Categories Streetlife Video

VIDEO: Streetlife 1995

Helen’s first big film role

by Karl Francis | Vimeo | September 15, 1995

Bob Flynn, writing for the Irish Times about the 49th Edinburgh Film Festival in 1995, thought Streetlife was the discovery of the festival fortnight, and marked “the triumphant renaissance” of Francis as a “devastating writer and director.” The film received a special runner-up from the Michael Powell Jury.

It also won the Silver Nymph Award at the 1995 Monte Carlo TV Festival, and two BAFTA Cymru Awards in 1997. One for best director and the other for Helen McCrory for Best Actress.

Categories Print Media Reviews Streetlife

Streetlife – Review

Superbly nuanced performance from National Theatre actress Helen McCrory

by Derek Elley | September 4, 1995 | Variety

Tough, funny, moving and totally truthful, “Streetlife” is a sock slice-of-life low-budgeter from the Ken Loach school of working-class drama. Motored by superbly nuanced playing from National Theatre actress Helen McCrory, as a gutsy single mom forced to deal with an inconvenient pregnancy, this BBC Wales telepic deserves wide exposure at Brit-friendly festivals in addition to its small-screen airings. It’s among the best work Welsh-born Karl Francis has done.

Setting is the town of Pontypridd, in the no-nonsense Rhondda Valley region of southern Wales, where Jo (McCrory) works in an all-femme sweatshop ironing clothes. Her life is raw but good: She has a perpetually horny married lover, Kevin (Rhys Ifans), and a young daughter; is studying to improve herself; and has managed to move away from her slobby father (John Pierce Jones) into her own place on a state housing estate.

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