The new edition of The British Cinema Book has been thoroughly revised and updated to provide a comprehensive introduction to the major periods, genres, studios, film-makers and debates in British cinema from the 1890s to the present. The book has five sections, addressing debates and controversies; industry, genre and representation; British cinema 1895-1939; British cinema from World War II to the 1970s, and contemporary British cinema.
Within these sections, leading scholars and critics address a wide range of issues and topics, including British cinema as a 'national' cinema; its complex relationship with Hollywood; film censorship; key British genres such as horror, comedy and costume film; the work of directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Asquith, Alexander Mackendrick, Michael Powell, Lindsay Anderson, Ken Russell and Mike Leigh; studios such as Gainsborough, Ealing, Rank and Gaumont, and recent signs of hope for the British film industry, such as the rebirth of the low-budget British horror picture, and the emergence of a British Asian cinema.
Discussions are illustrated with case studies of key films, many of which are new to this edition, including Piccadilly (1929) It Always Rains on Sunday (1947), The Ladykillers (1955), This Sporting Life (1963), The Devils (1971), Withnail and I (1986), Bend it Like Beckham (2002) and Control (2007), and with over 100 images from the BFI's collection.
The Editor: Robert Murphy is Professor in Film Studies at De Montfort University and has written and edited a number of books on British cinema, including British Cinema and the Second World War (2000) and Directors in British and Irish Cinema (2006).
The contributors: Ian Aitken, Charles Barr, Geoff Brown, William Brown, Stella
Bruzzi, Jon Burrows, James Chapman, Steve Chibnall, Pamela Church Gibson, Ian
Conrich, Richard Dacre, Raymond Durgnat, Allen Eyles, Christine Geraghty, Christine
Gledhill, Kevin Gough-Yates, Sheldon Hall, Benjamin Halligan, Sue Harper, Erik
Hedling, Andrew Hill, John Hill, Peter Hutchings, Nick James, Marcia Landy, Barbara
Korte, Alan Lovell, Brian McFarlane, Martin McLoone, Andrew Moor, Robert Murphy,
Lawrence Napper, Michael O'Pray, Jim Pines, Vincent Porter, Tim Pulleine, Jeffrey
Richards, James C. Robertson, Tom Ryall, Justin Smith, Andrew Spicer, Claudia
Sternberg, Sarah Street, Melanie Williams and Linda Wood.
'The third edition of this excellent, illustrated collection of essays on British cinema provides an overview of the key issues, debates and history. First published in 1997, it has been expanded to include case studies of individual films, and several new essays on subjects such as the representation of women in 1950s cinema and the birth of British Asian cinema in the 90s. Its range is impressive.' - Peter Smith, The Guardian
'...a delightful gateway into the rich world of British cinema.' - Simon Brown, Viewfinder
Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
PART I: DEBATES AND CONTROVERSIES
The British Cinema: The Known Cinema?; A.Lovell
British Cinema as National Cinema: Production, Audience and Representation; J.Hill
They Think It's All Over: British Cinema's US Surrender, A View from 2001; N.James
Paradise Found and Lost: The Course of British Realism; G.Brown
Lindsay Anderson and the Development of British Art Cinema; E.Hedling
The Wrong Sort of Cinema: Refashioning the Heritage Film Debate; S.Hall
British Cult Cinema; J.Smith
PART II: INDUSTRY, GENRE, REPRESENTATION
British Film Censorship; J.Richards & J.Robertson
Exhibition and the Cinema-going Experience; A.Eyles
Action, Spectacle and the Boy's Own Tradition in British Cinema; J.Chapman
Traditions of the British Horror Film; I.Conrich
Traditions of British Comedy; R.Dacre
British Cinema and Black Representation; J.Pines
Exiles and British Cinema; K.Gough-Yates
Where Are Those Buggers?: Aspects of Homosexuality in Mainstream British Cinema; S.Bruzzi
PART III: BRITISH CINEMA 1895–1939
Before Blackmail: Silent British Cinema; C.Barr
Big Studio Production in the Pre-Quota Years, J.Burrows
Late Silent Britain; C.Gledhill
The British Documentary Film Movement; I.Aitken
British Film and the National Interest, 1927–39; S.Street
A Despicable Tradition? Quota-quickies in the 1930s; L.Napper
A British Studio System: The Associated British Picture Corporation and the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation in the 1930s;
