All 28 entries tagged British Cinema From 1990
No other Warwick Blogs use the tag British Cinema From 1990 on entries | View entries tagged British Cinema From 1990 at Technorati | There are no images tagged British Cinema From 1990 on this blog
September 06, 2008
Ken Loach
Ken Loach (1936- )
(Please note this is a relaunch of an old page although there are some additions. The relaunch was due to an inadvertant mistake in constructing the original page that I couldn't get out of the code. This meant search engines were not searching for the term Ken Loach, which wasn't very useful. You live and learn:-( )
RETURN TO BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE
Introduction
Along with many other British director entries this entry is 'work in progress' nevertheless it will provide a basic signposting to other available resources on the web in the first instance until I'm able to make a fuller evaluation and provide fuller articles on the separate films.
From the perspective of examining and analysing the trials and tribulations, successes and failures, weakness and strengths of contemporary British cinema the films of Ken Loach are important ones to think about.
Ken Loach has been a major force in British filmmaking since the 1960s. Loach comes out of a strong tradition of British social realism which almost inevitably is a broadly left-wing cinema which also has crossovers with classic TV dramas. Kathy Come Home was a groundbreaking TV drama which helped to establish the charity Shelter and exposed the failures of the welfare state in providing good housing for all at the time. Loach also made early episodes of 'Z' Cars for TV and Up the Junction, in 1965. A powerful TV play. Much of this work depicted another side to Britain in the 1960s which is now remembered more nostaligically as the "Swinging Sixties". In fact there was considerable poverty and exploitation of working class tenants at the time. Work by people like Loach at the time applied pressure upon the Labour governemnt under Harold Wilson to invest more money in social policy initiatives such as housing and at the same time contributed to an increasing discourse of meritocracy within the country.
All this work led to Loach being able to make feature films of which Kes about a working class boy in the North of England is probably his best known early work and has been ranked as the seventh most popular British film ever. The working class were rarely represented in a non patronising way within British cinema up until this time although the work of the British social realist movement had begun to change this.
Loach is still a powerful force in Brish and European cinema continuing to win prizes and gain recognition despite the fact that the content of his films is challenging and critical of many different aspects of contemporary society or challenging recieved version of historical events such as The Spanish Civil War and Britain's role in Ireland after the First World War.
Class and Representation in Contemporary Britain
At a time when class politics has been largely relegated to the margins Loach manages to interweave class issues with history, globalisation and its effects on locality by representing the everyday. The strengths of Loach's cinematic approach can be seen in his concerns to represent aspects of Britain which are often underrepresented. Although his film The Navigators made for Channel Four focused upon the plight of a largely white British working class which was under attack from the Thatcher government that was restructuring the Railways Loach has begun to deal with complex issues of fragmented identities which have regional, gender and ethnic concerns dynamically interwoven in hybridsing patterns.
Loach has always had a central concern in his film-making agenda which an exposure of the poor and exploited of the world in both contemporary and historical settings. Following on from the British social realist tradition of representing regionalism as well as class, films such as Ae Fond Kiss and Sweet Sixteen have taken on board the complex issues of identity in the contemporary world from a grassroots perspective. See Representing Changing Britain: Ethnicity and Hybridity.
Loach has also successfully taken on board important historical themes which often get ignored by the mainstream which tends to celebrate great historically periods such as Elizabethan times in Britain. Loach's prizewinning Land and Freedom represented some of the realities behind the Spanish Civil War which was an important prelude to the opening of the Second World War itself. more recently Loach made the prizewinning The Wind That Shakes the Barley which dealt with the notoriously cruel period of British and Irish history which saw the inception of the Black and Tans terrorising the Irish population in a battle of independence. Atall times Loach takes a different perspective on aspects of life and history which often go unnoticed and unrepresented in mainstream media. Loach's critical perspective often makes it difficult to see his films in the multiplexes in Britain and in terms of box office takings his films often do better in continental Europe than in cinemas here. TV and DVD sales and a loyal continental following help ensure that Loach is able to the raise the money for new critical projects. Inevitably they are low budget and have little money for marketing campaigns. As such they represent the ongoing struggle if British and other national cinemas who are always under threat from the Hollywood industrial machine.
