Sweet Sixteen (2002 film)

Infobox Film
name = Sweet Sixteen
director = Ken Loach
producer = Rebecca O'Brien
writer = Paul Laverty
starring = Martin Compston
William Ruane
Annmarie Fulton
Michelle Abercrombie
Michelle Coulter
Gary McCormack
music = George Fenton
cinematography = Barrie Ackroyd
editing = Jonathan Morris
released = 4 October 2002 (UK)
runtime = 106 min.
country = United Kingdom
Germany
Spain
language = English
imdb_id = 0313670

"Sweet Sixteen" is a 2002 film by director Ken Loach. The film tells the story of a working class Scottish teenage boy, Liam (played by Martin Compston), a typical 'ned', who dreams of starting afresh with his mother who is completing a prison term. Liam's attempts to raise money for the two of them are set against the backdrop of Greenock and Port Glasgow.

Plot

In a few weeks, Liam is going to be sixteen. He and his friends don't go to school anymore, they rather sell cigarettes and defy the police all day long . They are completely left behind in a society which doesn't help them to get out of the bad situation they live in. Liam's mother is currently in prison, for a crime she didn't commit. She will be released in a few weeks, in time for her son's sixteenth birthday. Liam loves his mother very much and his only goal is to bring her away from her brutal boyfriend, Stan, who deals in drugs with Liam’s grandfather.

In order to begin a new life with his mother Jean, Liam starts dealing in drugs with the aim of getting enough money to buy a mobile home, to escape the violent environment of Stan and the grandfather. The drugs he deals in come from Stan, or more precisely , were stolen from him by Liam and his friend, Pinball. They develop "entrepreneurial skills" and make money very fast, but they are soon located by the local "godfathers" of drugs and are proposed to work for them. Liam, whose only goal is to live happily with his mother; accepts. He becomes what his stepfather is and what he despised, until then. Now he really crosses the line between legal and illegal and sometimes thinks that he should simply leave the city, but he can't, persuaded that a better life is waiting for him.

In the meantime, Chantelle, Liam’s sister, tries to take care of her little brother. She is the only sign of hope in the film. Despite the fact that she became mother very early (maybe at the age of sixteen), she tries to improve her own situation and that of her little boy, Calum. She's got a small job and incites Liam to do the same, to make something "constructive" of his own life. She also attempts to warn her little brother about their mother probably not being so thankful to Liam’s efforts, because she is too devoted to Stan. But Liam won't listen to her, he is so obsessed by the idea that everything will be fine once his mother will be released.As Liam tries to build new life, he gets more and more in trouble and ends in a hopeless seeming situation.

The film shows the difficult economic situation very well, but also the problem of education (Liam doesn't go to school anymore). The youth has to be very smart, to cope up with the tricky life it has to face. Liam and his friends seem to represent a left-behind youth, whose only solution is to deal or to steal. They are at the age where they are still children, but slowly becoming adults. This paradoxical situation is well represented in the film: on the one hand, they want to play an adult role by dealing, but on the other hand, they are kids, laughing and seeing the world with innocent eyes.

Ken Loach's style

Ken Loach has a very particular style which is characterised by the extreme realism of his films. He mostly works with non-professional actors who can speak the home dialect (here it's a pure Scottish accent). He often shows a hopeless society, in which the main characters, after trying to get out of it, finally get in a worse situation. Parallels can be thrown between his films, for example My Name Is Joe, in which the main character also accepts to deal in drugs in order to help friends of him. It's A Free World also shows the difficult situation of Angie, whose dream is to make more money at her job and, therefore creates a working agency with day-workers.

All of Loach’s films start with the very difficult social context of unemployment, or low-paid employment. His films seem to be the denunciation of the society, which leaves a number of people behind and is unable to help them. Sweet sixteen is one perfect example for Loach’s style, because the situation is shown through the eyes of a child, which is the central character.

