Directed by Lindsay Anderson • 1975 • United Kingdom
Starring Brian Cox, Alan Bates, Gabrielle Daye

Director Lindsay Anderson brings his acclaimed stage version of David Storey’s ferocious and poignant drama to the screen, utilizing the same brilliant cast for a riveting cinematic triumph. A caustic portrait of generational hypocrisy, IN CELEBRATION unfolds in a tiny cottage in a Yorkshire mining town where hardworking, God-fearing couple Mr. and Mrs. Shaw (Bill Owen and Constance Chapman) welcome their sons—Andrew (Alan Bates), Colin (James Bolam), and Steven (Brian Cox)—home to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary. But with each son’s arrival, more and more of the Shaw’s model blue-collar family facade begins to chip away—revealing a modern family living at a medieval level of disharmony.