In This World: Michael Winterbottom

In This World: 2002. Dir. Michael Winterbottom

Introduction

This entry is currently going to be limited to being a webliography. It is part of an ongoing analysis of contemporary British cinema and its responses to the processes of globalisation and diaspora which are a major feature of contemporary networked society. As such it is cross linked to this entry: Contemporary British Cinema: Representing the World Locally

Awards and Accolades

Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear 2003

BAFTA Film Award 2004  best film not in the English Language category.  

Webliography 

BBC Review In This World

BBC Interview with Michael Winterbottom

Wikipedia In This World 

Indiewire disussion with Michael Winterbottom

Daily Telegraph review: In This World

Chris Darke on Globalisation and In This World

Guardian on In This World

Observer commentary on In This World. (Very useful comments on the industrial and exhibitionary background)

Tony Grisoni on his role in In This World 

Screenonline Bibliography of Michael Winterbottom 

Daily Telegraph Film Makers on Film: Michael Winterbottom

Senses of Cinema on Michael Winterbottom

Philip French Observer Review

Film Availability :          

In This World is available from MovieMail here.  

RETURN TO BRITISH DIRECTORS HUB PAGE 

: 26 Dec 2007 11:35 |  Tags: A Level Film Studies A Level Media Studies British Cinema Cinema Of Diaspora Contemporary British Cinema Contemporary British Directors In This World Kinoeye Michael Winterbottom |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Contemporary British Cinema: Representing The World Locally

Contemporary British Cinema: Representing the World Locally

Preface:

If you have arrived here from the Chronology of European Cinema page the reason is that the film you are interested can be understood as part of the theme above.  You will find  a link below which will take you to a specialist page. See also Globalisation and Cinema Hub Page

Introduction: The Misrepresentations of Global Cinema

As an important media form Cinema as a whole functions through systems of representing the world . How it represents the world and what it represents are extremly important in terms of influencing opinion. The whole global economy is currently in a phase which Manuel Castells has described as a 'Networked society' others call it 'information society' and the 'information economy'. Whilst some consider that the Capitalist system underpinnng this phase is 'Late' Capitalism this comment is more speculative and / or polemical than proven. What is the case is that liberal, largely uncontrolled and deregulated, free market capitalism as an economic system has never been so powerful as it is in its current phase. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc of Eastern and Central Europe from 1989 onwards has been a central part of this process. The economic regime institued by the Thatcher / Reagan coupling was called "Shock Therapy" in which vast numbers of citizens in the former Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc lost their savings and their jobs. The old style communict China becoming increasingly isolated it has been  changing its  internal model  of the economy and the  political management of this to accomodate capitalism. As a result it now plays a hugely important role in world markets as it has taken over the mantle of 'workshop of the world', a mantle that was a British one for much of the 19th century. 

The human cost of this process has been and is horrendous but much of this process has been largely unrepresented in the popular media. where it has been represented the outcomes of these vast global changes has been represented as a threat from the desperate victims  who have been placed in camps in France whilst trying to gain access to the UK by both legal and illegal means.

The reality which many especially those in the middle and controlling elites choose to ignore is that large cities operate largely on the basis of this informal economy of undocumented labour who through this process lose many of thier human rights. It is a process which has been going on longer in the United States and the theorist Mike Davis in his book City of Quartz out in the early 1990s reported on whole shanty cities full of undocumented workers from Latin America as satellite cities of Los Angeles. Naturally Hollywood cinema has not seen fit to represent these social and cultural issues at a serious level.

Contemporary British Cinema: Representions of the Oppressed 

British cinema, even in Britain itself, is on the margins of the dominant systems of representation (see The Irresistable Rise of the Multiplex) in recent years it has developed a proud tradition of representing the underdog and ensuring that at least a few people gain a different understanding to the process of real life away from the pathetic populist celebrity glamour that dominates so many media forms. 

