Old Oak - Film

Redwurzel

Redwurzel

Well-known member
Set in the former coal mining villages in East Durham. Syrian refugees are moved into £8k terraced houses owned by Property Investment companies overseas. Unemployed/living on welfare locals with little to their name take a dislike. Interesting and emotive film. I would strongly recommend it.
 
I enjoyed it enormously. I went with a Scottish mate who's a Celtic fan and, as I enjoyed the Scottish guy in the Mags top being the most obviously racist character in the start of the film, he just muttered "Hun" and we both smiled. Very moving and ultimately upbeat.
 
Redwurzel said:
Set in the former coal mining villages in East Durham. Syrian refugees are moved into £8k terraced houses owned by Property Investment companies overseas. Unemployed/living on welfare locals with little to their name take a dislike. Interesting and emotive film. I would strongly recommend it.
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Platform?
 
Platform = Real Cinema - Audience clapped at the end.

A racist Geordie fan with a Scottish accent in a Sunderland mining village - Ken Loach must be a secret FMTTM Board member.
 
Accents were a bit "grand tour of the North East" and I thought the ending was a bit rose tinted, but a solid bit of Loach all the same.

Excellent performances from the leads and whilst it felt like a lot of the supporting roles were played by non actors, it was all the more natural for it.
 
Just a note that Terence Davies died on saturday. If you enjoy Ken Loach's films there's a fair chance you'll enjoy some of Davies' films despite them being stylistically completely different. After 40 years, Distant Voices, Still Lives remains one of my favourite films. Set in his native Liverpool it could just as well have taken place in the Cannon Street area in the 50s when I was brought up.
www.theguardian.com

A poet of pain, ecstasy and epiphany, Terence Davies is a colossal loss to British cinema

Thank goodness Davies experienced his late-career appreciation – he was a director of high seriousness and singularity and a man of vulnerability and true good humour
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
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pierrequiroule said:
Just a note that Terence Davies died on saturday. If you enjoy Ken Loach's films there's a fair chance you'll enjoy some of Davies' films despite them being stylistically completely different. After 40 years, Distant Voices, Still Lives remains one of my favourite films. Set in his native Liverpool it could just as well have taken place in the Cannon Street area in the 50s when I was brought up.
www.theguardian.com

A poet of pain, ecstasy and epiphany, Terence Davies is a colossal loss to British cinema

Thank goodness Davies experienced his late-career appreciation – he was a director of high seriousness and singularity and a man of vulnerability and true good humour
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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Very sad to hear. One of my favourites. RIP
 
Was " lucky" enough to see the ' I , Daniel Blake " showing at the premier at Boro .
At the end of it was a huge round of applause .. lots of sniffling / tears ..
Then
A huge roar from a lady
" fk the Tory b****yards"

I still cry now thinking about the food bank scene ( a little too close to bits of my upbringing)

I'll definitely see this as soon as I get home
 
There was so much in ther film about societal changes over the last 30 years, but a couple of economic things got me thinking that came up in the film.

1. Mention of lots of terraced houses for sale for £8k in ex mining communities and the money leaving the local communities to go to people who live outside the UK or hundreds of miles away. I imagine these houses are rented out for £5k a year to government agencies for new immigrants and asylum seekers. Thats clearly money living local communities in rent. If local communities could bind together and manage these properties there is potential for generating income and wealth locally from the government agencies rents.

2. Making "Lee Anderson" meals for the whole community through community kitchens. Local meals prepared cheaply on a large scale to reduce energy per meal and cost of ingredients. With local people helping to do the preparation to keep costs down. There is also a psychological benefit of making food and eating together. This should help people budget by reducing their food and energy bills.
 
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TBH seen the Old Oak and life is much more tough in the East Durham ex mining villages (Hordon, Easington and Wingate to name a few) than the movie makes out. I understand it is made as entertainment but a hard watch for someone who was close to theses areas not to long ago
 
Got tickets to see it tomorrow. Though I'm looking forward to it, a churlish bit of me feels that Loach's best work is behind him. Though I Daniel Blake caught the zeitgeist, it wasn't his strongest piece as a film. Still, someone in the mainstream has to address this stuff.
 
Ken Loach mainstream Harry? He's not even mainstream enough to be in the Labour Party these days. "The Old Oak" is no "Angels' Table", but if it his last film it's a grand farewell. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
 
rkangel said:
Ken Loach mainstream Harry? He's not even mainstream enough to be in the Labour Party these days. "The Old Oak" is no "Angels' Table", but if it his last film it's a grand farewell. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
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Well he's still mainstream enough to be on general release and get reviewed in the nationals. As for the Labour Leadership's obsession with the grand anti-Semitism hoax and his resultant ejection..... well let's leave it there!
 
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