Ae Fond Kiss deals with changing concepts of ethnicity and celebrates the dynamism and natural hybridity of many people who dare to cross social and cultural boundaries in pursuit of their own happiness. Loach does an important job here for it is these people who are building the Britain of the future. This makes it a useful film to study as well.
It is difficult to classify Loach's films precisely becuase he seeks to look at the world through a different mental lens. One can look at Ae Fond Kiss and classify it as within the 'romantic' genre for example but it is rather more than that and would disappoint those who went along thinking they were going to see a standardised romance as structured within the genre conventions.
To look at the content of Loach's films, think about the way they are made - often reliant upon non-professional actors, and with an improvisatory method of engaging with the actors, and to relate their relationship to the systems of distribution and exhibition allows - indeed forces one take a critical perspective upon many different aspects of life. They are low budget films and indeed Loach prefers it like this. He and his teams have a far greater control over the content and the way they develop their own personal vision but they are not 'Art' films with a capital A because their aesthetic is easy to recognise amongst the desired working class audience. It is a pity that Loach has difficulty in reaching this audience through the cinema.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
Although Ken Loach is one of Britain's most respected film makers getting to see his films in a cinema in the UK is a difficult affair even when they gain critical accolades as did The Wind that Shakes the Barley which won the Palme d'Or the top prize at Cannes 2006 which is the most prestigious film festival in the world (Oscars have more glam,cash and celebrity but Cannes is for good, challenging and interesting films).
When an acclaimed, leftist English director makes a film about nationalist Irish struggles – and wins the top prize at the Cannes festival – controversy is inevitable. The historian Stephen Howe looks behind the shouting to ask: is the film truthful? (Stephen Howe Open Democracy article.)
We know there is something deeply wrong with the British film industry as a whole when this sort of situation is happening. Here we need to consider and come up with different models of distribution and exhibition as an urgent matter of cultural policy to deal with the creatively choking (and polluting) control of the multiplexes.
In this film Loach examines a broader historical theme which is something he has done previously in Land and Freedom about the Spanish Civil War. Loach has the ability to move from the micro of the quotidian looking at the trials, tribulations and frustrations of the everyday for working class people to important periods of history which are often obscured by various ideological and political issues of the present. There are few British films which take a critical look at the role of Britain in Irish history for example.
This film is a useful one to study as a part of issues and debates in contemporary British cinema both from the perspective of its content and also the highly contradictory situation of the film not being widely celebrated within the cinema system itself.
It's a Free World (2007)
For a more in depth article please see It's a Free World on this blog. For a discussion about the underlying socio-economic processes that Loach is representing see also entry on Globalisation on this blog.
Again this is a prize winning film gaining an important award at the prestigious Venice Film Festival of Best Screenplay, Venice Film Festival 2007 as well as Best Film, Seville Film Festival 2007
"Osella" for Paul Laverty at Venice Film Festival:
"It's a Free World" wins "Best Screenplay"(Sept. 9th 2007) Paul Laverty won the "Osella" for the Best Screenplay for "It's a Free World" (directed by Ken Loach) at this year's Venice Film Festival. Besides the drama was awarded with a EIUC Human Rights Film Award and got a special mention a the Signis Awards.
