My Generation

It's always a treat to see Michael Caine being interviewed; he has so many stories and they're all funny. But for a comprehensive statement about what Britain in the 60's was all about, we need more. The painters who refashioned the visual arts are barely mentioned: David Hockney, Richard Hamilton (whose Just What is it that Makes Today's Homes...? blasted its way into my teenaged mind), R. B. Kitaj and more all deserve more coverage. Instead we get lots of footage of David Bailey, Brian Duffy and other photogs--frankly it just isn't that interesting. If there was a novel or book of poems published during this decade we never hear of it.

The political turmoil of the time isn't mentioned. Tariq Ali, Caroline Coon and Michael X don't get name-checked; you'd never know that Godard made One plus one/Sympathy for the Devil with the Stones and all the London activists he could find. But you can ignore these criticisms and just sit back and enjoy a well-constructed time capsule.

I thought this was going to be an interview with Michael Caine and some clips; it turned out to be a superb documentary on the social revolution I happened to experience. It is the best history of the Swinging Sixties I can imagine. From the social revolution of that time - which is what it was - I found my own history and development. I worked with Duffy, Donovan, Alan Aldridge. Okay, I was on the periphery of so much depicted here, but I was also a classic illustration of it; a working class lad who went to Art School, became an Advertising man, a successful DADA Silver Award winning Art Director, a prize winning illustrator, copywriter, author and painter. Caine was his brilliant self, not showing off, just telling it straight. This has to come out on dvd. And when it does I shall buy it.

Revolutions are rare in England's history, but when they happen, they shake off the system and have repercussions not only on the Island but also around the world. More than three hundred years after Cromwell's revolution and 150 years after the Industrial Revolution, the pop culture revolution made in the 1960s of London last century one of the two cultural capitals of the world and the avant-garde model of a reversal values and styles of scale. This is the subject of the documentary 'My Generation', whose director David Batty has been known over the last decade, especially for his films about ... the history of Christianity.

Michael Caine is the producer, the presenter, and receives a lot of screen time in this documentary. It's an interesting choice, but it comes with its problems. Of course, for Caine's fans among which you can always count me, it's always a pleasure to see the clever and articulate actor at the age of 84, sharing his memories and experiences from these times. On the other hand, I felt that Caine is pushing himself too far in front of the stage and he is "gonflating" his role as a cultural hero at the expense of other personalities, the real and significant heroes of the youth of the period.

The film starts from an interesting thesis and develops it convincingly: the pop revolution of the 1960s was not only a cultural revolution but also a social revolution in art. For the first time the younger generations and the classes considered "inferior" in the British system have found a broad stage to express themselves and have conquered the front of the artistic scenes of the world in different fields (music, film, fashion) . However, cultural references are rather limited when it comes to other fields than pop music. I believe, for example, that Pinter and Stoppard's theater would have deserves to be mentioned. Even when talking about cinema, big names are missing - for example those of Losey or Kubrick.

Another cultural dimension is missing. England and London played a central role in the pop culture revolution of the 1960s, but not an exclusive role. There is no mention of the influence of the pop and hippie movement in the United States, the Flower Power phenomenon, the festivals and protests that had the epicenter in the United States rather than in England. It can be said that it was a bi-cephalic phenomenon that had two capitals - London and San Francisco, and the film only deals with one.

In spite of all these observations, it is an interesting film that includes many significant testimonies about what happened in those years on the London artistic scene. The three "chapters" of the film feature the three stages of the birth of the phenomenon, the conquest of the artistic scene, and the appearance of the premises of its decadence. For those like me who lived those years on the alien planet that was Eastern Europe, there is a lot of invaluable information, images that generate nostalgia, places we were dreaming about then without being sure we'll ever get to see them. 'My Genration' is a documentary that generates nostalgia, but not the ultimate documentary about that period.

Watched this last night and it took me back to a time in my life that i loved. being born in 1964 some of this was before my time and some was after but i could relate to it all as stories around my Home in the early days with the older members of the family were on this subject. Everything from fashion, music, transport, fads and life in general is covered in this. Michael Caine is a Legend and so him fronting it was just peachy. In simple terms it took me back and threw me into an era before the internet, mobile phones and social media. at the end of the film i was left sat there not knowing where i was and what to do, my Partner even asked me 'are you ok?' i thought i was but i guess it opened my mind with all my personal memories, it was a time warp. a must see to get you all nostalgic.

I really enjoyed this. I'm not Michael Caine's greatest fan but he does well here and where the voice of him today relates an instance in the past that we see in an old clip and another in the same clip also speaks from today the effect can be electrifying. Some have spoken of the simplicity and cheapness of putting something like this together and I couldn't disagree more. This is so seamless, even when clearly the clips are from different sources, that there is an excitement in simply watching this come together before us. The script by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, which might seem unnecessary is quite the opposite because the visuals have to constantly be given the right context. Not sure this would be quite so thrilling for anyone born in later years, but I loved it and was incredibly impressed by hitherto unseen clips.