Working class cinema: a video guide

two classical German films

- Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World? (1932), script written by Bertolt Brecht

- Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness (1929)

Here are a few suggestions.

Japan
Mikio Naruse
Repast
A wife though her daily routines, coupled with her husband’s attitudes recognises the boring futility of her existence and is forced to confront her own future.

When A Woman Ascends The Stairs
This is the moving story of a widow being slowly crushed in a patriarchal society.

Floating Clouds
The film is a story of two lovers trying to fit into to a society in which they are placed - an impossible situation – she with the need to survive and he to conform to the social norm.

Greece
Costa Gavras
Z
Using events leading up to the Greek military coup, when it was first released this caused political waves – in one London cinema I saw the audience applaud at the end!

State Of Siege {Etat de Siege}
Using the Tupamaro guerrillas vs. the CIA as the story’s framework it is an interesting and exciting watch, though it is also sadly short of any political analysis.

New Zealand (1990)
Jane Campion
An Angel At My Table
The story of Janet Frame one of New Zealand’s best known authors who from humble beginnings and the insensitive treatment of the authorities finally manages to establish her sanity and gain recognition. It’s a masterpiece of passionate film making.

The Piano (1993)
A story of a strong willed woman who has to fight for what she wants in a hostile environment among uncultivated men.

Poland
Agnieszka Holland
Olivier, Olivier (1992)
Based on a true story, this is a brutal war story of a Jewish boy who survived the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, then the Nazi take over at the time of operation Barbarossa - he eventually joins the Hitler Youth (the images of him desperately trying to stretch his circumcised foreskin in a toilet cubical is excruciating).

loads of good films: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_neorealism

Hey, thanks for doing this! But yeah some more stuff by a broader range of directors would be good.

I will have a think of a couple of things to add. I can think of a couple of Italian films and spaghetti westerns for example

Yeah, I know - I was thinking about black directors as well, and films from Eastern Europe and Africa.

I've seen a few potential Eastern European ones, but will have to do try and remember the names…

Gillian Armstrong
My Brilliant Career (1979)
At the dawn of the 20th century a young woman in the Australian outback dreams of becoming a writer – beautifully composed and slow paced with no three second cuts.

Belgium
Agnes Varda
Cleo From 5 To 7 {Cleo de 5 a 7} (1961?)
A young woman walks round Paris as she waits for the results of a medical examination – a finely observed study of anxiety and the search for hope.

France
Catherine Breillat
A Ma Soeur! {aka Fat Girl} (2001)
Controversial film centring on the relationship between two sisters, 15 and 12 years, and their attitudes to sex - it is a cruel though perhaps honest depiction – the result is dark and disturbing.

Germany
Margarethe von Trotta
Marianne and Julianne {aka The German Sisters} (1981)
Based on the real life sisters associated with the Baader-Meinhof group, von Trotta explores the complexity of the sister’s relationship and of women’s resistance and revolt.

Italy
Lina Wertmuller
Seven Beauties (1975)
A controversial film of a man’s ignoble survival in World War II - a mix of farce and satire, of some interest and very unpleasant (some critics loved it).

Paolo & Vittorio Taviani
Padre Padrone (1977)
A classic film based on fact, a boy aged six is taken from school into the mountains where he works alone for years as his father’s shepherd – until he breaks free.

Japan
Yasujiro Ozu
Late Spring (1949)
A very moving film of a young woman who gives up her independence to take care of her aging father – her story continues in ‘Early Summer’ (1951).

USA
Kathryn Bigelow
Strange Days (1995)
An enjoyable if flawed sci-fi action movie, part of which seeks to investigate the nature of voyeurism via memory implants.

Britain
Christine Edzard
Little Dorrit (1987) Part 1: Nobody’s Fault; Part 2: Little Dorrit’s Story
Terrific screen adaption of Dickens’ teeming novel of corruption, capitalism and greed – a super cast of over 200 and especially good is Max Wall as the gnarled Flintwinch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sur_%28film%29

a few more:

- Vai viegli būt jaunam? (1987, "Is It Easy to Be Young?") a brilliant Soviet-Latvian documentary

The movie speaks about young people who perished as a result of growing up in Soviet society - their conflicts with parents and society, the patronizing attitudes of their teachers and the authorities, the fear that there is no meaning to their lives. Among the young people portrayed are high-schoolers looking for their place in life, a young mother worried about the future of her daughter after the Chernobyl catastrophe, a young man follower of the Hare Krishna movement (an 'unusual' religion that was discouraged even more than 'usual' ones by the Soviet government), as well young adults returning from compulsory military service in the Soviet war in Afghanistan and having become ones of 'the lost generation'. The film's opening scene documents a concert by the banned Latvian rock band, Pērkons.

