My Generation

David Batty's 2017 documentary looks at London in the sixties through Michael Caine's account. Caine lived through it as a young working-class actor, and appears here as both narrator and guide, talking with figures from the period. David Bailey, Twiggy, Mary Quant and Marianne Faithfull describe the changes in fashion, photography, music and class structure. The film's argument is that what changed in that decade was not the culture but who was allowed to make it: young people without the accent, the background or the money moved to the centre for the first time. Archive footage is used generously. The documentary sits in a nostalgic register and does not press far enough into the period's uglier aspects. Who it's for: viewers curious about British popular culture in the sixties. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a critical account of the history; the film is largely celebratory.