Bread (1971 film)

Bread is a 1971 British film directed by Stanley Long. The BFI called it "an unusual mixture of pop festival documentary and saucy teen comedy."[2][3] It was the first film Long directed and he would direct most of his subsequent films.[4] Long called it "a terrible film in a way."[3]

Bread
Directed byStanley Long
Written bySuzanne Mercer
Story byStanley Long
Suzanne Mercer
Produced byStanley Long
Executive
Barry Jacobs
Production
company
Salon Productions
Release date
6 May 1971[1]
Running time
79 mins (original release)
68 mins (later release)[2]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Some friends leave a musical festival and squat on the estate of a rich man. They get permission to stay there provided they paint the house. The friends decide to organise a pop festival.

Cast
  • Anthony Nigel as Mick
  • Peter Marinker as Jeff
  • Dick Haydon as Trev
  • Noelle Rimmington as Cathy
  • Liz White as Marty
  • Yocki Rhodes as Terry
  • Michael McStay as Rafe
  • Penny Brahms as Jan
  • Sean Lynch as Danny

Production

The movie was financed by the backers of Groupie Girl. The film was based on the real life exploits of the co writer Suzanne Mercer.[2] The film opens with footage from the Isle of Wight Pop Festival. Long says the distributors were "really into sex films" and "didn't quite understand the pop culture" while "we were trying to make films that were more interesting" so "they got films made fairly seriously on the culture that existed at the time but they didn't get what they wanted. We were anti explicit nudity for the sake of it... We got caught between two stools."[3]

Reception

The film took a long time to make a profit. According to the BFI, "Bread is too strange and erratic an amalgam of different film genres to really succeed. There's not enough sex to make it a sex film; not enough music to make it a music film; and none of the sleazy drama that would move it into Groupie Girl territory. What there is in abundance is mild, cheeky comedy."[2]

Long said when the distributors saw it they said "there's not enough tits in it."[3] The Lincolnshire Echo called it "a stupid time waster that does not score at any level."[5]

References
  1. "Advertisement". Evening Standard. 6 May 1971. p. 20.
  2. Pratt, Vic. "Bread (1971)". BFI Screenonline.
  3. "Stanley A Long Side 5". British Entertainment History Project. 24 November 1999.
  4. Sheridan, Simon (16 September 2012). "Stanley Long: Film director who was described by 'The Sun' as 'The King of Sexploitation'". The Independent.
  5. "Fascinating slice of 1970s life". Lincolnshire Echo. 18 May 1971. p. 6.
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