Ken Loach's and Paul Laverty's motivation

Ken Loach has always written scenarios about the British working class, fighting for it's basic needs. Sweet Sixteen is no exception and reflects perfectly the style of a socially conscious drama. But the reasons for this film are pretty much the same as for his other films: to critic the British social and political system. Sweet Sixteen is the criticism of a society which fails to help the youth to escape the very bad living conditions it has to face. Another reason was that Ken Loach and Paul Laverty wanted to do "something personal". Paul Laverty, born from a Scottish father and an Irish mother, knows the area of Glasgow very well, that's why they decided to make a film there. Paul Laverty also says, that the world of (the) teenagers had always fascinated him, because they live a "dramatic [and a] critical time" and have to make choices "that will affect the rest of [their] life" [ [http://www.erasingclouds.com/07janu.html Erasing Clouds] ] . The scriptwriter wanted the film to raise questions about the kind of society which was built, and about choices given to young people . It's an attempt to show the harsh reality of some areas that could be in Glasgow, but also in England or elsewhere in Europe or in the world.

Awards and reviews

Sweet Sixteen was awarded in 2002 at the Festival de Cannes (France), with the "Best Screenplay Award". The film also got the "Best Film Award" and the main actor, Martin Compston got the "Most promising newcomer Award". 2002 was also the year of the "Golden Spike Award" and the "Best Director of Photography Award" at the Valladolid International Film Festival. The "BAFTA Scotland Award for the Best Actor in a Feature Film" was given to Martin Compston, and Ken Loach won the "FRIPESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique) Prize" at the European Film Award in 2002. The film was also nominated at an important number of other festivals .

It also gained a general approval in most of the countries where it was played.The critics in France go from "a well worth seeing scenario, a great social film, in fact, a great film" to "a flawless style, an egregious rich scenario, shaking actors, so much elements which makes the director sign one of his best films". [ [http://www.lequotidienducinema.com/critiques/sweetsixteen_critiques/critiques_sweet_sixteen_boiteux_digiuseppe.htm Le Quotidien du Cinéma]

In Germany, epd Film (a movie magazine) wrote about Sweet Sixteen: "Brilliantly played, the drama of Ken Loach sets down any explicit political declaration." The critics in the United states were also laudatory, the New york times wrote that "Mr. Compston's untamed star power gives the movie a heart, a sweetness that makes the title heartfelt and not just cheaply ironic, given the unremittingly unforgiving streets of Glasgow, where the film is set. His emotional commitment to the material makes the movie, which opens today in New York and Los Angeles, romantic in an old-fashioned way, despite the bleakness of the story." [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02EFDB163EF935A25756C0A9659C8B63 Review by the New York Times] ] Of course, they were also a lot and a lot of reviews in British newspapers and magazines. "Yet there's sweetness of a sort, an elusive sort, to be found in his tremendously powerful, occasionally grimly humorous new movie" wrote The guardian. [ [http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_Film_of_the_week/0,,803973,00.html Review by The Guardian] ]
The BBC also wrote that "Sweet Sixteen is outstanding film making and the director's best film in years." [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2002/09/18/sweet_sixteen_2002_review.shtml Review by the BBC] ]

Criticism

The fact that one can hear the word "fuck" about two hundred times and "cunt" about twenty times led the British Board of Film Classification to forbid the film to the under-18-years-old. Spain followed this censure, but other countries, like France or Germany (not under 12) had a different rating system. Ken Loach and Paul Laverty protested against the British procedure in the Guardian. (See reactions: [http://film.guardian.co.uk/censorship/news/0,,804490,00.html] and [http://film.guardian.co.uk/censorship/news/0,,801642,00.html] )
Paul Laverty asserted on another website [ [http://www.erasingclouds.com/07janu.html Erasing Clouds] ] that this was "censorship" and "class prejudice" because he got many information to write his scenario from people around Scotland and this special area, and many of the people were not 18. It makes him furious that these people are not going to see the film. The criticism that it gives a bad image of Greenock is refuted by the statement: "I'm just telling a story about Scotland".

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0313670|title=Sweet Sixteen