortion because they don`t think she is fit to be a mother, sends her to a psychiatrist and eventually to a mental health institution.

Acutely directed and with a straightforward narrative, this slow-paced and dialog-driven British independent film about social alienation and family relations touches the theme of Schizophrenia, and portrays a quiet study of character with a pointedly understated performance by Sandy Ratcliffe in her debut feature film role as a young woman who`s way towards independence and self respect is obstructed by her parents, who are more interested in giving her directions and criticism rather than giving her the encouragement she needs to live her own life. This compassionate, realistic and quasi-documentary social drama from the early 1970s, captures the failure in communication, the generational differences and the involuntary surrender of a 19-year-old woman who is being oppressed by her caretakers.

Ken Loach has a take on depicting stories about individuals who are misconceived and wrongfully treated by society, and his gentle and attentive approach is commendable. As his second feature film "Kes" (1969), "Family Life" has heart, substance and relevance, and is a fine introduction to the works of one of Britain`s greatest directors.

I was chuffed to find this marvellous film which has proved so very difficult to come by. The parents in it are so obnoxious that one hasa to restrains oneself in order not to throw a bottle on to the tv screen in dismay and anger.
Seller's business methods are impeccable.

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