T.Ryall
Low-budget British Films in the 1930s; L.Wood
PART IV: BRITISH CINEMA FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR TO THE 70S
The Heart of Britain: British Cinema at War; R.Murphy
Melodrama and Femininity in Second World War British Cinema; M.Landy
No Place Like Home: Powell, Pressburger Utopia; A.Moor
Some Lines of Inquiry into Post-war British Crimes; R.Durgnat
A Song and Dance at the Local: Thoughts on Ealing; T.Pulleine
Methodism versus the Market-place: The Rank Organisation and British Cinema; V.Porter
Bonnie Prince Charlie Revisited: British Costume Film in the 1950s; S.Harper
'Twilight women' of 1950s British Cinema; M.Williams
Male Stars, Masculinity and British Cinema, 1945–60; A.Spicer
Beyond the New Wave: Realism in British Cinema, 1959–63; P.Hutchings
Women and 60s British Cinema: The Development of the 'Darling' Girl; C.Geraghty
Strange Days: British Cinema in the Late 1960s; Robert Murphy
'Tutte e marchio!': Excess, Masquerade and Performativity in 70s Cinema; P.Church Gibson & A.Hill
PART V: CONTEMPORARY BRITISH CINEMA
New Romanticism' and the British Avant-Garde Film in the Early 80s; M.O'Pray
Internal Decolonisation? British Cinema in the Celtic Fringe; M.McLoone
Citylife: Urban Fairy-tales in Late 90s British Cinema; R.Murphy
The More Things Change . . . British Cinema in the 90s; B.McFarlane
Travels in Ladland: The British Gangster Film Cycle, 1998–2001; S.Chibnall
Asian British Cinema since the 1990s; B.Korte & C.Sternberg
Bright Hopes, Dark Dreams: A Guide to New British Cinema; R.Murphy
Not Flagwaving But Flagdrowning, or Postcards from Post-Britain; W.Brown
Postscript: A Short History of British Cinema; R.Murphy
Index
ROBERT MURPHY is Professor in Film Studies at De Montfort University, UK and the author of British Cinema and the Second World War (2000) and a number of other books on British cinema. He edited Directors in British and Irish Cinema: A Reference Companion (BFI 2006).
Description
The new edition of The British Cinema Book has been thoroughly revised and updated to provide a comprehensive introduction to the major periods, genres, studios, film-makers and debates in British cinema from the 1890s to the present. The book has five sections, addressing debates and controversies; industry, genre and representation; British cinema 1895-1939; British cinema from World War II to the 1970s, and contemporary British cinema.
Within these sections, leading scholars and critics address a wide range of issues and topics, including British cinema as a 'national' cinema; its complex relationship with Hollywood; film censorship; key British genres such as horror, comedy and costume film; the work of directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Asquith, Alexander Mackendrick, Michael Powell, Lindsay Anderson, Ken Russell and Mike Leigh; studios such as Gainsborough, Ealing, Rank and Gaumont, and recent signs of hope for the British film industry, such as the rebirth of the low-budget British horror picture, and the emergence of a British Asian cinema.
Discussions are illustrated with case studies of key films, many of which are new to this edition, including Piccadilly (1929) It Always Rains on Sunday (1947), The Ladykillers (1955), This Sporting Life (1963), The Devils (1971), Withnail and I (1986), Bend it Like Beckham (2002) and Control (2007), and with over 100 images from the BFI's collection.
The Editor: Robert Murphy is Professor in Film Studies at De Montfort University and has written and edited a number of books on British cinema, including British Cinema and the Second World War (2000) and Directors in British and Irish Cinema (2006).
The contributors: Ian Aitken, Charles Barr, Geoff Brown, William Brown, Stella
Bruzzi, Jon Burrows, James Chapman, Steve Chibnall, Pamela Church Gibson, Ian
Conrich, Richard Dacre, Raymond Durgnat, Allen Eyles, Christine Geraghty, Christine
Gledhill, Kevin Gough-Yates, Sheldon Hall, Benjamin Halligan, Sue Harper, Erik
Hedling, Andrew Hill, John Hill, Peter Hutchings, Nick James, Marcia Landy, Barbara
Korte, Alan Lovell, Brian McFarlane, Martin McLoone, Andrew Moor, Robert Murphy,
Lawrence Napper, Michael O'Pray, Jim Pines, Vincent Porter, Tim Pulleine, Jeffrey
Richards, James C. Robertson, Tom Ryall, Justin Smith, Andrew Spicer, Claudia
Sternberg, Sarah Street, Melanie Williams and Linda Wood.