- Rocker (Germany, 1972), set in the semi-criminal biker milieu of Hamburg, the participants are not professional actors but bikers who play more or less themselves

two Italian neo-realist classics:

- Bitter Rice (1949)

Bitter Rice begins at the start of the rice-planting season in northern Italy. In an effort to escape the law two small-time thieves, Francesca (Doris Dowling) and Walter (Vittorio Gassman), hide amongst the crowds of female workers heading to the rice fields of the Po Valley. While attempting to board the train for the fields the pair runs into Silvana (Silvana Mangano), a peasant rice worker. Francesca boards the train with Silvana, who introduces her to the planter's way of life. Francesca does not have a work permit, and struggles with the other "illegals" (known as "scabs") to find a place on the rice fields. After initial resistance from documented workers and bosses, the scabs are allowed a place in the fields. At the fields Silvana and Francesca meet a soon-to-be-discharged soldier, Marco (Raf Vallone), who unsuccessfully tries to attract Silvana's interest. Soon after, Walter tracks Francesca down at the rice fields and plots to steal rice from the storehouses during the celebration at the end of the planting season. Silvana is attracted by what she sees as the glamour of Walter's wealth, and becomes his new partner in crime. Francesca, meanwhile, is disenchanted with her former criminal lifestyle.

- Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Story of a poor father searching post-World War II Rome for his stolen bicycle, without which he will lose the job which was to be the salvation of his young family.

someone told me that there are a number of good Bengali films, has anyone watched http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Bigha_Zamin

Lukas Moodysson

Together - Comedy set in 1970s Stockholm, in which a woman leaves her violent husband and moves, with her children, to the Tillsammans ('Together' in Swedish) commune where her brother lives.

with a member of the Stalinist KFML(r) living in the commune who only agrees to sleep with a fellow inhabitant after she agrees to discuss "value and surplus value" with him after having sex

I have not seen ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ it sounds good.

The only Bengali films I remember seeing were Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy (‘Panther Panchali’, ‘Aparajito’ and ‘The World of Apu’).

My memory is that they are deceptively simple films though each carries a deep emotional impact. Basically Apu’s family struggles to survive as he grows and gains an education. Luckily the last film is also the best – though all are realistic and carry the belief in the ultimate survival of the human spirit.

Iran
Jafar Panahi
Offside (2006)
Shot in situ, the Iranian football team’s 2005 World Cup qualifying tie against Bahrain is the movies focus where the main character tries to slip into the fixture - the problem is she is not legally allowed to attend (being of the female kind). The sequences outside the ground with the corralled Tehrani women who have been discovered is memorable – most of the women are indomitable and the soldiers are largely bored or dejected.

I would add Mike Leigh to British, as well as the 60s kitchen sink dramas such as saturday Night Sunday Morning; Alfie; This Sporting Life; Loneliness of A Long Distance Runner. And Kes under Ken Loach too

Also: Matewan, Harlan County War, Salt of the Earth, In Time, Total Recall

I think that you should mention in the intro that many of these films are made by people with conservative or Stalinist leanings and as such their views are mirrored in their interpretations of working class life.
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I disagree that the Living Dead remake was an improvement. I felt it was gratuitous as a remake and film critics and audiences generally didnt feel it was better either. While the original popularized the tripping and falling while being chased by a monster trope I disagree that it should be disparaged as engaging in damsel in distress tripe. All of the characters in the movie where in distress and Barbara was not the only female character in the film. She just saw her brother get killed by a dead person. Its a much more rational response. The strong leaders were a bunch of idiots who got everyone killed, with the state showing up to indiscriminately finish them off. The silly bickering about/between the upstairs and the downstairs reflects the conservative confusion/reaction against the prol violence of 68. In this respect Romeros '73 The Crazies- about a pair of anarchy firefighters caught in a middle of a virus epidemic that causes among the infected national liberation armed struggle and 'going postal' killings- is much better satire then his latter- like the remake- zombie films.
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Stuff to include: The Taviani brothers made a bunch of movies about anarchists in the 70's and 80's. Not sure how many of them are appropriate for this list. Everything by Rienar Fassbinder; Nagisa Oshima, Derek Jarman. If you like really slow and boring realism dos Santos's Vidas Secas is the best movie ever.

