VISUAL ARTS

Clayton’s feature debut not only established him as a filmmaker whose importance was internationally recognized, Room at the Top helped pave the way for the British New Wave and such filmmakers as Lindsay Anderson and John Schlesinger, thanks to its unsparing portrayal of the corrosive effects of the class system. Set in postwar Yorkshire, the film skillfully blends kitchen-sink realism with heartfelt melodrama to tell the story of a young man from the working class who courts the boss’s daughter while also becoming the lover of an unhappily married older woman. The “X” rating the film received from the British censors seems to stem as much from the work’s emotional rawness as from its frank sexual content.