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A Kind of Loving 12 rating

John Schlesinger makes his feature film debut with this adaptation of Stan Barstow’s novel about a factory worker (Alan Bates) and his complicated relationship to a typist (June Ritchie) who he doesn’t fully love.

Drama 1962 113 mins

Director: John Schlesinger

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Overview

Filmmaker John Schlesinger makes his feature film debut with this focused relationship drama starring Alan Bates and June Ritchie. Vic (Bates) is a Manchester draughtsman who has a sexual relationship with typist Ingrid (Ritchie) – she falls for him, but he is not in love with her. Despite the unrequited love, the two soon marry due to Ingrid’s pregnancy and learn to form a relationship despite the lack of mutual romance. Schlesinger’s film is powerful in its honesty and brave in its approach to its sensitive subject matter, as well as featuring two outstanding turns from Bates and Ritchie.

Before he made Oscar-bound films Midnight Cowboy (1969) and Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), Schlesinger arrived on the scene with this tense and personal two-hander. It’s an observed look at 1960’s Northern England as much as it is a calculated, frank portrait of two people discovering the meaning of love in all its forms.

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