There's a lot of really good movies here, plus loads that I haven't seen and I'll have to check out. There seems to me to be a huge omission though, someone who knew about growing up in extreme poverty - Charlie Chaplin. The Immigrant, The Kid, The Gold Rush, Modern Times. Not exactly the cutting edge of modern cinema and a bit sentimental if you have a cynical head on, but probably some of the most popular films ever with working class characters at the heart of the stories and the rich, the bosses, the police as the villains and the butt of the jokes.

'They Live' (obviously)
Maybe 'Brazil'
'Of Mice and Men'

Ireland
Joe Comerford
Traveller (1981)
On a smuggling journey into Northern Ireland a young woman traveller tells her husband of her father’s violent sexual attacks.

Jim Sheridan
The Field (1990)
West Coast tenant farmer Bull McCabe (Richard Harris) asserts a moral right to a field he has created and worked for years, as he refuses to accept the idea that there can be a market in land - with good acting and an even handed telling of the story.

Jamaica
Perry Henzell
The Harder They Come (1972)
A memorable story of poverty, drugs, corruption and an inevitable confrontation with authority - and possibly the best soundtrack ever!

USA
Stuart Rosenberg
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
A petty criminal refuses to conform to a brutal prison system and inspires his fellow inmates – with great performances.

Spartacus?

Shane Meadows seems to make films in line with the intention of the thread. I've seen three. Dead Man's Shoes is about 'friends' abusing a disabled person, drug use/dealing and post traumatic stress disorder in squadies. This is England is about the racist take over of a working class subculture (in this case Skins) and how kids get involved in subcultures, for good and bad, in the first place. Somers Town is about a kid who runs away from his abusive father and tries to eke out an existence in London, doing so with the help of his new found friend, a Polish immigrant whose dad does not initially know what's going on.

Mad Max is a glorification of police death squads.

Don't know if anyone mentioned this, but for female directed films I'd say Monster and maybe Vagabond (I personally don't like vagabond)

Also, On the Water Front is an antithesis of what this list is going for, but it is interesting to see why.

Italy
Marco Leto
Black Holiday (aka La Villeggiatura) (1973)
A liberal professor of law is interned on a prison island at the time of Fascism, where he finally gets a political education from the working class prisoners.

Marin Karmitz: Coup Pour Coup / Blow for Blow (1972)

Three films that lend themselves to a materialist feminist viewing and discussion:

-The 1975 French film "Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles" which follows a single-mother and sex worker as she monotonously goes through the tasks of housework and daily reproduction in real time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Dielman,_23_quai_du_Commerce,_1080_Bruxelles

-The 1966 Senegalese film "Black Girl" about a a girl from Senegal hired by a bourgeois French family to nanny, though mostly she just ends up doing housework. Her wages are withheld and she is essentially enslaved within the home, eventually driving her to commit suicide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Girl_(film)

-The 1983 American film "Born In Flames" about a post-revolutionary social democratic NYC in which gender and race issues have not been solves. The film is mockumentary and follows to women's guerrilla groups, one majority white and one majority POC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_Flames

Thanks for the list and the other contributions, the ones on here that I've seen are really good.

Except I'd remove Escape from LA, I'm a massive Carpenter fan but it really didn't add much.

movies by the Burkinabian film director Idrissa Ouedraogo are supposed to be good, especially the earlier ones

Spain
Jose Luis Cuerda – Butterfly’s Tongue (1999)
It’s Spain 1936, a young boy grows to like his teacher and develop a thirst for learning – however war is coming and with it fear and betrayal – very memorable.

fleurnoire-et-rouge

There's a lot of really good movies here, plus loads that I haven't seen and I'll have to check out. There seems to me to be a huge omission though, someone who knew about growing up in extreme poverty - Charlie Chaplin. The Immigrant, The Kid, The Gold Rush, Modern Times. Not exactly the cutting edge of modern cinema and a bit sentimental if you have a cynical head on, but probably some of the most popular films ever with working class characters at the heart of the stories and the rich, the bosses, the police as the villains and the butt of the jokes.

My cinematic hero. I still think "The Dictator" is my favourite film, and I believe that it stands alongside "the cutting edge of modern cinema". It's beautifully simple, beautifully shot. And I adore the "fourth wall" current that runs through his films, most explicit in his speeches. So sincere.

An amazing scene with his son, "the anarchist kid", in "The King of New York" (1957):

http://vimeo.com/57874646

Britain
Bill Douglas – My Childhood (1972)

The first part of a trilogy, the film was shot in black & white and echoes the director’s own early years – it’s Scotland in the 1940s and a boy lives in material and emotional poverty – set in a mining village, this is about as far from Hollywood cinema as you can get.

