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Kenneth "Ken" Loach (born 17 June 1936) is an English film and television director. He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialism, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness (''Cathy Come Home'') and labour rights (''Riff-Raff'' and ''The Navigators''). ==Life and career== Loach was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the son of Vivien (née Hamlin) and John Loach. Loach's ten contributions to the BBC's ''Wednesday Play'' anthology series include the docudramas ''Up the Junction'' (1965), ''Cathy Come Home'' (1966) and ''In Two Minds'' (1967). They portray working-class people in conflict with the authorities above them. Three of his early plays are believed to be lost films.〔 ''Up the Junction'', adapted by Nell Dunn from her book with the assistance of Loach, deals with an illegal abortion while the leading characters in ''Cathy Comes Home'', by Jeremy Sandford, are affected by homelessness, unemployment, and the workings of Social Services. ''In Two Minds'', written by David Mercer, concerns a young schizophrenic woman's experiences of the mental health system. Tony Garnett began to work as his producer in this period, a professional connection which would last until the end of the 1970s. Coinciding with his work for ''The Wednesday Play'', Loach began to direct feature films for the cinema, with ''Poor Cow'' (1967) and ''Kes'' (1970). The latter recounts the story of a troubled boy and his kestrel, and is based on the novel ''A Kestrel for a Knave'' by Barry Hines. The British Film Institute named it No 7 in its list of best British films of the twentieth century, published in 1999.〔(A selection of the favourite British films of the 20th century )〕 During the 1970s and '80s, Loach's films were less successful, often suffering from poor distribution, lack of interest and political censorship. His documentary ''The Save the Children Fund Film'' (1971) was commissioned by the charity, who subsequently disliked it so much they attempted to have the negative destroyed. In fact, it was only screened publicly for the first time on 1 September 2011, at the BFI Southbank.〔Stephen Bates ("Ken Loach documentary to get first screening after 40 years", ) ''The Guardian'', 20 July 2011〕 Loach concentrated on television documentaries rather than fiction during the 1980s, and many of these films are now rare as the television companies have never released them on video or DVD.〔(Time Out interview with Ken Loach )〕 At the end of the 1980s, Loach directed some television advertisements for Tennent's Lager to earn money.〔 Loach's 1981 documentary ''A Question of Leadership'' interviewed members of the ISTC (the main trade union for Britain's steel industry) with regards to the 14-week strike in 1980, and recorded much criticism of the union's leadership for conceding over the issues in the strike. Subsequently, Loach made a four-part series named ''Questions of Leadership'' which subjected the leadership of other trade unions to similar scrutiny from their members, but this has never been broadcast. Frank Chapple, leader of the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union, walked out of the interview and made a complaint to the Independent Broadcasting Authority.〔 A separate complaint was made by Terry Duffy of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union.〔 The series was due to be broadcast during the Trade Union Congress conference in 1983, but Channel 4 decided against broadcasting the series following the complaints.〔 Anthony Hayward's book ''Which Side Are You On? Ken Loach and His Films'' (2004)〔Anthony Hayward ''Which Side Are You On? Ken Loach and His Films'', Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004〕 claims that the media tycoon Robert Maxwell had put pressure on Central's board, of which he had become a director, to withdraw ''Questions of Leadership'' at the time he was buying the ''Daily Mirror'' newspaper and needed the co-operation of union leaders, especially Frank Chapple of the electricians. ''Which Side Are You On?'' (1985), about the songs and poems of the UK miners' strike, was originally due to be broadcast on ''The South Bank Show'', but was rejected on the grounds that it was too politically unbalanced for an arts show.〔(BFI Screenonline: Which side are you on? )〕 The film was eventually transmitted on Channel 4, but only after it won a prize at an Italian film festival.〔 Three weeks after the end of the strike, the film ''End of the Battle... Not the End of the War?'' was broadcast on the ''Diverse Strands'' series of Channel 4.〔(BFI Screenonline: End of the Battle... Not the End of the War? )〕 This film argued that the Conservative Party had planned the destruction of the NUM's political power from the late 1970s.〔 Working with writer Jim Allen, Loach was due to direct a play named ''Perdition'', which suggested that Zionists in Hungary collaborated with the Nazis to help the operation of the Holocaust in return for allowing a few Jews to emigrate to Palestine.〔(BFI Screenonline: Allen, Jim )〕 The play was due to run at the Royal Court in 1987, but its run was cancelled 36 hours before the first night, following widespread protests and allegations of anti-Semitism.〔〔 The late 1980s and 1990s saw the production of a series of films such as ''Hidden Agenda'', dealing with the political troubles in Northern Ireland, ''Carla's Song'' set partially in Nicaragua, and ''Land and Freedom'' examining the Republican resistance in the Spanish Civil War. He directed the Courtroom Drama reconstructions in the docu-film ''McLibel'', concerning the longest libel trial in English history. Interspersed with political films were smaller dramas such as ''Raining Stones'' a working class drama concerning an unemployed man's efforts to buy a communion dress for his young daughter. On 28 May 2006, Loach won the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival for his film ''The Wind That Shakes the Barley'',〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Festival de Cannes: The Wind That Shakes the Barley )〕 a film about the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Irish Civil War during the 1920s. In characteristic fashion this sweeping political-historical drama was followed by ''It's a Free World'' a story of one woman's attempt to establish an illegal placement service for migrant workers in London. Throughout the 2000s Loach continued to intersperse wider political dramas such as ''Bread and Roses'' (which focused on the Los Angeles janitors strike) and ''Route Irish'' (set in the Iraq occupation) with smaller examinations of personal relationships. ''Ae Fond Kiss'' explored an inter-racial love affair, ''Sweet Sixteen'' a teenager's relationship with his mother, and ''My Name is Joe'' an alcoholic's struggle to stay sober. His most commercially successful recent film is 2009's ''Looking for Eric'', featuring a depressed postman's conversations with the ex-Manchester United football star, Eric Cantona (played by Cantona himself). The film won the Magritte Award for Best Co-Production. Although successful in Manchester, the film was a flop in many other cities, especially cities with rival football teams to Manchester United.〔(Ken Loach - the controversies )〕 In 2011 he released ''Route Irish'', an examination of private contractors working in the Iraqi occupation. A thematic consistency throughout his films, whether they examine broad political situations, or smaller intimate dramas, is his focus on personal relationships. The sweeping political dramas (''Land and Freedom'', ''Bread and Roses'', ''The Wind that Shakes the Barley'') examine wider political forces in the context of relationships between family members (''Bread and Roses'', ''The Wind that Shakes the Barley'', ''Carla's Song''), comrades in struggle (''Land and Freedom'') or close friends (''Route Irish''). In a 2011 interview for the ''Financial Times'', Loach explains how "The politics are embedded into the characters and the narrative, which is a more sophisticated way of doing it".〔()〕 His 2013 film ''The Angels' Share'' centres around a young Scottish troublemaker who is given one final opportunity to stay out of jail. Newcomer Paul Brannigan, 24, from Glasgow, plays the lead role. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=2012 Official Selection )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Cannes Film Festival 2012 line-up announced )〕 where Loach won the Jury Prize.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Awards 2012 )〕 His 2014 film ''Jimmy's Hall'' was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=2014 Official Selection )〕 Loach lives with his wife, Lesley, in Bath. His son Jim Loach has also become a television and film director. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ken Loach」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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