It's A Free World Trailer
Below interview with Ken Loach conducted in Italian. (Loach's comments are being translated)
Review from Amanda Palmer of It's a Free World as part of a film review programme from Al Jazeera
Filmography
The Wind That Shakes The Barley 2006
Tickets (with Abbas Kiarostami, Ermanno Olmi) 2005
Ae Fond Kiss 2003
Sweet Sixteen; 11'09'01 - September 11 (segment) 2002
The Navigators 2001
Bread and Roses 2000
My Name is Joe 1998
Webliography
Screenonline biographical notes on Ken Loach (There are many associated links to films on this page)
Sweet Sixteen Films (Home page of Ken Loach and Rebecca O'Brien Production Company)
Observer report on It's a Free World
Socialist worker interview with Ken Loach about Its a Free World
European Films.Net Review of It's a Free World
Reuters Report on It's a Free World
A different Reuters Report on It's a Free World
Guardian interview with Loach and Laverty at the Southbank
Independent Review of It's a Free World
Fujifilm PDF on Its a Free World. (Excellent images on this)
Loach makes union workers aware of wider issues attending screening for Unison branch
BBC Story: Loach slams "Hollywood bias"
BBC on Cannes success of Sweet Sixteen
BBC Loach Criticises British Film Makers for Hollywood Dreams
MEDIA support in Production (Industrial context)
Timesonline: Eric Cantona and Ken Loach team up for football film
Films of Loach and Garnett, fudge e.Jumpcut
Euroscreenwriter interview with Ken Loach
Observer Arts column on Cannes and Loach April 2008
Guardian: 'Come out Fighting'. 2006 on Wind That Shakes the Barley
Cineaste: The Revolution Betrayed. Interview with Loach
An Phoblacht on Wind That Shakes the Barley
Bibliography
Leigh, Jacob.(2002). The Cinema of Ken Loach: Art in the Service of the People. Wallflower Press
Ken Loach: Which Side Are You On? Ken Loach and His Films By Anthony Hayward ISBN: 9780747574125
Film Availability : The following Ken Loach films are currently available
RETURN TO BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE
06 Sep 2008 07:06
| 
Tags: Ae Fond Kiss British Cinema British Cinema From 1990 Contemporary British Cinema History Film ITS A Free World Ken Loach Kes Land And Freedom Paul Laverty Political Cinema Poor Cow Rebecca Obrien Riff Raff Socialist Cinema Sweet Sixteen The Navigators The Wind That Shakes The Barley
| 
Comments (0)
| 
Report a problem
Please wait - comments are loading
March 21, 2008
Mobile Cinema in the UK
Mobile Cinema in the UK
Return to Contemporary British Cinema Hub Page
In these days of hyperspace and broadband internet mobile cinema still has an important place in Britain's rural communities. The concept of mobile cinema is an old one. It was used during the Soviet Revolution to help give the illiterate peasants speaking many different languages a sense of what was happening. Importantly funding is available to help out for cinema is best experienced on a big screen which it was designed for and of course an appreciative audience helps.
In 2004 the National Lottery recognised the importance of cinema as a powerful medium and decided to stimulate cinema in rural areas through the use of mobile cinema:
The Lottery fund has given £500,000 to the initiative. Successful applicants will receive up to £5,000 to spend on portable digital film equipment. (BBC Film Report)
A mobile film initiative was carried out in Wales in 2002. The project, called Wyred, was held in five venues in Monmouthshire and Powys, including village halls, pubs and cafes:
A series of short films are being shown by a mobile touring cinema at venues along the Wye Valley.
The programme of 11 films includes a number of Oscar-nominated and Bafta award-winning movies made by Welsh-based directors. (BBC Wales)
Flicks in the Sticks
Flicks in the Sticks is a mobile cinema which provides films to people in Shropshire and Herefordshire.
The company has a choice of hundreds of films which are shown in village halls in 70 areas across the two counties. (BBC 2003)
Flicks in the Sticks gained support from Screen West Midlands in 2007:
Flicks in the Sticks 2007
£18,500
2007Flicks in the Sticks tours Big Screen cinema to rural venues. Flicks works with local people, setting them up as promoters who choose what film to show, when to show it, and undertake all venue preparation and publicity. Flicks in the Sticks was one of the first projects in the country to deliver cinema in this way.
In 2007, Flicks worked with 59 venues in rural Shropshire and Herefordshire, delivering over 545 films to an annual audience in excess of 25,000 people.
Moviola
Moviola is a small charitable organisation which provides screenings in villages across several South Western Counties. It is providing alternatives and developing film culture.
This Moviola What's On provides you with current and past screenings to show the range of films screened. 
Webliography
Mad Cornish Projectionist who seems to be well linked.
21 Mar 2008 18:37
| Tags: A Level Media Studies British Cinema From 1990 Contemporary British Cinema Kinoeye Mobile Cinema In The Uk
| Comments (0)
| Report a problem
January 21, 2008
Control: Anton Corbijn
Anton Corbijn
Control, 2007: Anton Corbijn. (116 Mins, B&W)
This posting is currently acting as a hub site for the film Control which is being released on DVD on the 11th of Feb 2008 in the UK. As can be seen the film has won a range of crtiical accolages and as such is an interesting one to consider in relation to contemporary British Cinema. It belongs to a long line of Rock Biopics. It is the second film about Factory Records and the Mancunian music scene with Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People released in 2001.
