ktdissertation

Where are British films 'going'?

[ 17. December 2003, 11:58: Message edited by: DB7 ]

Steve Crook

How do you define a "British" film?

Is The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) a "British" film?

Most people would say so, but it had:
A Hungarian writer [producer & director] (Emeric Pressburger)
An Austrian star (Anton Walbrook)
A Polish composer (Allan Gray)
A French cinematographer (Georges Périnal)
A German designer (Alfred Junge)

and that's just looking at the more important people involved in it.

Steve Crook

PaPAS

DB7

With what era are you comparing modern cinema? Worse than the 40s? Worse than the 70s?

The impact of television and the financial downturn of the UK industry (and studio demises) cant be ignored either.

Gibbie

A British film would be a film made in the UK or by a British company.

The Italian movie maker Michelangelo Antonioni made Blow Up in the UK and while he is very Felliniesque - it is considered a British film.

One out of print war movie, Play Dirty (Michael Caine) was made in north Africa, but it is considered a British film.

Gibbie

DB7

The fuel dump was probably Shepperton?

Louisa

Yet again I am refferring to my British Cinema module at Univeristy. We actually had to tackle this issue and we came up with an answer by which we all agreed, so as to work from that during the module.
We decided that a British Film can only be classed as a British Film if the funding is majorly British funding.
Now many of you may not agree, but we had to come up with our own definition, and that was it.

MissGossage

Various British governments have tried to define 'Britishness' with mixed results, but the current definition, whereby a British film is one where 70% of the budget is spent on British goods and services, is the most sensible and practical one so far.

Under previous definitions, films like 'The Full Monty' were officially American because of their largely US funding, while 'Sense and Sensibility' was disqualified from being British because of its US producers and Taiwanese director. Under the current defintion, they would both be considered British - and quite rightly.

It also gets round the problem whereby a film may be culturally British but not actually filmed in Britain (such as Gibbie's 'Play Dirty' example) - now, provided cast and crew are largely British, that's fine.

jackie

ghostly

I always regard a British film
1. as a Film shot in the British Isles
2. as a film shot abroad ie Europe or former British Colonies about British people
3. A film with a British Producer or Director and a number of actors/actresses who work mainly in the British Isles

All the best from Jackie

the question

I recognise a british film to either be set in london or a northern city based upon a true storyline with charector accents local to the area..it does not really matter the nationality of the director involved..naratives are processed and performed through the use of an actor/actress maybe??

bb8

DB7

Ice Cold In Alex and Lawrence of Arabia?? wink