As can be seen from the list of films below the themes of diaspora and migration and a range of different perspectives upon these processes give us a chance to gain a better understanding of the world.  Of the various subthemes which this important response led by British cinema has neglected perhaps the organised criminality associated with sexual exploitation and the sex trade is the most important. It is dealt with partially in Last Resort and Dirty Pretty Things but the film which most powerfully represent this deeply nasty trade is Lilya 4-ever. Finally the British government is in the process of creating legislation to clamp down on this social evil:

Do we think it's right in the 21st Century that women should be in a sex trade or do we think it's exploitation and should be banned (Harriet Harman in BBC report)

This is of course controversial but should not be cosidered as creating a prurient regime rather as removing a mechanism of exploitation in society. Despite the outrage - mainly from men - in the BBC comments box, sexual commodification deeply degrades and denases humanity. Most of those who are victims of it are forced in by economic circumstance, other pressures or through a childhood of sexual abuse. As such the sex trade reinforces and reflects the unequal relationships of economic and gender power within society.

British Cinema and Diaspora

The list of recent British films which have diaspora and migration as a strong underlying theme include:

• The Last Resort: 2000. Pawel Pawlikowski
  
• Dirty Pretty Things: 2003. Stephen Frears
  
• In this World:2002. Michael Winterbottom
• Ghosts: 2007. Nick Broomfield
  
• It's a Free World: 2007.  Ken Loach
  

Diaspora Cinema 

Conference on the Industrial Context of Diaspora and Migrant Cinema

Film Availability :     

: 25 Dec 2007 14:51 |  Tags: A Level Media Studies British Cinema Contemporary British Cinema Contemporary British Directors Ken Loach Kinoeye Michael Winterbottom Nick Broomfield Pawel Pawlikowski Stephen Frears |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Chronology of Important European Films

A Chronology of Important European Films  1918 - 2003

Introduction 

This page is work in progress. Many links have been made to in site or external reviews or places where the film can be purchased; films post 2003 are now being  added. Gradually in site 'hubs' are being developed for specific national directors so that clicking on an entry will allow the visitor to access the hub where links to more specialist information on the directors will become available. This is currently a long process and will take many months. The development plan for this aspect of the site work is to open up director based pages which will provide links to the currently best available relevant web sites based upon a Google search  of normally up to page 20.

Objective 

The primary purpose of this entry is to allow visitors to start to make comparisons across national boundaries by gaining a more synoptic view of cinematic developments in parallel countries. This accords with the main cinematic purpose of the blog which is to contribute towards an understanding of European film history in the five major industrial countries of Europe since the end of the First World War.

Many directors worked in a number of countries and, as in any other cultural industry, there are plenty of crossovers becuase cultural workers such as directors and cinematographers are often chosen for specific skills or want to work in a different country to gain a more cosmopolitan experience. Visconti, for example started working with Renoir in France before the Second World War, Emeric Pressburger worked in Berlin before choosing to escape Nazism and coming to Britain. Cavalcanti worked in France and then Britain was brought up in Switzerland and was of Brazilian origin. Truffaut worked with Rossellini briefly. This is of course the tip of the iceberg and signifies the importance of cross-cultural influences within the growth of European cinema. A tradition that carries on to this day.   

Uses For This Page 

This page should help a wide range of people who have an individual, academic or film programming interest in European cinema. First of all, my apologies to visitors who are disappointed because their country is not included in the list. I have chosen to focus on the five major industrial countries of Europe as my main area of research and development. All five are currently members of G8 the World's largest GDPs. Compared to the United States all these countries struggle to get a thriving independent film which has a large audience in its own country. This basic fact about issues of the cultural representation of a range of cultures is an important aspect of what can be termed cultural citizenship.

The definition of cultural citizenship is one which argues that people from different places are able to represent themselves to the rest of world. Out of the Western European countries studied here only France has managed to maintain a very powerful indigenous film culture largely because of its film policies which necessarily extend into the sphere of exhibition and distribution.

To develop more work on more European countries is beyond the scope of an individual blogger. This huge absence points the way to thinking about how to develop a much more powerful pan-European film culture which takes on board the need to develop audiences as well as exhibition, distribution and production systems. For those interested in current institutional initiatives please link here to the European Film Institutions page

Hopefully this blog and page will contribute to this greater idea. For any interested visitors the page should contribute to gaining an overview of European cinema as it has developed since World War I. This date has been chosen as it was a turning point in World history marking the transition of global power from European Empires to the United States although of course it took many decades to complete the transfer.  