Trailer from YouTube
Audience / Critical Reception
2007's best films
As voted by the Guardian's film writers
Friday December 7, 2007
1 Control
dir Anton Corbijn
What we said: "Control is a film about England, about music, about loneliness and love. There is melancholy in it, but also a roar of energy. I thought it might depress me. Instead, I left the cinema walking on air."
5 stars
Joy Division biopic scoops five prizes: Bleak tale of life and death of Ian Curtis wins best film and best director categories
Bristish Independent Film Awards (BIFA), 2007
BBC Cannes 2007 report on the reception for Control
BBC Joy Division Dominate Film Awards
Webliography
Interviews
Control : BBC Collective Interview with Anton Corbijn
Control: Indie London Corbijn Interview
Control: Time Out Corbijn Interview
Edinburgh International Film Festival Video Interview with Corbijn
Guardian discussion with the remaining band members
Reviews
Control is great, but where are the women? Guardian blog on Control
Comments from the Watershed on Control and Corbijn
Guardian (Bradshaw) on Control
Other
Ian Curtis' daughter Natalie in the Observer on Control
Anton Corbijn reflects upon his life in the Guardian
New Statesman article on the 'Rock Biopic' Genre
Samantha Morton Guardian feature
21 Jan 2008 20:03
| Tags: A Level Media Studies Anton Corbijn British Cinema From 1990 Contemporary British Cinema Control Kinoeye Rock Biopics
| Comments (0)
| Report a problem
January 19, 2008
Paul Greengrass
Contemporary British Directors: Paul Greengrass
Return to Contemorary British Directors hub page here.
Biographical Details
Paul Greengrass has had a history of working at the cutting edge of documentary and also writing making firstly with the Granada World in Action TV documentary series. Although he should not be regarded as politically radical his career has been one which has sought to make liberal democracy become more transparent and it appears as though he sees the role of media as making a powerful contribution towards this. His treatment of events in Northern Ireland, his contribution to the Spycatcher book, which tore into the British establishment in the 1980s. His documentary United 93 underpinned the power and determination of ordinary people who will sacrifice themselves for others in the face of a totalitarian terrorism expressed on this occasion by the despised Al Quaida. Most of his early work has trodden where many other filmmakers and creative people have feared to tread. As as John Patterson in The Guardian puts it:
Five years ago, Paul Greengrass was an avowedly political, low-budget British filmmaker working within the documentary-style tradition that constitutes the core - the deepest, oldest thread - of British cinema; now he's a big-name director making kinetic, visceral Hollywood movies that are eagerly awaited at multiplexes worldwide. Ultimatum, budgeted at $125m (£62m), looks set to become one of the biggest hits of the summer. Funny how things turn out.
Born
Greengrass went to school in Kent, winning a scholarship to Sevenoaks School, and started his film-making career with a super 8 camera he found in the art room. He made a series of animated horror films, using old dolls and bric-a-brac props. He went on to Queens' College, Cambridge, and then, inspired by the story of Woodward and Bernstein's uncovering of the Watergate scandal in All the President's Men, decided to become an investigative journalist. (Guardian overview of Greengrass).
He worked with the "World in Action" (ITV, 1963-99) - TV documentary series. The series itself gained a reputation for being cutting edge and hard hitting often being more controversial and less mainstream than the main BBC competitor of the time which was Panorama. As Greengrass commented in a Guardian interview:
I arrived there 1978-79. The great days of World in Action had been the 1960s and it had lost its way somewhere, somewhat, in the mid-70s, but the onset of Margaret Thatcher gave it this tremendous new lease of life. (ibid)
During the 1980s, Greengrass also co-authored the controversial book Spycatcher with former MI5 Assistant Director, Peter Wright. The book, which detailed Wright's attempts to ferret out a Russian spy from the ranks of the British intelligence agency, was banned by the government and held from release until 1988. In the mid 1980s Greengrass met the controversial filmmaker Alan Clarke who had made Scum and had had a strong influence upon his thinking. Greengrass has also been influenced by the realism of Ken Loach particularly Kes and also Peter Watkins’ controversial documentary The War Game.
It seems as though Greengrass’s film Resurrection (1989) taught him a lesson about drama and film making which allowed him to break with the strongly social realist mode of his previous work enabling him to film an event which it wouldn’t be possible to witness – a brutal mock court martial. It allowed him to take his aesthetic approach to a different level. The film was nominated for a Golden Bear winning some jury awards at the Berlin Film Festival.