Tony Manero - A man obsessed with the character from Saturday Night Fever is due to enter a television contest to crown the best Manero impersonator, whilst Pinochet's disappearances carry on in the background.

On the subject of Saturday Night Fever, there was this novara episode where they talked about Saturday Night Fever in terms of the refusal of work.

http://novaramedia.com/2012/07/the-refusal-of-work-post-fordist-subjectivity-and-beverly-hills-cop-2/

I didn't really get the Beverly Hills Cop bit, but ...

Spain
Victor Erice – The Spirit of The Beehive (1973)

It’s rural Spain 1940 - seen mainly through the eyes of a seven year old girl – the adults behaviour is constricted with fear and memories of crushed dreams too painful to be voiced – the girl and her sister watch the 1931 classic movie ‘Frankenstein’ which ignites her imagination, and could lead her into danger.

The Toxic Avenger (1984) ... the uprising of the subaltern (and their non-intentional vanguard) beats the corrupt establishment

[youtube]mg1_8IEvK5E[/youtube]

flaneur

Still have more to do on this, but has anyone female directed films to suggest?

Barbara Kopple, Harlan County USA

And, IMO, the best anti-Thatcher movie ever, Martin Stellman's For Queen and Country 1988

to call a film by Fatih Akin "Turkish" (he was born in Hamburg, never lived in Turkey, most of his movies are set in Hamburg) is in a same way justified as calling movies by Mehdi Charef or Rachid Bouchareb's films "Algerian" or My Beautiful Laundrette a "Pakistani" film

good movies from Turkey, see e.g. Yılmaz Güney

and another good movie from a Kurdish film director living in Germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleine_Freiheit

I’ve only seen one of Yilmaz Guney’s films ‘Yol’.
He wrote the screenplay and instructions regarding how it should be directed, as he was in jail at the time. It was directed by his assistant Serik Goren.

Turkey
Yilmaz Guney/Serik Goren – Yol (1982)
Following the 1980 military takeover Turkey is depicted as an open prison with soldiers regulating everyday life. From a closed prison five inmates are paroled for a week – the film follows their separate journeys home and shows how medieval customs and religion are equally enslaving.

Sweden

Bo Widerberg - Joe Hill (1971)
"About the life and death of the legendary Swedish/American agitator Joe Hill."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoZUA-3F24g

Bo Widerberg - Ådalen '31 (1969)
"During a strike strike-breakers are being transported to Sandviken, where they are assaulted by the strikers. The military are sent in. On the 14th May 1931 there is a confrontation between demonstrators and the military who open fire and five people are killed and five injured."

Peter Birro - Upp till kamp (2008, mini series) (Take up the struggle)
4 episodes chronicling the coming of age of 4 different youths growing up in the Swedish working class port town of Gothenburg. A loving and authentic depiction of their involvement in the Vietnam solidarity movement and how important the idea of America was to all these youths in some way or another, how the K-groups (marxist-leninists) cynically tried to harness the wildcat strikes and youth resistance for party building, the tragedy of addiction and trying to rebuild life afterwards, the use of spies by the Social democrat party and the LO unions at hospitals in order to crack down on anyone threatening class peace, as well as the eventual 80's rise of the right wing and the personal conflicts and apathy following this development... a masterpiece!
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJx82CoPYOI

Gabriela Pichler - Eat Sleep Die (2012)
[imho one of the most important depictions of Sweden of today as it tumbles even further down the OECD ratings, the plight of redudant and precariat youths, as well as both the solidarity and feeling that there's no future of small-town Sweden. Must see!]

Ever wondered who packs the fresh plastic-sealed salad you are having for lunch?
Who the people losing their factory jobs in dead end small towns would be? Ready for a visit to the "new" Sweden?
When the forceful young Muslim Swedish/Balkan "take-no-shit" factory worker Raša loses her job, she faces the system of unemployment.
With no high school diploma, no job – but her boots deeply stained with the mud of the small town she grew up in – Raša finds herself on collision course with society and it's contradictable values and expectations.
First time amateur actors play all of the main characters in the film.