The page should help those running film clubs and societies who are trying to work out their programming, it should also help students and those independently interested in European cinema to quickly develop ideas and themes which can then be followed up. 

Underwritten Films and Directors 

One reason for doing this undertaking was to discover which films / directors were underwritten on the web. Whilst most searches will turn up highly specialist articles in small academic journals which require users to be members of a subscribing university there are sometimes very few well informed and well written in depth articles about certain films and / or directors. As I gradually make my trawl  I will note here where there seem to be weak spots in web coverage. This might stimulate interest in the films and ensure that they still remain available.

Taviani Brothers: For most of the films I have been searching so far there is relatively little quality in depth material to recommend. They have made a lot of powerful films in Italy and deserve more serious web recognition. 

Francesco Rosi: This is another director who remains underwritten on the web. Again he has made a lot of important films about Italy frequently with a strong humanitarian / political edge. 

Luchino Visconti: Regarding his 1976 film L'Innocente there is little of any use on a Google search at present. The link I have goes to a Google sample of Henry Bacon's book - this is highly recommnded by the way. The English entries via Google on Senso are generally weak despite the importance of the film as recognised by Nowell-Smith and Dyer.

Rene Clair: Le Silence est d’or there is very little available in English on a Google search.

Guiseppe de Santis: One important point to note is the fact that Bitter Rice has not been available in the UK for a considerable period of time. This is surprising to say the least because not only is it seen as an important film in the canon of Italian neorealism but it was also one of the most commercially successful of the neorealist canon. 

The Chronology

: 19 Oct 2007 22:00 |  Tags: Angry Anthony Asquith Anton Corbijn Antonioni Askoldov Bertrand Tavernier British Cinema Chronology Of European Cinema Claude Lanzmann Clouzot Edgar Reitz European Cinema European Cinema History European Cultural Studies European Directors European Film Studies Fassbinder Fellini French Cinema Fritz Lang G W Pabst Godard Gurinder Chadha History Of European Cinema Italian Cinema Jean Rouch John Schlesinger Josef Von Baky Ken Loach Kieslowski Kinoeye Leni Riefenstahl Lindsay Anderson Louis Malle Michael Haneke Michael Winterbottom Mike Leigh Pasolini Paul Greengrass Renoir Rivette Robert Hamer Rohmer Rossellini Russian Cinema Silence Soviet Cinema Stephen Frears Tarkovsky Taviani Brothers The Timeline European Cinema Tony Richardson Truffaut Vertov Visconti Volker Schlondorff Von Trotta |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Directors for Contemporary British Cinema

British Directors in Contemporary British Cinema

Return to Contemporary British Cinema Hub

All active links lead to in house pages on the specific director. Some are still under construction and may not be currently accessible. Please try again soon.

Each page will have a specific webliography and will also have both internal and external links to a range of their films. Obviously this is a major development undertaking and there are currently 30 directors listed below with some more who need to be added. 

Apologies for any shortcomings. British contemporary cinema is going to be a key development area in the coming weeks as many visitors are likely to be having an exam on it in the summer. It is recommended that you vist the relevant pages reasonably frequently as there will be quite a lot of change. Pages will be opened as soon as possible and the priority will be to provide a range of the best possible current web links which are considered as good quality.  

I hope you will find the system useful.  

Introduction

This posting is aimed at the interested general viewer in keeping up to date with British Films and film makers. It also functions as a core resource for the current OCR A2 Unit on Contemporary British Cinema.

Please note the term British Cinema is not the same as British Films. Cinema refers to the industrial systems of production, distribution, and exhibition as a whole. It can also refer to the criticics and reviewers who are employed at any given moment. Directors and the films they make here are only a small part of the industry as a whole.

The list below is primarily taken from the BFI Screenonline Directors on British and Irish Cinema.  There are a couple of inclusions of directors who don't really make films in the UK or about the UK. Sir Ridley Scott being one of these and Sir Alan Parker being another. They tend to prove the rule that Hollywood is the global centre of filmmaking which is both American and yet has an extra dimension to it which proves highly attractive to the most successful filmmakers in the world in terms of gaining audiences at least. There are some surprising omissions from the Screenonline listings such as Paul Greengrass. Here I have linked to Wikipedia in the first instance.