We were using the dispassionate, observational documentary eye I had developed, if you like, on recreated events, and the collision between the two allows you to get at a bigger truth than you could by using just the one approach or the other. (ibid).
From Gritty documentaries to Hollywood Action Adventure with an Edge
For many followers of Greengrass who seemed to be following a path well trodden by many British directors working within a social realist mode it came as a great surprise when Greengrass was chosen to direct the Bourne Supremacy (2004). It was so successful - apparently netting $175 million in the box-office that he directed the Bourne Ultimatum (2007). It hasn't won Greengrass friends everywhere as a summariser from the Independent on Sunday noted in an interview with Harold Pinter and Time Out magazine which was scathingly critical:
I saw a film, The Bourne Ultimatum," Pinter begins, "and I thought: Fucking hell! This guy is clearly the strongest man in the world. He can beat up about 12 people in about 35 seconds and kill half of them.
"The whole thing is totally unreal. I was stupefied by it, it was so lacking in intelligence." He adds that he sat in the cinema "seething, thinking: What am I doing here, being bombarded by this sound? It knocks you out."
The interviewer pointed out that Oscar-nominated Greengrass is considered a master of dramatic realism.
"Paul Greengrass?" replies Pinter. "I saw Bloody Sunday, I also saw United 93: that fellow is no chump."But: "I've never been able to write a film which I didn't respect, I just can't do it."
John Patterson in the Guardian was rather more sympathetic to the project than Pinter and in doing so comes to a position which finds cross-overs between auteurism and genre cinema almost identifying a British hybrid genre of the 'political-realist action-action thriller':
Bloody Sunday may be political and tragic, but it's also an action-movie manqué. Indeed, the idea of a left-progressive action-movie director isn't even that novel: in Britain it's almost a mini-tradition. Peter Watkins is an action director without compare - witness Culloden or Punishment Park. And no one shot mayhem and violence more compellingly than Clarke. Given such forebears, the move from Bloody Sunday to Jason Bourne is an entirely natural and seamless one. (My emphasis; Guardian ibid).
Patterson has a point for it is clear that Pinter has little notion of the action adventure genre and in this sense we can point to the subversion of the sterotype.
And instead of the usual boringly indestructible, mindless right-wing macho man in the lead, the left-leaning Matt Damon plays the isolated and existentially solitary Bourne as a man whose memory may have been erased, but not his sense of morality or his essentially liberal strain of patriotism. It's all subtly embedded within a framework of thrills and violence, but it's there none the less. Greengrass wouldn't be Greengrass if it wasn't.
Whilst Pinter from a more realist mode is right to criticise the impossibility of Bourne being able to whisk aside several hardened CIA operatives just like that this is merely a convention of this type of film. This can be seen in films such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It is a dramatic device for when Bourne meets the Arabic operative sent to kill him in a hand to hand he only just makes it similarly he only survives the car chase by chance. Here he is taking on his own kind the super-killer of which he is the Ur-figure gone wrong. As a political thriller there is a long tradition of defending the supremacy of the American political system against corrupt methods which would ultimately undermine the very raison d'etre of the United States Constitution itself. This appears on John Gresham novels and films and older films such as Clear and Present Danger dealing with drug cartels. Although not directly dealing with an American theme these kind of highly secretive undercover operations by states are also critiqued in films such as Spielberg's Munich.
What Greengrass brings to this more American sub-generic category is a decidely British aesthetic which arguably has its heart in European cinema itself. Greengrass brings a gritty realism which belongs to the tradition of the British gangster-heavy (Chibnall) tradition which hasdeveloped thought films such as Brighton Rock, Get Carter (made by Mike Hodges who also worked for World in Action), The Long Good Friday. All of these involved corruption of some sort usually amongst police and local government. Greengrass is well placed to deal with higher level governmental corruption because of his involvement with the Spycatcher affair. all those British gangster films are strong on a sense of place. This is an aesthetic that Greengrass has brought wioth him. One can compare the car chase scene in the Bourne Ultimatum with the ridiculous street shoot out in Heat, to gain a real sense in the difference aesthetic which as Patterson notes is one which is a:
... patented newsreel-style, quasi-documentary, highly organic aesthetic - non-professional casts, few effects or soundstages, lots of hand-held and SteadiCam, much wobble and blur, extremely long takes, cut together in sequences often made up of hundreds of microscopically attenuated shots -... (ibid)
In the Guardian interview with Patterson Greengrass comments that he sees the Bourne character as analagous to Patricia Highsmith's Ripley character becuase there is a duality:
I love Matt in it. He's not only a brilliant actor, but also brilliant in that part because he's a wonderful player of duality - you think of [Tom] Ripley and other parts he's played. You don't know which side of that duality he's on at any moment. And that's Bourne: a duality, a killer who's redeemed himself, the man on the run with a dark past, so he's perfect. You couldn't ask for a better actor in the part than Matt.