Trailer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ltvYgPfHIU

Göran Hugo Olsson - The Black Power Mixtape (2012)
The Black Power Mixtape is an award winning compilation feature documentary that displays the story of the African-American community 1967-1975, the people, the society and the style that fueled a change. Told with sparkling, beautiful and deep footage, lost in the archives in Sweden for 30 years.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXQxyYllXnM

Lena Ewert och Lasse Westman - Kamrater: motståndaren är välorganisen (Comrades, our enemies are well-organized) (1972)
"In December 1969, a wildcat strike broke out in the iron ore fields in Norrbotten, the far north of Sweden. Despite the fact that it was a record year for Sweden and that the state-owned mining company LKAB made a profit, the working conditions of the miners became worse. The strike spread from Kiruna to Svappavaara and Malmberget and after
a few days, involved some 5,000 miners. Through NLF (National Liberation Front/Vietnam) and other local political groups, many people working in culture expressed solidarity with the miners and engaged themselves in their situation"

Multi-part youtube videos (no subs) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5FBQtRuIwo

Lasse Westman - 30 år har gått kamrat
The film-maker returns to a community in northern Sweden still split on the why the strike failed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1V21ObbGXs

Per Åhlin - Resan till melonia (1989)
The beautiful paradise island Melonia is inhabited by the wizard Prospero, his daughter Miranda and all their friends. The island is under threat from the industry island Plutonia, blackened by soot particles from coal particles and governed by two greedy managers who keeps small children as their slaves in the factories. Quite unique, and I remember seeing a TV interview with the director in his home; hanging behind him is a CNT-FAI-FIJL banner which was donated to the SUF in the 30's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zSVQ21X6Vw

Roy Andersson - Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
"A man is standing in a subway car, his face dirty with soot. In his right hand he carries a plastic bag with documents, or rather, the charred leftovers of them. In a corridor a man is clinging desperately to the legs of the boss who just fired him. He is screaming: "I've been here for thirty years!" In a coffee shop someone is waiting for his father, who just burned his furniture company for insurance money. Traffic jams and self-flagellating stock brokers are filling up the streets while an economist, desperate for a solution to the problem of work becoming too expensive, gazes into the crystal ball of a scryer. Everything and everyone is going somewhere but their goal and its meaning have disappeared along the way."

Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9hYb6ggxoM

Pernilla August - Svinalängorna (2010)
A drama dealing with the destiny which many of the Finnish guest workers who came to Sweden to work in textile factories, mills and forestry during the 1960's and 70's, centered on a young woman's experiences growing up in a home riddled with abuse and alcoholism.
Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIvz3m0gpWc

Jan Troell - Everlasting Moments (2008)
"Based on the true story of Maria Larsson, a Swedish working class woman in the early 20th century, who wins a camera in a lottery and goes on to become a photographer. It has been compared to Troell's previous films Here's Your Life and As White as in Snow, which are both set around the same period."

Gabriela Pichler - Eat Sleep Die (2012) is a must-see!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT8q6VAyTi8

Elephant is the most disgusting film about the troubles ever made.All we see are people with guns killing people with no narrative.We are led to believe the Irish are murderous psychopaths who wake up and kill each.other with no rationale or cause.The viewer can think nothing else and the film is a testament to ignorance and stupidity.
I fail to see how many of these films have any relovence to working class politics/ life.
I like Ken Loach but he is guilty of political cowardice in Land and Freedom for using Anarchist paraphernalia but not mentioning our politics once.However the POUM are given center stage.
The Devils Backbone is a good film on the Spanish Civil War and Loach's films like Kes and Rif Raff are excellent.

Riders of the Lost Dawn is as good as Libertarias in my opinion and was made 25 yrs ago but is online.Great series on the Spanish Revolution and an excellent drama too.

Riders of the Dawn 1990
Apologies for mistake comrades

Freemind:
‘I like Ken Loach but he is guilty of political cowardice in Land and Freedom for using Anarchist paraphernalia but not mentioning our politics once.’

Think you’re being a bit tough on Loach's ‘Land and Freedom’ - I saw it as more about exposing the Stalinist counter-revolution. The film didn’t slander the anarchists and choosing the militia unit to be largely POUM rather than anarchist probably reflects something of Loach’s own politics.

Glad you mentioned ‘Riff Raff’ it is one of my favourite movies. The scene with Ricky Tomlinson in the bath is a classic - and what a great ending.

Flaneur
The rationale does matter because all victims who died in that war would I suspect want to know the reason and to rationalise is essential to bring closure.To relegate a conflict to a montage of shootings shows a disgustingly ignorant and crass attitude which at best is intellectually lazy and at worst a betrayal of all victims of the Troubles because it ignored the reasons the conflict existed therebye extending it.Also I suspect the conflict was about more than " 3500 died so Sinn Fein could sit in Stormont"

I think this calls for a 'thread break' or whatever as I agree with Flaneur, though it is b***er all to do with cinema!

