If .... Lindsay Anderson Short Films

The Oscar-winning director's savage, surreal parable of revolution, plus a selection of his poetic documentaries.

"A subversive, anti-authoritarian masterpiece that stands alongside Godard's Weekend and Bu“uel's The Exterminating Angel as a blistering attack on the morality and values of the middle class."--Jamie Russell, BBC

A key document of late 60s student radicalism, If... stars Malcolm McDowell in a savage and surreal portrait of privileged schoolboys bringing armed revolution to their boarding school. (1968; 111 mins.)

Following this feature is a selection of Lindsay Anderson's influential short films, poetic documentaries that in some ways parallel developments across the Channel in the French New Wave. O Dreamland (1953;13 mins.) examines carnival fun-seekers at an arcade in Kent. Wakefield Express (1953; 34 mins.) follows a daily newspaper from pen to press. The Oscar-winning Thursday's Children (1954; 20 mins.) looks inside the Royal School for the Deaf. Every Day Except Christmas (1957; 40 mins.) captures a day in the bustling life of Covent Garden Market.