Claim: This Sporting Life was directed by a male feature film director.

Lindsay Gordon Anderson -LRB- 17 April 1923 -- 30 August 1994 -RRB- was a British feature film , theatre and documentary director , film critic , and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave . He is most widely remembered for his 1968 film if ... , which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival and was Malcolm McDowell 's cinematic debut . He is also notable , though not a professional actor , for playing a minor role in the Academy Award winning film Chariots of Fire . Malcolm McDowell produced a 2007 documentary about his experiences with Lindsay Anderson , Never Apologize .