I don't think that this is a good analogy at all because Ripley is an entirely amoral opportunist. The comparison revolves around the issue of individual agency. Ripley sees an opportunity and takes it and gradually becomes involved in murder and then serial murder and his character declines. Bourne is an allegory for the honest truly democratic USA which has literal agents within who are suborning the true nature and aims of the country. Bourne represents this tension, this duality. We know he has truly broken with this dark instilled past when he fails to kill the other super-agent at the end of the car chase. When this person is positioned to kill Bourne a little later he lets him go asking why Bourne failed to kill him. Here the conversation allows for self-reflexivity for it is a question which many americans including their military are asking themselves: is what is going on in Iraq just? Are we making things better or worse? By what authority are we here? Given the CIA information about "Weapons of Mass Destruction" was the excuse for the USA to go to war and for the British Government to follow suit despite there being no clear evidence then means that we can see the Bourne Ultimatum as an allegorical critique of American foreign policy.
It is this lack of recognition by Pinter of the necessity to work within popular genres in order to subvert them if one is able to amount any critique at all within the American cinematic system. It is a reading that will have flown over the heads of many viewers of the film inevitably but audiences have many ways of viewing a text.
Other recent non cinema work
The Murder of Stephen Lawrence (1999). ITV Documentary. Directed by Greengrass.
Omagh Channel Four TV Documentary. Greengrass was the producer and writer of this.
Filmography
The Bourne Ultimatum, 2007
The Bourne Supremacy,2004
Bloody Sunday, 2002
The Theory of Flight, 1998
The Sweetest Thing, 1995
Resurrected, 1989
Indie London interview with Greengrass
Webliography
BBC the Writer's Room a Q & A with Paul Greengrass
A Times overview of Greengrass's work
Guardian: Hollywood's Favourite Brit
Guardian overview of Paul Greengrass
Independent on Sunday. Noting Harold Pinter's disgust at The Bourne Ultimatum
Working Title entry on Greengrass winning BAFTA with United 93
Sight and Sound Review of Bloody Sunday
British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) for Bloody Sunday
An interesting comparative review by the well respected David Tereshchuk who was actually at the Bloody Sunday Event reporting for the BBC
Return to Contemorary British Directors hub page here.
19 Jan 2008 15:23
| Tags: Bourne Ultimatum British Cinema British Cinema From 1990 Contemporary British Cinema Film Studies Kinoeye Ocr Media Studies Paul Greengrass Social Realism World In Action
| Comments (0)
| Report a problem
January 03, 2008
Joe Wright
British Directors: Joe Wright (1972-)
VISIT THE BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE
Introduction
Joe Wright in a short career has proved to be highly successful director of heritage style costume dramas based upon literary adaptations. Atonement (2007) opened the 64th Venice Film Festival making Wright the youngest director ever to have had a film opening this festival.
Wright was trained at St. Martins art school in London now Central St. Martins University of the Arts London. He has been identified as dyslexic and left school with no qualifications. His dyslexia was comensated for by an excellent ability within the field of visual communications and the strength of his painting and film making skills exceptionally won him a place in the prestigious St Martins to study fine art and film He won recognition making a short film for the BBC and directed the highly successful historical drama series Charles II: The Power and The Passion for the BBC which won the 2004 BAFTA TV award, Best Drama Serial. This helped him to get film contracts for the historical / heritage / costume drama genre films Atonement and Pride and Prejudice.
