Cast
- Conner Chapman, who had starred previously in similar independent British films such as Pleasure Island and Charlie says, plays the role of Arbor.
- Made his on-screen debut in The Selfish Giant and had not acted before. He had no training going into the movie and hadn’t even read a script before
- He was discovered on the first day of casting by casting director Amy Hubbard who wanted to find an ‘untapped and untutored source of talent’
- Chapman is from the Buttershaw estate in Bradford where the film is set
- Chapman admitted he can identify with Arbor’s situation as he states ‘I used to get a lot of stick from people in school because I used to go scrapping myself to earn myself money.’
- After The Selfish Giant, he starred in Charlie Says (2013) and Pleasure Island (2015)
- Shaun Thomas plays his best friend Swifty, after previously starring alongside Sacha Baron Cohen in Grimsby.
- Made his on-screen debut in The Selfish Giant and had not acted before. He had no training going into the movie and hadn’t even read a script before
- Thomas shared Swifty’s love of horses which added authenticity to his role – he stated ‘In real life I do love horses because where I grow up, that’s what everybody does. You get middle-aged people going around collecting scrap metal to pay for food and gas and the electric, just to live really.’
- Thomas is from Holme Wood, a housing estate in Bradford
- After The Selfish Giant, he starred in The Brothers Grimsby (2016) and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
- Sean Gilder – Kitten
- Sean Gilder was born on March 1, 1964 in Brampton, Cumberland, England. He is an actor, known for The Fall (2006), Gangs of New York (2002) and King Arthur (2004).
Casting
- Both the first film for the two leads, adds a relatable sense as the two actors actually from the area of the film and under no pressure. Chapman had had some drama lessons in school but interestingly Thomas hadn’t and was suspended from school for the first audition and missed it, meaning he was lucky to get a second opportunity. Barnard based the two characters of Arbor and Swifty on scrappers she saw whilst filming The Arbor.
Box office
Filming locations
Filming took place in Willington, Derbyshire and Bradford, Yorkshire.
Awards
Was nominated for best film at the 2014 BAFTAs.
Reviews
- “It is a richly allusive and moving work.” The Guardian
- Mark Kermode liked it a lot
- Peter Bradshaw at the Guardian gave it 5 stars “Clio Barnard's social-realist tale of a teen scrap scavenger goes at it like a supercharged Ken Loach –and packs in Bradford's answer to Ben-Hur to boot”
- 97% on Rotten Tomatoes
- The telegraph-5/5
- “...a brilliant and soul-scouring fable about scrap men and scrap children; two outcast generations doomed to forever sift through life’s rubbish dump.”
- Roger Ebert – 4.5 stars – “The film is a tragedy: keenly observed, warm, often funny, but a tragedy. And yet even when the life-on-rails dramaturgy becomes wearisome, we feel we're watching an evil adult exploit angelic children. Arbor and Swifty aren't "good" or "bad" boys, just desperate and far too trusting. Kitten isn't a villain, just a mangled product of his environment like everyone else.”
Clio Barnard
- Clio Barnard is a British director of documentary and feature films. She won widespread critical acclaim and multiple awards for her debut, The Arbor, an experimental documentary about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar.
- Barnard grew up in the town of Otley in Yorkshire. Her dad was a university lecturer and her mum an artist who later became a jazz singer.
- The total movies directed by Barnard include: The Selfish Giant (2013), The Arbor (2010), Flood (2002)
- “I don’t think artworks should be didactic and I can’t articulate my political beliefs by making a speech, but perhaps I can through making a film. But I’d like for it to be open to interpretation. Someone told me they thought the character of Arbor was a bit of an entrepreneur, which is not my politics at all!” – Clio Barnard
- “ I suppose what I wanted above all, because the character of Arbor is based on a real boy, and his friendship with his real best friend. And I suppose that I saw something really special in those two, and in their friendship, and I suppose what I wanted to do was to share. So, what I hope that people feel that same affection for those boys that I do.”
- “I think it’s about a tragic love story about a friendship between two teenage boys.”
BBFC
- Rated it a 15 and said “THE SELFISH GIANT is a contemporary drama about two boys who get caught up in the illegal world of metal theft. It is rated 15 for strong language, once very strong.”
- “There are over seventy uses of strong language ('f**k' and variants) and one use of very strong language ('c**t') which is used by a young boy as a term of endearment to his younger best friend. “
- “There are also uses of discriminatory language ('spaz', 'retard' and 'pikey') which are not condoned.”
- “The film also contains a brief image of charred human remains, scenes of moderate violence without detail and one scene of threat to a child. There are also passing drug references ('smackhead', 'spooning') sight of adults smoking and children drinking alcohol.”
Social realism
- Early British cinema used the common social interaction found in the literary works of Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy.[11]
- After World War I, the British middle-class generally responded to realism and restraint in cinema while the working-class generally favored Hollywood genre movies. Thus realism carried connotations of education and high seriousness. These social and aesthetic distinctions have become running themes; Social Realism is now associated with the arthouse auteur, while mainstream Hollywood films are shown at the multiplex.
- Was first seen in the form of art (paintings and, later, photography) to capture the social realism of society a specific time in history. The genre of social realism in media was then transformed onto the big screen; though film and TV texts.
- TV and film in the 21st century that take on the genre of social realism typically focuses on topical issues alive in a modern society which is represented by different ideologies. Themes such as money, drugs, and sex are quite usual in modern contemporary social realism films as well as class, religion and political views. [These themes are very popular today but not all were involved in the early social realism storylines and films.]
Notable Social realist films:
- Trainspotting
- This is England
- Kes
- Ill Mannors
- Kidulthood
- It can be argued he selfish giant is a piece of political propaganda against Thatcherism highlighting the problem s which the poor experienced due to not reviving help from the government.
- When Thatcher was in power, poor people didn’t get much help because of left wing ideologies presented by her reign.
- The selfish giant represents the consequences of Thatcherism influence on society.
- Clio Barnard wants to expose this cruelty and hidden world to the public through this film.
The Selfish Giant (Oscar Wilde, 1888)
- “Then the Spring never came, nor the Summer” (referring to the depressing life in Bradford – lack of hope, happiness)
- The Selfish Giant talks about the garden being a ‘children’s playground’ (the scrap yard = Arbor and Swifty’s playground?)
- At the end a young boy dies, at the end of Barnard’s film Swifty dies.
- Barnard describes putting Wilde’s text aside to concentrate on her immediate subject only to find the material circling back upon itself, becoming once again a story about the “wounds of love”.”
Film Four
History
Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing a large number of films made in the United Kingdom. The company's first production was Walter, directed by Stephen Frears, which was released in 1982. It is especially known for its gritty, kitchen sink-style films and period drama.
Purpose
To develop, finance, advertise and broadcast films.
Notable Films
- 12 Years A Slave
- 127 Hours
- Fever Pitch
- Four Weddings and a Funeral
- One Day
- Slumdog Millionaire
- The Inbetweeners Movie
- The Iron Lady
- The Selfish Giant
- This Is England
- Trainspotting