List of Contemporary British Directors

Arnold Andrea (1961 -).

Attenborough, Richard (Lord) (1923 - ) 

Bird, Antonia (1959 - ) 

Boyle, Danny (1956-) 

Branagh Kenneth (1960 -) 

Broomfield, Nick (1948 -) 

Chadha, Gurinder (1960 - )

Corbijn Anton

Dibb Saul (?) 

Daldry, Stephen (1961 - )

Davies, Terence (1945 - )

Figgis Mike (1948 -)

Forsyth, Bill (1946 -) 

Frears, Stephen (1941 -) 

Gavron, Sarah (    ) 

Gilliam, Terry (1940 - ) 

Greenaway, Peter (1942 -)

Greengrass, Paul (1955 - )

Hodges, Mike (1932 - )

Herman, Mark (1954-)

Joffe Roland (1945 - ) 

Jordan, Neill (1950 -) 

Julien, Isaac (1960 - )

Kapur, Shekah (  )

Leigh, Mike (1943 - )

Loach, Ken (1936 - ) 

Madden, John (1949- )

Meadows, Shane (1973 -) 

Minghella, Anthony (1954-2008)

Parker, Alan (Sir) (1944-) 

Pawlikowski Pawel (?)

Poliakoff Stephen (1952-)

Potter, Sally (1949 -) 

Ramsay Lynne (1969 -)

Ritchie Guy (1968 - )

Scott, Ridley (Sir) (1939 -) 

Williams Paul Andrew (?) 

Winterbottom, Michael (1961 - ) 

Wright Edgar (1974 -   ) 

Wright Joe (1972- )

TO VIEW OTHER CINEMA DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITAIN AND EUROPE PLEASE GO TO THE CHRONOLGY OF EUROPEAN CINEMA HUB PAGE

Return to Contemporary British Cinema Hub

: 16 Jun 2007 07:43 |  Tags: Andrea Arnold British Cinema From 1990 British Film Directors Contemporary British Cinema Contemporary British Directors Hub Danny Boyle Gurinder Chadha Guy Ritchie Hub Page Ken Loach Kinoeye Lynne Ramsay Michael Winterbottom Mike Figgis Mike Leigh Nick Broomfield Ocr Media Studies Ors Paul Greengrass Peter Greenaway Sally Potter Sarah Gavron Shane Meadows Stephen Frears |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

British Cinema since 2000: The Road to Guantanamo dir Michael Winterbottom

The Road To Guantanamo. (2006)

Links

The unique distribution of The Road to Guantanamo from BBC

Success in Berlin Film Festival from BBC

The film re-opens the debate about Guantanamo

Film Network page with link to an extract of the film

A useful timeline of events surrounding the ‘Tipton Three’ from the BBC

Channel 4 interview with Michael Winterbottom on The Road to Guantanamo

Channel 4 Review

The Official Website with a trailer

The Guardian Review

Village Voice review

Google Video extract

Winterbottom interview with Der Spiegel

Review from online Reel.com

Film Education online resource pack for key stage 3 & 4 and AS / A2 Media Students

: 19 Dec 2006 00:02 |  Tags: A Level Media Studies British Cinema British Cinema From 1990 European Cinema Kinoeye Michael Winterbottom Open Studies Road To Guantanamo |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

24 Hour Party People(2001). Dir. Michael Winterbottom

24 Hour Party People (2001), dir: Michael Winterbottom

Introduction

Above: Michael Winterbottom

Michael Winterbottom is one of Britain’s most interesting film directors working today. A director like Ken Loach has developed a certain typical ‘feel’ to his films. Loach combines this with an underlying politics linking in to his filmmaking methods. By comparison Winterbottom maintains a political edge to his films which is less didactic than that of Loach. Perhaps that is unsurprising as he cites Lindsay Anderson as a strong influence. Winterbottom frequently gains the title of being ‘eclectic’ or a ‘genre-hopper’ which seems to be a negative criticism.

