The british cinema book edited by robert murphy pd smith. The author addresses a number of topics including the nature of public feepaying and state. The new edition of the british cinema book has been thoroughly revised and updated to provide a comprehensive introduction to the major periods, genres. The most universal civilian privation in world war ii britain, the blackout possessed many symbolic meanings. This revised, updated and expanded new edition contains contributions from thirtysix leading commentators on french cinema from around the world. The first edition was based on the bfi education departments collection of film clips for use as study guides. The cinema book is a film studies textbook edited by pam cook and first published by the british film institute bfi in 1985 as a resource for teachers. Through close textual and contextual analysis of british films spanning a century, this book explores how pupils, teachers and secondary education in general have been represented on the british screen. This book constitutes the first full volume dedicated to an academic analysis of horseracing in british cinema. Romantics and modernists in british cinema by john orr. Authoritative and comprehensive, the third edition has been extensively revised, updated and expanded in response to developments in cinema and cinema studies. Challenging the rubric of national cinemas that dominates film studies, priya jaikumar contends that film aesthetics and film regulations were linked expressions of radical political transformations in a declining british. Murphy remains troubled about the state of british cinema. Contents acknowledgments notes on contributors introduction robert murphy vb vill part one.
Another unique feature of the cinema book is its fiftyfive sidebars that support the text with indepth analysis and relevant information on over 350 films. British cinema 1st edition robert murphy routledge book. This volume offers a detailed and comprehensive analysis of british film culture from 1997 to the present. This anthology offers the first booklength selection of writings by key figures in this field. The critic john ellis used the phrase the quality film adventure of british cinema in the postwar period, from the mid 40s to the end. British silent cinema and the great war springerlink. Christie provides novel insights into how british cinema in its earliest years documented historical events and lucidly traces the origins of motion picture wars. Placing these and other films against a backdrop of vibrant cultural, technological, and political change, the volume illuminates a decade that would come to be known as cool brittania, evoking a. Sixties british cinema reconsidered edinburgh university. This collection of exciting new research on british cinema of the 1960s reconsiders and reframes the film culture that emerged from that tumultuous decade.
A fair copy in a good dust wrapper of a former library copy of a title which. This text represents the progress made in exploring the history of british cinema, providing a comprehensive account of a dynamic and growing area in film studies. Through a detailed analysis of twenty films, studying british cinema. British costume dramas of the 1980s and 1990s select bibliography index. Challenging assumptions around sixties stardom, the book focuses on creative collaboration and the contribution of production personnel beyond the director, and discusses how cultural change. This innovative book presents for the first time detailed histories of the impact of the great war on british cinema in the silent period, from actual war footage to fiction filmmaking. The book has five sections, addressing debates and controversies. Cinema at the end of empire illuminates this intertwined history of british and indian cinema in the late colonial period. V was an act of the united kingdom parliament designed to stimulate the declining british film industry.
It received royal assent on 20 december 1927, and it came into force on 1 april 1928. Black british cultural studies has attracted significant attention recently in the american academy both as a model for cultural studies generally and as a corrective to reigning constructions of blackness within africanamerican studies. Central to this work was the colonial film unit, which produced, distributed, and, through its network of mobile cinemas, exhibited instructional and educational films throughout the british colonies. Luke mckernan, how to make ben hur look like an epic, in alan burton and laraine porter eds. 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, filmmakers and debates in british cinema from the 1890s to the present. This new edition will consolidate the cinema books position as the leading teaching aid in the field.
The key concepts this is the essential guide for anyone interested in film. British film and the national interest, 192739 sarah street. A need therefore exists for an overview of the industry in the 1990s as. Past and present responds to the commercial and critical success of british film in the 1990s.
Individual articles by leading scholars are grouped in historical and thematic sections, illuminated by indepth case studies of key films and a wealth of images. Engaging and accessible, this book will also appeal to fans of french cinema everywhere. While film production reached an alltime high in 1936, the golden age of british cinema is usually thought to have occurred in the 1940s, during which the directors david lean, michael powell, with emeric pressburger and carol reed produced their most critically acclaimed works. British cinema and thatcherism is an informed and provocative analysis of the connections between british film in the 1980s and the policies and political ideology of the conservative government of margaret thatcher. Now in its second edition, the text has been completely revised and expanded to meet the needs of todays students and film enthusiasts. Representing the progress made in exploring the history of british cinema, this book.
Through comprehensive contextual histories of film production and reception, together with detailed textual analysis, this book explores the aesthetic and emotive power of the enduringly popular horseracing genre, its ideologicallyinflected landscape and the ways in. Robert paul and the origins of british cinema, christie. A companion to british and irish cinema wiley online books. For example, world war ii with quotes will give more precise results than world war ii without quotes. The united kingdom has had a significant film industry for over a century. Twentynine essays from many of the most prominent writers in the field examine how british and irish cinema have been.