Think you’re being a bit tough on Loach's ‘Land and Freedom’ - I saw it as more about exposing the Stalinist counter-revolution. The film didn’t slander the anarchists and choosing the militia unit to be largely POUM rather than anarchist probably reflects something of Loach’s own politics.

I always assumed it was because it basically followed the storyline of Homage to Catalonia.

I watched ‘Tickets’ (2005) last week. It has three directors, Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami & Ken Loach with the ‘action’ set on a train travelling from St. Moritz to Rome. The last section by Loach is terrific when three foul mouthed Glasgow Celtic supporters (match bound) become involved with a fugitive Albanian family. Well worth a watch.

I watched The Machinist over the weekend. I don't know if if qualifies as working class just because the guy works in a factory (I mean, what's prolier than that?), but it is a damn good film and deals a bit with workplace accidents and dickhead bosses.

EDIT: I just noticed Brassed Off didn't make the list. Well worth a watch.

Agreed, F.

Oh yeah, the other thing I was thinking was Barton Fink. Apparently the Coen brothers have mentioned that the labor conditions in Hollywood is one of the themes they wanted to explore in the film.

Chile
Gonzalo Justiniano
Caluga o menta (1990)
Niki and his friends are members of the marginalised underclass living on the outskirts of Santiago. During Chile's transition from dictatorship to democracy (1988-1990), they forge a path from drug- and drink-fuelled nihilism and petty crime into the world of market-driven illegality and Niki begins a seemingly predestined relationship with the middle-class "loca", Manuela. Memorable episodes and characters, quotable dialogue and a mix of earthy national portrait and surrealistic flourish make this one of the key Chilean films of the Nineties. (IMBD)

Ermanno Olmi

Il Posto - A school leaver enters into the world of work whilst falling in love for the first time.

The actual title is Il Postino

Oslo, August 31st (2011)
"One day in the life of Anders, a young recovering drug addict, who takes a brief leave from his treatment center to interview for a job and catch up with old friends in Oslo."
http://www.putlocker.com/file/DC6E57224B5757EC#

http://www.blackbookmag.com/cinematic-panic-the-quiet-allure-of-joachim-trier-s-oslo-august-31st-1.58040?PQId=1.46682

Monster- trials of a sex worker by female director (party Jenkins)
Addresses LGBT issues as well

Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa

Surprised Chaplin isn't mentioned here (at least I didn't see it) Modern Times is explicitly a working class film

Strozeck - werner herzog

Why don't you have any Yugoslav movies?

Rani radovi (Early Works) by Želimir Žilnik (1969)
URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064874/

Uloga moje porodice u svjetskoj revoluciji (Role of My Family in World Revolution) by Bahrudin Čengić (1971)
URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181096/

Just 2 that came to my mind right now.

I'm just about to go through and update this with more additions, including lots of people's excellent suggestions.

I kind of want to add Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves to the list. Would anyone object to that?

Thanks so much everyone for the recommendations. I've gone through and added them, as well as some more of my own. I thought it would be a quick job which I started this morning but it has actually taken me all day!

Couple more Japanese films:

Red Lion / Akage (1969)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lion_%28film%29

"Gonzo (Toshiro Mifune), a member of the Imperial Restoration Force, is being asked by the emperor to deliver official news to his home village of a New World Order. Wanting to pose as a military officer, he dons the Red Lion Mane of Office. Upon his return, his attempt to tell the village about a brand-new tax cut is quashed when the townfolk mistakenly assumes that he is there to rescue them from corrupt government officials. He learns that an evil magistrate has been swindling them for years. Now, he has to help the village, ward off Shogunate fanatics, along with the fact that he can't read his own proclamations."

Virgin Breaker Yuki (1976)

http://worldscinema.org/2012/10/yuuji-makiguchi-virgin-breaker-yuki-1976/ (trigger warnings for rape/torture)

"This film depicts prostitutes and anarchists in Kyoto just after the Peace Preservation Law was passed in 1925."

Cheers Mike, could you edit those into the article?

I thought of some more after I finished but working on it today nearly made my eyes bleed.

Also it would be good if the years could be added to all of the films, as the somehow missing.

Here are the extra ones I thought of:
- The Act of Killing
- Battleship Potemkin
- Battle of Algiers

This list is missing Snowpiercer.

IMDB.com: Set in a future where a failed climate-change experiment kills all life on the planet except for a lucky few who boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, where a class system emerges.