Not a Genre Monkey

It should by now be clear to reviewers that Winterbottom isn’t a genre filmmaker and if his films touch upon genres, just as this one touches on the rock movie genre, then it is because there is a deeper project at stake. He takes up projects and he is usually giving them a political twist. This twist may be within the aesthetic approach of the film itself rather than a direct aspect of the content. The latter approach based directlu upon content is more in the nature of the social realist approach. This is the kind of approach espoused by directors like Loach.

Above: Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson founder of Factory Records

Ignoring the aesthetic and intellectual influences

It is interesting that none of the reviews this article has linked to below comment upon his aesthetic approach even though these are from the more ‘intellectual’ end of the media. Perhaps this is unsurprising because a seemingly recurrent theme in Winterbottom’s films is the media. The way Winterbottom deals with the question of ‘point of view’ is also interesting. In 24 Hour Party People there is little in the way of point of view from a subjective perspective. Although the story is told by Steve Coogan, who’s character Tony Wilson is the founder of Factory Records, the cinematic narrative moves around. Not only does Coogan / Wilson break the ‘fourth wall’ by frequently addressing the audience directly, often the narrative comes from a Coogan who suddenly speaks from the future about the on-screen diegesis.

Winterbottom and the Media

Welcome to Sarajevo is one of Winterbottom’s films that effectively acts a critique of the media. Through the finding of a small boy in the chaos that was war-torn Sarajevo a TV reporter breaks through the professional patina of the media. The reporter starts to take a personal interest in what he is reporting thus the irony of presenting viewers with the spectacle of News which is inherently voyeuristic is highlighted. The voyeurism of ‘Bad News’ is reliant upon spectacle in war footage or else the aftermath of natural disaster.

Increasingly of course, the rise of ‘citizen reporting’ by amateurs with digital video is creating a different news aesthetic. Perhaps Winterbottom will return to that aspect of media in a future film project.

A Brechtian Aesthetic

Whilst Welcome to Sarajevo was in more of a humanistic mode 24 Hour Party People creates a more Brechtian approach. The distanciation effect or verfremdungseffekt through the breaking of the fourth wall by directly addressing the audience isn’t just a ‘postmodern’ vanity – indeed the film adds layers of irony by effectively critiquing postmodern irony itself. It enables the audience to take a more critical stance in considering the content of the film.

Rather than being an uncritical sycophantic or hagiographic film about pop and rock heroes being ‘done down’ in some dramatic way, the film carefully eschews drama and personal point of view to take a more detached view. Here Steve Coogan becomes an excellent casting choice. How much Coogan represents the ‘real’ Tony Wilson is entirely irrelevant. His irony and quick wittedness are perfect for a film which is constructed as a critique, not of Factory Records or the Hacienda Club or even youth culture in general, rather it leads the more critical mind to be analysing the workings of the system itself.

The Rock Movie Genre

The rock movie genre really took off in the 1960s. There were of course films about Elvis Presley first of all. But the rock movie really took of with A Hard Days Night by Richard Lester with the free flowing camera work that came to characterise the MTV pop-video. Sid and Nancy by Alex Cox was more of a standard biopic although it was hard hitting and critical. Not least of the kind of entrepreneurial opportunism of a character like Malcolm Maclaren. MacLaren is the sort of character who is implicitly critiqued off-screen in 24 Hour Party People, precisely because the whole of the Manchester (Madchester) scene was set in motion by the raw energy of the Sex Pistols, the band which brought Maclaren fame and fortune.

What Winterbottom’s film seems to be examining among other things is the inevitable tensions between the creation of a youth culture which is dependent upon naivety combined with lashings of energy and enthusiasm and the workings of industry and business. Here, as we see, Factory Records and the Hacienda Club cannot sell out. There is quite literally nothing to sell, instead the idealism is eroded and eventually heavily compromised by the real forces of chaos and anarchy in society the ‘lumpen’ criminal classes.

There is no such thing as a utopian 24 Hour Party in which the workings of the system can somehow be ignored in some utopian space. The criminal classes eventually come to control the door and the massive drug fuelled scene in the Hacienda. The drug scene itself can be seen as a part of the reaction of young people to a ‘no future’ type’ of a culture in which the living is done for today not tomorrow.