Those films are still remarkable, and i suppose they are the films that made british cinema internationally known, perhaps for the first time. In recent years the role and identity of british cinema has undergone numerous changes and this book traces the ways in which british society, the british film industry, and british films have interacted in the 1980s. Some 150 key genres, movements, theories and production terms are explained and analysed with depth and clarity. Among its complicated implications for filmmakers was a stigmatization of film spectacleincluding the display of hollywood women, whose extravagant appearance connoted at best unpatriotic wastefulness and at worst collaboration with the enemy. Representing the progress made in exploring the history of british cinema, this book provides a definitive account of a dynamic and rapidly growing area in film studies. The course introduces a wide range of issues concerning the role of cinema in the british cultural context, as distinct from and in connection with the cinemas of hollywood and europe. The british horseracing film representations of the. The cinema book is widely recognised as the ultimate guide to cinema. In comparison to what i had experienced in canada, british cinema seemed. Covering the period between 1929 and the present, this book examines outstanding directors such as alfred hitchcock, david lean, carol reed, nicholas roeg, terence davies and bill douglas, and articulates two genres vital to british cinema the fugitive film and the trauma film which bridge the gap between romantic and modern forms. Female stars of british cinema edinburgh university press. The routledge companion to british cinema history 1st. Films for the colonies cinema and the preservation of the.
Contemporary british cinema columbia university press. The new chapters greatly extend the coverage of the book, making it the most comprehensive overview of the major topics in british cinema available. In doing so it explores how cinema helped to shape the public memory of the war during the 1920s. British cinemas us surrender aview from 2001 nickjames 21 4. British cinema of the 90s has been both saluted as a significant cinematic renaissance and derided as the glossiest of a long sequence of false dawns. Her publications include the monographs david lean 2014 and female stars of british cinema 2017 and the coedited collections british womens cinema 2009 and ealing revisited 2012. Over 39 chapters the routledge companion to british cinema history offers a comprehensive and revisionist overview of british cinema as, on the one hand, a commercial entertainment industry and, on the other, a series of institutions centred on economics, funding and relations to government whereas most histories of british cinema focus on directors. British womens cinema examines the place of femalecentred films throughout british film history, from silent melodrama and 1940s costume dramas right up to. Providing a historical perspective to the contemporary resurgence of british cinema, this unique anthology brings together leading international scholars to investigate the rich diversity of british film production, from the early sound period of the 1930s to the. The journal of british cinema and television is the prime site for anyone interested in reading or publishing original work in the fields of british cinema and television. A companion to british and irish cinema addresses arguments surrounding film historiography, methods of textual analysis, critical judgments, and the social and economic contexts that are central to the study of these cinemas.
Introduction british cinema saved british cinema doomed. The french cinema book offers an innovative and accessible account of the richness and diversity of french film history from the 1890s to the 2010s. The core of the book is made up of three detailed casestudies which explore different but often interdependent areas of british film practice which have in various ways been interpreted as models for the construction of a national cinema in britain. Robert paul and the origins of british cinema will likely remain the definitive monograph on a fascinating and influential early british film pioneer. Barry forshaw celebrates with enthusiasm the british horror film and its fascination for macabre cinema. Wildcard searching if you want to search for multiple variations of a word, you can substitute a special symbol called a wildcard for one or more letters. Films for the colonies examines the british governments use of film across its vast empire from the 1920s until widespread independence in the 1960s. First published in 1997 and reprinted twice, the british cinema book is the most comprehensive overview of the major topics in british cinema. This second edition has been expanded and includes 12 new contributors. The british school film from tom brown to harry potter. The journal also runs conference reports, indepth interviews with leading practitioners in the field. The british new wave is a style of films released in great britain between 1959 and 1963. Using a wide range of films from the blair era and beyond as case studies from from notting hill 1999 and billy elliot 2000 to 28 days later 2002 and the queen 2006 it examines the ways in which recent british filmmaking might be regarded as.
Covering contemporary film studies, this edition comprises seven sections. Nielsen book data summary the costume drama was one of the important production trends in. Phrase searching you can use double quotes to search for a series of words in a particular order. The best books on british cinema five books expert. This, to me, is one of the three best books ever written about british cinema. Production,audience and representationjohn hili 3. Big studio production in the prequota years jon burrows. Other topics included are cinema technology and feminist film theory. The british cinema book by robert murphy goodreads.
Robert murphy is very good on the peaks, like brief encounter. The third edition of the british cinema book provides a comprehensive introduction to the history, key debates and genres in british cinema, from 1895 to the present. Reviews this books sharp analysis of seven carefullychosen british female stars is fully attendant to issues of class, celebrity, femininity and nation. Lavishly illustrated in colour, this edition features a wealth of exciting new sections and indepth case studies. British eccentrics and hollywood coproduction new heritage cinema.
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