craigmk29

was wondering what exactly makes a film british?

director?

producers?

location?

cast?

style?

the film The Bourne Ultimatum for example which was nominated for a BAFTA for best british film. it had a british director but an american producer. was filmed in both the UK and USA and also had a mix of british and an american cast.

thanks to anyone who replys

christoph404

Its a question that often comes up and not entirely easy to define. If one looks at the work of Stanley Kubrick for example, an American director living and working in the UK for most of his career, many of his films are considered British, some are USA/UK co productions and some are US films! they have in common that they were all filmed in the UK with British crew. The original "Star Wars" films were filmed at British studios using British crew and technicians but "Star Wars" is considered a US film. I would say there has to be a number of key elements that would define a British film, namely the origin of the source material being a British writer or scritpwriter combined with director and film crew. A film like "Night of The Demon" is considered a classic British horror film yet aside from the source material coming from a British writer almost everything else about it is American, i.e. director, producer, star. I didn't know the "Bourne Ultimatum" was a Brit film, it looks like a typical Hollywood action flick to me, filmed in Europe yes, but so was "Mission Impossible"! Most films are bankrolled by the big US studios anyway so I guess the creative input and style is the defining factor.

Third Man

The Encyclopedia of British Film by Brian McFarlane uses the production team as the main criteria for the country of origin.

Deja vu !!


Simon

DB7

They now use a cultural points system and the factors above all count towards a films Britishness.
Department for Culture Media and Sport - New Cultural Test For British Films

Steve Crook

In what way "uses the production team"? That's still a bit vague and ambiguous.
Just the heads of departments? Or everyone involved?
Of all departments or just the major ones like director, cinematographer & designer?

Steve

Third Man

Here's how the encyclopedia defines the categories.

Category A
Films where the cultural and financial impetus is from the UK and the majority of the personnel are British.
Category B
Majority UK Co-Productions. Films in which, though there are foreign partners, there is a UK cultural content and a significant amount of British finance and personnel.
Category C
Minority UK Co-Productions. Foreign (non US) films in which there is a small UK involvement in finance or personnel.
Category D
American films with a UK creative and/or minor financial involvement.
Category D1
American financed or part finance films made in the UK. Most films have a British cultural content.
Category D2
American films with some UK financial involvement.

Simon

craigmk29

thanks for the quick reply guys, been a big help. cheers

PaulPlowman

So, does that mean that films in category D2 are British? So The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou? are both British?

<- Insert witty comment here ->
ukonscreen.com

Steve Crook

There are no hard and fast rules. Or rather there are lots of different rules that different people use.

The rules above are those used by The Encyclopedia of British Film by Brian McFarlane.

Other people use the nationality of the director, the leading actors, the studio.

The IMDb also uses the production company in a similar way to McFarlane. Similar, not exactly the same. The IMDb just looks at who provides the funding, the nationality of the production company, in the order of their involvement (how much funding they provide)

Looking at those case given:
Category A
Films where the cultural and financial impetus is from the UK and the majority of the personnel are British.
IMDb: Country=UK
Category B
Majority UK Co-Productions. Films in which, though there are foreign partners, there is a UK cultural content and a significant amount of British finance and personnel.
IMDb: Country=UK/(other country/ies) in order of level of involvement
Category C
Minority UK Co-Productions. Foreign (non US) films in which there is a small UK involvement in finance or personnel.
IMDb: Country=(other country/ies)/UK in order of level of involvement
Category D
American films with a UK creative and/or minor financial involvement.
Category D1
IMDb: Country=US/UK in order of level of involvement
American financed or part finance films made in the UK. Most films have a British cultural content.
IMDb: Country=US/UK in order of level of involvement
Category D2
American films with some UK financial involvement.
IMDb: Country=US/UK in order of level of involvement

Hardly any feature films are purely British (or any other nationality) these days. Most are made by collaboration between people from lots of different countries

The IMDb classes The Big Lebowski as US/UK and it classes O Brother, Where Art Thou? as US/France/UK

Steve

Third Man

If they do then I think they are mistaken in doing so. Lets take for example Sidney Lumet who is an American, he directed The Hill (1965) and The Offence (1972) these films to me are British, the same goes for Peckinpah's Straw Dogs and would Night of the Demon (1957) be termed a French film because it was directed by Jacques Tourneur.

Simon

howard 65

Yes and that would make all of Hitchcock's films British!