EDIT: Found it! It's called The Killing Floor (1985)

The Killing Floor is about an illiterate black sharecropper, Frank Custer, and his journey from the rural south to Chicago stockyards. The year is 1917 and the first World War is in full swing, leaving good paying jobs (21 cents an hour) for the men left behind, mostly immigrants and southern blacks.

The film portrays the pioneering attempt of Custer and other stockyard workers to bring together other blacks, Poles, Lithuanian, Irish and German workers to form an interracial union in the face of growing racial conflict in Chicago, the culmination of which eventually led to the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. The Killing Floor is based on actual characters and event and the tension expressed one of the great themes of American history: the conflict between class and race. It is explored with dignity, style and compassion. These were courageous men now remembered and revered, for it was not until the 1930’s that the vision of a strong interracial union was realized. A strong script and performances making The Killing Floor an honorable, rich and revealing film.

From here: http://history.sundance.org/films/1220/the_killing_floor

Watched this a few weeks ago. Appears disjointed at first then…

Russia
Alexander Rogozhkin, The Cuckoo (Kukushka) (2002)

Set in WW2 on the northern border between Russia and Finland in the last days before the Finnish surrender. Two runaway soldiers a Russian and a Finnish sniper find refuge with a Lapp woman. Three different cultures and no common language make an excellent droll story.

Antifa: Chasseurs de skins (France, 2008), a documentary by Marc-Aurèle Vecchione about the resistance against fascist skinheads in the Paris region during the 1980ies:

[youtube]EfDbTgb6uyc[/youtube]

Steven.

I kind of want to add Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves to the list. Would anyone object to that?

You know, the 1950s British TV show, The Adventures of Robin Hood (starring Richard Greene), was largely written by exiled US writers who were blacklisted during the McCarthy witch-hunts. Apparently, some of the scripts reflected their leftism. I loved it as a kid but it's probably all very dated and dead cheesy now. Still, if you'd care to investigate, I think the entire series can be found on YouTube.

Uncle Wikipedia

Blacklisted writers

The Adventures of Robin Hood was produced by Hannah Weinstein, who had left-wing political views. Weinstein hired many blacklisted American writers to script episodes of the series: these included Ring Lardner Jr., Waldo Salt, Robert Lees, and Adrian Scott. Howard Koch, who was also blacklisted, served for a while as the series' script editor. The blacklisted writers were credited under pseudonyms, to avoid the attention of studio executives.[9]

(The sponsored prints of the first five episodes of series one, screened by CBS in the US on its first run, had no writer credits on their end title sequences, writers were only credited on sponsored prints from episode 6 onward, only later non-sponsored US re-run prints of series one have writer credits for these episodes, some of which differ from writer credits on UK prints. As an example, Lawrence McClellan is credited as writer of "The Coming of Robin Hood" on US prints, for the UK the pseudonym used is Eric Heath.)[10]

After the blacklist collapsed, Lardner said that the series' format allowed him "plenty of opportunities to comment on issues and institutions in Eisenhower-era America;" presumably A Tuck in Time was such an episode, in which a twin of Friar Tuck arrives boasting of his willingness to sell a weapon that could destroy the world. In addition to the redistributive themes of a hero who robs from the rich and gives to the poor, many episodes in the programme's first two seasons included the threat that Robin and his band would be betrayed to the authorities by friends or loved ones, much as the blacklisted writers had been.[9] But the half-hour length episodes and broad-target market precluded any political criticism that went beyond the generalities of 19th century Robin Hood revival books.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/temp-temporal-film-review-660576
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLm09bN9HZY

American
Michael Curtiz & William Keighley
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Hungarian director with some American help, creates a classic film by which all others are measured.

Loved that film as a kid. Pity the lead actor was a nazi though :o

Didn't know he had any time for politics with his notorious reputation for booze and nymphets.
He did make some flag wavers during the war and tis said he won the war in Burma without the help of the British Indian Army or the Aussies.

I know Errol Flynn was a rapist but there's some conflicting opinions about his politics. There was a book which claimed he was spying for the Nazis but there's also claims that he was spying for the allies. He did approach the OSS and offer to spy for them, because he was unfit for military service, using his connections in neutral Ireland. He did support Republican Spain during the Spanish Civil War and he rocked up in Cuba on his yacht to support the revolution there. Apparently his MI5 file is still classified.

Ah... had a quick webmooch and the nazi spy allegation looks a bit tenuous. His lefty credentials are possibly less so. Hmm... confusing. Also, he may well have been a rapist but I think the charge was "statutory rape" (which as I vaguely understand this weird bit of US legalese, and knowing fuckall about the actual case, is not really the same thing). Still, definitely a flawed and somewhat unsavoury character.

