Knipper's Kitchen Sink

Catalogue note

There was time in British cinema, at the tail end of the sixties, when directors strove to make their mark with "arthouse movies".

Ideally, they would be full of some sort of unexplained tension. Further, all female protagonists would display elements of clothing hitched unnecessarily high for no reason, perhaps on a bus; each of which shot would take a full minute of screen time. At the time, critics levelled accusations that these directors had no idea what they were doing, and each movie was just an assemblage of shots with no real story.

Certainly that accusation falls squarely and heavily on Kenny Knipper.

He discovered the term "kitchen sink drama" at an early age, and grew convinced that all his movies must be, in fact, about kitchen sinks, the grimier the better. Gone were any thoughts of character, or indeed plot. Taking cues from Russian film directors, he used water in his shots in any form he could think of. Indeed, some of the ways he used various other liquids were enough to generate the triple X rating of his seventies movies, but as we can see in the title sequence above, made in 1969, he wasn't quite there yet. With such reviews as "I was unable to watch it" and "I've got better things to do", both of which were plastered on the film poster, it's surprising that his backers, Paul Pawley and Marion Maid put up any cash at all.

Nonetheless the film was completed in just four hours, and Knipper went on to direct such liquidy greats as "The Milky Way" and "You're in Trouble".

Should you wish to see the rest of the film, please be assured you are the only one.