Tony Wilson and Factory Records

The story is based upon Tony Wilson who is a young ex-Cambridge graduate who has found a post in Granada TV. He is a part of the regional magazine programme doing cheesy features on various aspects of the region.

Wilson is incredibly frustrated and eventually manages to get a music programme on the TV devoted to the ‘New Wave’ punk music. From here he eventually manages to get some bands to agree to start a record label with no contract. They are free to walk away at any time. The success of this leads to the establishing of the Hacienda Club. As a cultural space it was fantastic for a time, as a business it was a flop and running it bled Factory records dry.

When Factory Records was seeking an injection of new capital to produce a new record the entrepreneurs from London Records offered Factory Records £5 million. It was then that the audience really find out the meaning of the agreement not to have a contract. There is nothing to sell and of course Factory Records becomes history.

Exposed underlying contradictions in society

But this film isn’t so much about the nasty music business. On the contrary it is represented as a straight business like anything else. If anything, it is the drug gangs who are most in line for Winterbottom’s critical eye. But even they are seen as a certain kind of response to the post-industrial crisis of Manchester.

Nevertheless a telling critique of them comes in the ironical explanation provided by Coogan who explains that the cycle of capital has broken down precisely because they are parasites and don’t reinvest in the business they are bleeding. Instead they spend it on drink, guns, houses, fashion and women.

Winterbottom places the audience in a triangular frame. Idealist youth / business / anarchic lumpen criminal elements make up the sides of the frame. Winterbottom doesn’t give the audience any kind of didactic answer. He has posed a question of whether this will always be the case. It is up to us as audience to come up with a solution to the dilemma.

An Analysis of History

Winterbottom’s position here shouldn’t be confused with the cyclical version of history which keeps surfacing within the film. W. B. Yeats is frequently referenced and he was a believer in this idea. In brief it is the notion that what arises will be sucked back down as his famous line Things fall apart the centre cannot hold elaborates.

Winterbottom poses us with a more complex dialectical situation. Either the synthesis of the contradiction will move forward onto a higher plane or there will be a negation. In this case the idealism of Factory records and the cultural movement around it fades away. It goes down as a cultural moment, a fascinating experiment. Perhaps if Walter Benjamin were written about it he would describe it as a rupture or fissure within capitalism providing an opportunity to envisage another kind of society. In its heyday Factory and the Hacienda were remarkably free and utopian but it became a victim of its own success, unable to move forward.

Although Winterbottom’s critique is about a period long gone, the question is posed with every youth ‘New Wave’, will it sell out or will it collapse under its own internal contradictions? With the continuing hype around the Web with business and utopian discourse continuously clashing it is an ever present question.

Overall it is a film worth seeing for a range of reasons, and on the linked reviews below it is a clear that the film has been considerably underrated by the critics and reviewers with its theoretical and critical influences and antecedents carefully ignored – but then many of the best films are underrated. It happened with Lindsay Anderson’s films too.

PS

I just loved the ridiculously priced office table :-).

Links

BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Review

Interview with Steve Coogan

Who’s Who in the Film. Helpful to track down the role an various characters portrayed in the film

Information about the set of 24 Hour Party People

Guardian Review of 24 Hour Party People

Observer Review by Philip French

A more in depth Guardian interview with Michael Winterbottom. The best of the these linked articles.

Winterbottom a well kept secret

Senses of Cinema article on Winterbottom’s output

British Council Brit Film pages on Winterbottom

BFI Biography of Winterbottom

Seen the film, read all this and the above links, seen the film again? Now you can contribute in a really informed way to this BBC discussion page on the film.

Here is a link to a Realplayer interview with Steve Coogan on Channel 4. Currently I can’t get it to play but you might have better luck (technical ability).

Link to the official Cannes site. A press conference with Winterbottom be accessed here.

Alternatively you can contribute to discussion in the comments box below.

: 17 Dec 2006 11:39 |  Tags: 24 Hour Party People A Level Media Studies British Cinema British Cinema From 1990 Contemporary British Cinema European Cinema Kinoeye Michael Winterbottom Open Studies |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem