If...: Turner Classic Movies British Film Guide (Turner Classic Movies British Film Guides)

Lindsay Anderson's provocative, savage and wickedly funny 1968 masterpiece, If..., deals fundamentally--and controversially--with England and quintessential ""Englishness."" If... was the first film ever with a British setting and cast to win the Palme d'Or for Best Film at Cannes. The fruit of Anderson's first-hand studies of the Czech, Polish and Indian New Waves led by Milos Forman, Andrzej Wajda and, most famously, Satyajit Ray, it prophesied--and then mirrored--an international outbreak of youthful rebellion. An authority on Lindsay Anderson and his films, Sutton here draws on massive quantities of original material: Anderson's private archive, which illuminates the film's autobiographical elements; the original script Crusaders; the sequel on which he was working at the time of his death; interviews with key members of cast and crew including lead Malcolm McDowell, all are here explored to unravel the mysteries of a film which continues to delight, enrage and inspire.