Our first films in Nairobi Film Club have tended to be on the restrained, pensive side (even No Country for Old Men in its own way).
The final two installments in the series (yes, sadly only two more!) are neither pensive nor restrained. First up is A Hard Day’s Night, featuring the fab four from Liverpool playing cheeky versions of themselves in what is basically a kind of ‘mockumentary’. As I’ve written before:
If you’ve never seen it, it’s time. It’s astonishingly unique. Joyful, electric, absurdist, exuberant, funny.
(Reporter: “How did you find America?” John Lennon: “Turned left at Greenland.”)
And of course great music in what was a somewhat dismal period in early 60s post-war England. Ok, as opposed to the dismal 70s-80s Thatcher years, or the faux-sunniness of Tony Blair’s ‘Cool Brittania’, or Boris Johnson’s hair, or the ten minutes Liz Truss was in there, BUT I DIGRESS.
It’s actually a quite avant-garde piece of filmmaking, more in line with the French New Wave of the time. Punctures the burgeoning world of marketing to teenagers in an iconic, absurdist scene with George Harrison and an ad exec (with lines like “The new thing is to care passionately and be right-wing”).
Takes aim at authority, inertia, and class throughout, and shows how to create a more exciting reality amid stasis. It’s four guys that made virtually everyone feel differently about the world. THAT ENERGY.
It’s tremendous.
One great review:
The film follows John, Paul, George and Ringo on their journey down South to perform a live broadcast of their music from a TV studio with Paul’s “grandfather” in tow. The movie never tries to dupe the audience with fake, constructed personas, but merely sands down the edges of four extremely talented, charismatic and witty young men. Within the first few minutes, their individual characters and personalities become apparent: John, the evil mastermind of chaos; Paul, the charming pretty boy who just wants to enjoy himself; George, devastatingly level-headed, down to Earth and effortlessly cool; and last but not least Ringo, who’s sulky, adorably self-conscious and very much beloved. For the first time ever, fans were able to get to know the real Beatles, in all of their Scouse glory.
By 1964, The Beatles were beginning to earn a reputation for their playful wit, with the likes of John Lennon’s quip at the 1963 Royal Variety Show:
“Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you… if you just rattle your jewellery.”
Alun Owen’s screenplay and Richard Lester’s direction combines the boys’ natural Liverpudlian repartee with lashings of slapstick and surreal comedy, creating something downright bizarre and even magical. Such outlandish moments include the band’s sudden appearance outside their moving train whilst taunting a stuffed shirt – “Can we have our ball back Mister?!” – and of course, John Lennon’s disappearance from the bath. Lester’s orchestration of the lads through these memorable moments upgraded them to the status of some sort of mischievous cosmic imps, making them the perfect voice of youth as they butt heads and infuriate every single authority figure they come across. It’s glorious. From TV directors to police officers, no one is left untouched and all have their cage rattled, embodying the desires of the youth of 1964 (and of all generations that have discovered this movie since).