[Program title]Chic, le sport ! Ⅱ – Gagner sa liberté
[Film title] The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
[Date] 2013.2.2 – 2.24
[Screen time] 103 min.
[Place] Maison Hermès 10F 5-4-1, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
1962 / UK / 88 min / Black & White / 35mm
Director/ Producer: Tony Richardson
Writer: Alan Sillitoe
Cinematography: Walter Lassally
Editor: Antony Gibbs
Music: John Addison
Cast: Tom Courtenay, Michael Redgrave, Peter Madden, James Fox
Subtitle: Terumitsu Shindo
Distributor: Park Circus
Colin (Tom Courtenay), a juvenile delinquent, is apprehended by police for petty crime and sent to a reformatory. Although he appears to have reached the lowest depths, it is in the reformatory that his talent for long distance running begins to flower. For Colin, whose father died of cancer after years of toil for a measly salary and whose mother sought to escape poverty through extramarital affairs, this ability presents one of the greatest opportunities in a life previously devoid of hope or any promise of a future.
The screenplay was written by Alan Sillitoe, one of the “Angry Young Men” of the 1950s who also wrote a short story of the same name, and was produced and directed by Tony Richardson, the director of Tom Jones. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner explores rebellion against adult authority and revolt against the system, vividly portraying the struggle and loneliness of one man through the extreme state of the long distance runner. The film won an award at the 1963 Mar del Plata International Film Festival and the best newcomer award at the British Academy Film Awards in the same year.