Film Availability:
The Charles II TV Series is also available:
Filmography (Feature Films)
2007: Atonement
2005: Pride and Prejudice
Webliography
Guardian interview with Joe Wright on Pride and Predjudice
Guardian video interview Joe Wright on Atonement
Independent article on Wright and Atonement summer 2007
VISIT THE BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE
03 Jan 2008 13:16
| Tags: A Level Media Studies Atonement British Cinema From 1990 British Costume Drama Films Central St Martins Charles The Second The Power And The Passion Contemporary British Cinema Contemporary British Directors Heritage Cinema Joe Wright Kinoeye Pride And Predjudice
| Comments (0)
| Report a problem
January 02, 2008
Edgar Wright
British Directors: Edgar Wright (1974-)
VISIT THE BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE
Introduction
Edgar Wright did a lot of his early work in TV as so many up coming film directors have done in the past. spaced was a successful sitcom which went into two series runnig between 1999 - 2001 and significantly helped Wright to establish a reputation. His first work after studying film at Bournemouth was low budget comedy and he has worked in the comedy idiom ever since. Wright has done a lot of work with Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson and the success of Spaced allowed them to launch Shaun of the Dead a comedy-horror. The success of this film with a moderate budget allowed them to make Hot Fuzz. Wright also spent some time working with more established comedy acts in the BBC namely Alexei Sayle and Dawn French.
Romero eat your heart out - or maybe they will. Shaun of the Dead marked the return of the comedy-horror hybrid genre.
Webliography
BBC film Network Wright interview. Includes extract of Hot Fuzz
Screenonline Biography of Edgar Wright
BFI full list of Film and TV Credits for Edgar Wright
BBC Q & A page with Wright and Pegg
Guardian NFT interview with Pegg and Wright
BBC Review of Shaun of the Dead
Working Title Shaun of the Dead with trailer available
RETURN TO BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE
02 Jan 2008 22:38
| Tags: A Level Media Studies British Cinema From 1990 Comedy Horror Contemporary British Cinema Contemporary British Directors Edgar Wright Hot Fuzz Kinoeye Shaun Of The Dead
| Comments (1)
| Report a problem
Hot Fuzz, 2006. Dir: Edgar Wright
Hot Fuzz, 2006. Dir: Edgar Wright
Bye Bye The Matrix !
Production by Working Title
VISIT THE BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE
Introduction
Well I haven't fully investigated it yet but the marketing of the film was clearly brilliantly organised. The BBC website below provided the materials for a very carefully orchestrated launch. Perhaps even more unusual was a preview in the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). This was clearly an attempt by Working Title to build on its considerable reputation and target an much wider audience than might usually go to what might seem to be a typical 'Britcom'. The success of the low budget Shaun of the Dead also by director Edgar Wright also created an air of anticipation.
Film Availability: DVD available in UK
Webliography
This is an abslotue must go to site if you are interested in the film at all. There are a host of interviews etc off the landing page. First class pages *****!
Working Title Video Blog of Hot Fuzz
02 Jan 2008 22:06
| Tags: A Level Media Studies British Cinema British Cinema From 1990 Comedy Genre Contemporary British Cinema Edgar Wright Hot Fuzz Working Title
| Comments (0)
| Report a problem
Stephen Frears
British Directors: Stephen Frears (1941-)
VISIT THE BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE
Introduction
Stephen Frears has had a fine film making career making many notable British films some of which have had a controversial edge live My Beautiful Laundrette and Sammie and Rosie Get Laid. With these films and with Dirty Pretty Things Frears has shown he can make films with his finger on the pulse of social change. His most successful recent film was The Queen which won many accolades. A fuller evaluation will appear in due course however there are a good range of web links established to aid research.
Filmography
2006: The Queen
2005: Mrs Henderson Presents
2002: Dirty Pretty Things
2000: High Fidelity; Liam
1998: The Hi-Lo Country
1996 The Van
1995: Mary Reilly
1993: The Snapper
1992: Accidental Hero
1990: The Grifters
1989: Dangerous Liaisons
1987: Prick Up Your Ears
1987: Sammy and Rosie Get Laid
1985: My Beautiful Laundrette
1984: The Hit
1979: Bloody Kids
1971: Gumshoe
Film availability
Webliography
Screenonline Biography.(Excellent range of other links to specific films here)
Guardian Interview Stephen Frears
BBC Interview on Dirty Pretty Things
Daily Telegraph. Film Makers on film: Stephen Frears
BBC Film Network page on The Queen. Clip and trailer available here.
