--- name: "Lindsay Anderson" canonical: "https://film.one/person/lindsay-anderson" fi1m_id: "lindsay-anderson" imdb_id: "nm0000755" tmdb_id: 78157 wikidata_id: "Q298352" roles: ["Director"] born: "17 April 1923" died: "30 August 1994" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_as: "director" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-18T09:30:01.665984+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Lindsay Anderson ## Identity Lindsay Anderson - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/lindsay-anderson - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** lindsay-anderson - **IMDb ID:** nm0000755 - **TMDB ID:** 78157 - **Wikidata ID:** Q298352 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Anderson, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q298352, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000755/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/78157 Director. Born 17 April 1923 in Bangalore, India. Died 30 August 1994. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 17 April 1923, Bangalore, India - **Died:** 30 August 1994 - **Active:** 1968–1981 - **Also known as:** Линдсей Андерсон - **Titles on Fi1m:** 2: 1 acting, 1 directing - **Frequently works with:** [Colin Welland](https://film.one/person/colin-welland.md) - **Cannes Film Festival:** 1 Cannes prize (1 won) - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1960s 82 (1), 1980s 78 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Anderson, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q298352, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000755/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/78157 ## Streaming the US now - **Pluto TV:** [*if....*](https://film.one/film/if-1968.md) (82) - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Chariots of Fire*](https://film.one/film/chariots-of-fire.md) (78) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Lindsay Anderson > Lindsay Anderson makes authority look ridiculous without letting us forget who gets hurt. We rate him most highly when his satire stays close to ordinary behaviour; the bullying in *if....* is more disturbing than its surreal departures. In the school of *if....* (1968), nobody in charge feels much need to explain themselves. Lindsay Anderson watches that confidence closely, finding comedy in the routines and cruelty in what they permit. His satire works because the place remains credible even when the behaviour becomes strange. Malcolm McDowell gives the defiance a persuasive face, but Anderson is just as interested in how obedience is learnt. We felt angry at the bullying between boys, and angrier at how readily the school accommodates it. Anderson had been making documentaries since 1948 and helped define Free Cinema before directing his first feature, *This Sporting Life* (1963). That David Storey adaptation belongs to British social realism and shows Anderson's strength with actors. With *if....*, he turns towards satire without abandoning his close attention to how people behave together. The progression matters: his anger is more convincing when we can see the habits that provoke it. In *if....*, David Sherwin's screenplay shows how the school teaches obedience and aggression together. Miroslav Ondříček's cinematography makes its daily life convincing, while Jocelyn Herbert's production design gives the rules a setting that looks long accustomed to them. Neither needs to underline the absurdity. Marc Wilkinson's music keeps the comedy uneasy. These contributions let Anderson take liberties with reality without immediately losing our belief in the school. David Gladwell's editing has to join those observed routines to the surreal passages, and the joins do not always hold. We admire Anderson's unwillingness to explain every departure, but some of those passages lose force. Some critics found the later institutional satire of *Britannia Hospital* (1982) too didactic. That is a danger with this kind of filmmaking: we would rather watch people behave badly than have their faults explained to us, and the school scenes show how much Anderson can achieve without the explanation. The late *The Whales of August* (1987) also took him beyond British satire. There is more to explore than the films in which he takes institutions to task. Start with *if....*, and give its everyday school routines as much attention as its stranger episodes; that is where we found the most to be angry about. ## Biography Lindsay Anderson (1923–1994) was a British film and theatre director, producer, and critic. Born in Bangalore, India, he was educated at Cheltenham College and Wadham College, Oxford, and served in the British Army during the Second World War. He began his career making documentaries and co-founded the film journal Sequence before becoming a leading figure in the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave. Anderson is best known for directing *This Sporting Life* (1963), *if....* (1968, which he also produced and which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes), *O Lucky Man!* (1973), *Britannia Hospital* (1982), and *The Whales of August* (1987). He maintained a long collaboration with playwright David Storey, directing both his films and stage premieres at the Royal Court Theatre. Anderson also acted in a minor role in *Chariots of Fire* (1981). *Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) ### Performed in (1) - *Chariots of Fire* (1981), Fi1m 78, as Master of Caius — [page](https://film.one/film/chariots-of-fire.md) ### Directed (1) — the average rests on these - *if....* (1968), Fi1m 82, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/if-1968.md) ## Complete filmography (49) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Words in Progress* (2004), Actor - *D.W. Griffith: Father of Film* (1993), as Narrator - *Is That All There Is?* (1992), Director, Writer - *John Ford* (1992), presenter, Writer - *Omnibus: John Ford, Part One* (1992), Presenter, Writer - *Blame It on the Bellboy* (1992), as Mr. Marshall (voice) - *Prisoner of Honor* (1991), as War Minister - *Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius* (1989), as Narrator - *Glory! Glory!* (1989), Director - *The Whales of August* (1987), Director - *Wham! in China: Foreign Skies* (1986), Director - *Free Cinema, 1956 - ? An Essay on Film by Lindsay Anderson* (1985), Director - *Britannia Hospital* (1982), Director - *Chariots of Fire* (1981), as Master of Caius — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/chariots-of-fire.md) - *Look Back in Anger* (1980), Director - *The Old Crowd* (1979), Director - *In Celebration* (1975), Director - *O Lucky Man!* (1973), Director, Producer - *Home* (1972), Director - *Play for Today* (1970), series, Director - *Hetty King: Performer* (1970), as Narrator - *if....* (1968), Director, Producer — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/if-1968.md) - *Inadmissible Evidence* (1968), as Barrister - *Red, White, and Zero* (1968), Director - *Abel Gance: The Charm of Dynamite* (1968), as Narrator (voice) - *The Singing Lesson* (1967), Director - *The White Bus* (1967), Director, Producer - *Martyrs of Love* (1967), as Man in traffic police booth (uncredited) - *The Threatening Sky* (1966), as Narrator (UK) - *BBC Play of the Month* (1965), series, as Holz - *This Sporting Life* (1963), Director - *March to Aldermaston* (1959), Director - *John Ford at the NFT* (1957), Actor - *Every Day Except Christmas* (1957), Director, Writer - *Together* (1956), Supervising Editor - *The Adventures of Robin Hood* (1955), series, Director - *Foot and Mouth* (1955), as Narrator (voice) · Director, Writer - *Henry* (1955), Director, Screenplay - *Green and Pleasant Land* (1955), Director, Script - *£20 per ton* (1955), Director - *Trunk Conveyor* (1954), Narrator, Director - *Thursday's Children* (1954), Director, Writer - *The Pleasure Garden* (1953), as Michael-Angelico · Production Manager - *O Dreamland* (1953), Director, Writer - *Wakefield Express* (1952), Director, Writer - *Three Installations* (1952), Narrator, Director - *Idlers That Work* (1949), Narrator, Director - *Meet the Pioneers* (1948), as Narrator (voice) · Director, Editor - *The Last Day*, as Narrator ## Gallery - ![Lindsay Anderson house (2020)](https://film.one/media/person/59779/gallery-14fbe1e9431c.jpg) Lindsay Anderson house (2020) — Megalit, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Lindsay_Anderson_house.jpg/1280px-Lindsay_Anderson_house.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Lindsay Anderson plaque (2020)](https://film.one/media/person/59779/gallery-8e39cca4b94d.jpg) Lindsay Anderson plaque (2020) — Megalit, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Lindsay_Anderson_plaque.jpg/1280px-Lindsay_Anderson_plaque.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) ## Awards ### Cannes Film Festival — 1 won - 1969: Palme d'Or (won), for *If....* ### Other awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play 1971: Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (nominated) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/lindsay-anderson