Reviews
'The third edition of this excellent, illustrated collection of essays on British cinema provides an overview of the key issues, debates and history. First published in 1997, it has been expanded to include case studies of individual films, and several new essays on subjects such as the representation of women in 1950s cinema and the birth of British Asian cinema in the 90s. Its range is impressive.' - Peter Smith, The Guardian
'...a delightful gateway into the rich world of British cinema.' - Simon Brown, Viewfinder
Contents
Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
PART I: DEBATES AND CONTROVERSIES
The British Cinema: The Known Cinema?; A.Lovell
British Cinema as National Cinema: Production, Audience and Representation; J.Hill
They Think It's All Over: British Cinema's US Surrender, A View from 2001; N.James
Paradise Found and Lost: The Course of British Realism; G.Brown
Lindsay Anderson and the Development of British Art Cinema; E.Hedling
The Wrong Sort of Cinema: Refashioning the Heritage Film Debate; S.Hall
British Cult Cinema; J.Smith
PART II: INDUSTRY, GENRE, REPRESENTATION
British Film Censorship; J.Richards & J.Robertson
Exhibition and the Cinema-going Experience; A.Eyles
Action, Spectacle and the Boy's Own Tradition in British Cinema; J.Chapman
Traditions of the British Horror Film; I.Conrich
Traditions of British Comedy; R.Dacre
British Cinema and Black Representation; J.Pines
Exiles and British Cinema; K.Gough-Yates
Where Are Those Buggers?: Aspects of Homosexuality in Mainstream British Cinema; S.Bruzzi
PART III: BRITISH CINEMA 1895–1939
Before Blackmail: Silent British Cinema; C.Barr
Big Studio Production in the Pre-Quota Years, J.Burrows
Late Silent Britain; C.Gledhill
The British Documentary Film Movement; I.Aitken
British Film and the National Interest, 1927–39; S.Street
A Despicable Tradition? Quota-quickies in the 1930s; L.Napper
A British Studio System: The Associated British Picture Corporation and the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation in the 1930s;
T.Ryall
Low-budget British Films in the 1930s; L.Wood
PART IV: BRITISH CINEMA FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR TO THE 70S
The Heart of Britain: British Cinema at War; R.Murphy
Melodrama and Femininity in Second World War British Cinema; M.Landy
No Place Like Home: Powell, Pressburger Utopia; A.Moor
Some Lines of Inquiry into Post-war British Crimes; R.Durgnat
A Song and Dance at the Local: Thoughts on Ealing; T.Pulleine
Methodism versus the Market-place: The Rank Organisation and British Cinema; V.Porter
Bonnie Prince Charlie Revisited: British Costume Film in the 1950s; S.Harper
'Twilight women' of 1950s British Cinema; M.Williams
Male Stars, Masculinity and British Cinema, 1945–60; A.Spicer
Beyond the New Wave: Realism in British Cinema, 1959–63; P.Hutchings
Women and 60s British Cinema: The Development of the 'Darling' Girl; C.Geraghty
Strange Days: British Cinema in the Late 1960s; Robert Murphy
'Tutte e marchio!': Excess, Masquerade and Performativity in 70s Cinema; P.Church Gibson & A.Hill
PART V: CONTEMPORARY BRITISH CINEMA
New Romanticism' and the British Avant-Garde Film in the Early 80s; M.O'Pray
Internal Decolonisation? British Cinema in the Celtic Fringe; M.McLoone
Citylife: Urban Fairy-tales in Late 90s British Cinema; R.Murphy
The More Things Change . . . British Cinema in the 90s; B.McFarlane
Travels in Ladland: The British Gangster Film Cycle, 1998–2001; S.Chibnall
Asian British Cinema since the 1990s; B.Korte & C.Sternberg
Bright Hopes, Dark Dreams: A Guide to New British Cinema; R.Murphy
Not Flagwaving But Flagdrowning, or Postcards from Post-Britain; W.Brown
Postscript: A Short History of British Cinema; R.Murphy
Index
Authors
ROBERT MURPHY is Professor in Film Studies at De Montfort University, UK and the author of British Cinema and the Second World War (2000) and a number of other books on British cinema. He edited Directors in British and Irish Cinema: A Reference Companion (BFI 2006).
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