Guardian on Frears as Chairperson of the Cannes Jury 2007
David Thompson in the Independent 2nd Jan 2008 on Stephen Frears
Britfim Frears heads Cannes Jury
Guardian interview of Frears 2004 (who reveals that he watches Big Brother)
Skillset Frears takes part in mentoring scheme
RETURN TO BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE
02 Jan 2008 14:14
| Tags: A Level Media Studies British Cinema British Cinema From 1990 Contemporary British Cinema Contemporary British Directors Film Education Kinoeye Stephen Frears
| Comments (0)
| Report a problem
British Directors: Mike Hodges
British Directors: Mike Hodges (1932 - )
( BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE)
Introduction
Mike Hodges is still known for his 'gangster heavy' film Get Carter which seems to get number one in the 'Lad's Mags' lists for the 'well 'ard'. In fact it was an insightful view of relationships between British Gangland and various local businesses and of course the police. In terms of representations of Newcastle and the North East at the time the corruption of the Poulson affair.
The film was a continuation of the representation of British Gangland from Brighton Rock through The Long Good Friday which also dealt with corruption and was prescient about developments in the London docklands. Hodges has contributed another gangster heavy film in recent years I'll Sleep When I'm Dead.
For more on the theme of British Crime Films please follow this link.
A fuller evaluation of Mike Hodges work will follow however there are some useful links here to help with your research.
Fimography
1970 Get Carter
1972 Pulp
1974 Terminal Man
1979 Flash Gordon
1985 Morons from Outer Space
1987 A Prayer for the Dying
1990 Black Rainbow
1998 Croupier
2001 Murder By Numbers
2003 I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
2004 Murder by Numbers
Films Available:
Webliography
Screenonline Biography of Mike Hodges
Guardian interview with Mike Hodges
NFT Interview with Mike Hodges
Sight and Sound Review of I'll Sleep when I'm Dead
BBC Radio 3 series of interviews with Mike Hodges about work in progress on I'll sleep When I'm Dead
BBC Interview with Mike Hodges on Croupier
Culture Wars Review of I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
RETURN TO BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE
02 Jan 2008 12:05
| Tags: A Level Media Studies British Cinema British Cinema From 1990 Contemporary British Cinema Contemporary British Directors Film Education Kinoeye Mike Hodges
| Comments (0)
| Report a problem
Elizabeth the Golden Age, 2007 . Dir Shekhar Kapur
Elizabeth the Golden Age, 2007 . Dir Shekhar Kapur
Introduction
I was very impressed with Kapur's first rendering of the early part of Elizabeth's life and it will be interesting to see how this history film stands up to its predecessor. It is improtant to differentiate the genre of history film from that of costume drama as a genre. The latter are usually stories set in a specific historical period but which often have no historical grounding in the facts. By comparison the history film is about specific people and events which are accepted as facts although interpretations of these facts will of course differ. It is also important to note the creation by critics of the notion of the 'heritage film' which suggested that countries undergoing some sort of crisis perhaps of identity often recourse to a golden past which is something of a mythical one (See also Heritage Cinema in France). There is an abundance of films about the Tudor period and Elizabeth 1st whilst there is a paucity of films about large tracts of other parts of British history. There will be a comparison of this film with the earlier versio of Elizabeth in due course.
Shekhar Kapur's previous version was very succesful in financial terms by the standards of British films. Kepur was a controversial choice the last time after his film Bandit Queen was banned in India. It was a fine film and Film Four backed the original project. I'm looking forward to seeing this one in any case.
Film availability:
Not currently available as a DVD in the UK. Still in cinemas.
Webliography
Historian Alison Weir on Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Radio One interviews with Shekhar Kapur and others.
Guardian Blog for Elizabeth the Golden Age. A nice quality viewing extract available here.
Guardian Review of Elizabeth the Golden Age
Long live the queen. Guardian feature on clothing design and the representations of queens in film
Observer review of Elizabeth the Golden Age
Official marketing site for Elizabeth the Golden Age
Working Title: Producers of Elizabeth the Golden Age
Kinoeye History of Working Title
About.com interview with Kapur
Wikipedia on Elizabeth the Golden Age
RETURN TO BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE
02 Jan 2008 00:42
| Tags: A Level Media Studies British Cinema British Cinema From 1990 Cate Blanchett Contemporary British Cinema Contemporary British Directors Elizabeth The Golden Age Film Education History Film Kinoeye Shekhar Kapur Working Title Productions
| Comments (0)
| Report a problem
Loading…