Really love his films though.

It is difficult to make him out. The usually reliable David Thomson in his ‘The New Biographical Dictionary of Film’ (2010) states:

‘In 1942, he was charged with raping two eighteen-year-old girls. The grand jury cleared him, but the authorities decided to prosecute anyway. Flynn was eventually acquitted, but only after the extent of his sexual appetite had been made clear.’ (Page 333)

In an age when the studios usually exerted themselves to protect their stars and the grand jury clearing him, why did the authorities still proceed? Hard to imagine they were taking a principled stand against a sexual predator. Had he offended someone?

A few good additional suggestions here: http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/20-great-anarchist-movies-that-are-worth-your-time/2/

Iranian cinema has incredibly good working class cinema, due in part to low budgets and the only method directors can subtly critisise their rulers (and thereby win Oscars from the west)

Here are some goodies but there are hundreds

 .
Under the City's Skin (2001)
  
Tuba works daily at a grueling textile factory in Iran, returning home every night to deal with the rest of her problematic family

Turtles Can Fly (2004)
 
Near the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate

Baran (2001)
 
In a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.
The Color of Paradise (1999)

Mohammad, a boy at Tehran's institute for the blind, waits for his dad to pick him up for summer vacation

Children of Heaven (1997)
 
After a boy loses his sister's pair of shoes, he goes on a series of adventures in order to find them. When he can't, he tries a new way to "win" a new pair

A Time for Drunken Horses (2000)
  
Young Iranian Kurds (brothers and sisters) try to save the youngest of them, who is seriously ill.

Crimson Gold (2003)
  
An Iranian pizza delivery man sees the worst of corruption and social unbalance in his city and is driven to crime

Sadly most Iranians never watch these kinds of movies, preferring crappy Turkish soaps and western popcorn films, these movies are just western Oscar bait, but still very good

Chicken Run 2000

When a chicken farm amidst crisis switches from extracting the surplus value of their hens to using them as use value, the chickens rebel and attempt to escape the capitalist social relation

Sweden, a film about shooting of strikers in 1931: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065261/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

where can one find these movies to torrent? particularly the more obscure ones, especially the swedish ones?

thanks

Vicente Aranda, the director of the above-mentioned films Libertarias and Riders of the Dawn passed away today: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicente_Aranda

vicent

where can one find these movies to torrent? particularly the more obscure ones, especially the swedish ones?

thanks

Almost all those swedish films are by mainstream or established swedish directors and are likely available at many torrent sites. Pirate bay has most of them. Didn't check seeders though.

If people are searching for the film Steven mentioned above, Adalen 31, on torrent sites, you're trying too hard! It appears to be on youtube (and with English subs).

Belgium:

Two Days, One Night - The Dardenne Brothers

A factory worker recovering from a mental breakdown finds her colleagues have voted to lay her off and split her salary as a bonus. She spends a weekend canvassing them before a second, final vote.

We should add most of these: http://www.avclub.com/article/a-working-class-hero-is-something-to-be-23-proleta-84426

As well as They Have Changed Their Face, Italian vampire movie

Peter Watkins - Culloden.
Simply fantastic.

Rita, Sue and Bob too has really got to be in there.

[youtube]7jbf477OqjI[/youtube]

Saw High Rise quite recently. Really enjoyed it. Tells the story of dystopian class struggle in brutalist housing block in (pre-)Thatcherite England. Think Delicatessen meets Brazil.

Chilli Sauce

Saw High Rise quite recently. Really enjoyed it. Tells the story of dystopian class struggle in brutalist housing block in (pre-)Thatcherite England. Think Delicatessen meets Brazil.

yeah, I really loved that film. Absolutely beautiful, and great use of music: the covers of Abba were amazing. I also love brutalist architecture, and live in a brutalist tower block so enjoyed it on that level as well.

Enjoyed the book as well, although wouldn't count either as "working class literature" as such. I thought the end of the film with the news story about Thatcher was pretty clunky and unnecessary, and isn't from the book at all.

Saw the Milagro Beanfield War recently.

It's not amazing - it has some really cardboard characters and I've heard the book is better - but it definitely has some class content. It centers on a mostly Latino town in the Southwest where a planned luxury development brings to the surface long-held resentment over water rights that have long-favored capital over the town's poor residents.

I guess India doesn't have a working class?... I would recomend "Salam Bombay"