Nic Niewart

1. James Bond - the evil lair getting blown up in the last reel. /Harry Potter- when this franchise is over- what then? -Hogwarts to be blown up?
2. The upper classes at play -set in 1910. Judi Dench and Maggie Smith are always in these. But then Judi Dench and Maggie Smith are in (1) above.
3. The inner city drug addicts/sawn off shotguns/ violence/ eer gorblimey guvnor.

There is no other type. All apart from the first are socially devisive, and reflect something peculiar about the British. They are made as they always have been by the lower classes, and the upper classes- nothing in between who have been marginalised and end up working in television- generally as a minority group- and push their agendas supported by the public purse.
In the States, you can watch the middle classes at play- or even suburban crime/ misdemenours- endlessly- at least the houses are nice, the kitchens more so, the streets are pleasant, and there is always something for the eye to behold. Dallas may not have been up there in dialogue or plot, but at least my mum had something to say about the frocks.

How many Brit films are set in the normal suburbs? ie not country houses, nor inner city squalor? None.
I rest my case.

Bilmo

"This Happy Breed". The houses are very much ordinary, suburban and not squalor. The people are probably more lower middle class, their status changing as time goes on (they are able to afford to hire a car first, then one of the sons buys one. They are also able to afford to go to the cinema).

Case dismissed!

batman

Rita Sue and Bob Too, The Hawk, The Young Poisoner's Handbook, Secrets and Lies, High Hopes, Life is Sweet, Truly Madly Deeply, Brief Encounter, Lost, The Huggetts series, The Final Test, I Start Counting, Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, Spring and Port Wine, Bless This House, Home at Seven, Dilemma etc etc .....

Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

Wolfgang

While working class filmmaking tends to draw on personal experience, middle class filmmaking interests tend to draw on Britain's rich literary tradition which more often than not results in period drama which was written when literacy was restricted to upper classes, leaving this perceived social class 'gap'. Middle class representation seems to be increasing through romantic comedy genre: Four Weddings, Bridget Jones, Love Actually.

AdrianTurner

Oh Nic, only your second post and how embarrassed we all are for you. Even my butler is embarrassed.

Aaryk Noctivagus

When you point the finger at somebody, beware that three fingers are usually pointing in the opposite direction.

I disagree with Nic, however, I have seen similar things written by professionals... so he's not exactly alone in his opinion.

Steve Crook

Huh?

Nice to hear from you again Aaryk

Steve

Aaryk Noctivagus

Point at something and look at the inside of your hand... three fingers pointing right back at you

I dropped by yesterday, for the first time in ages and today, having recieved some email notifications, I forgot myself. Some things just seem to need replying to. I felt sorry for Adrian's butler.

A Pemberton

Ive always found class distinction in the USA hard to define,the starter of this thread mentions Dallas ,if oil billionaires are middle class then who is upper class, maybe political dynasties??
very confusing to me, so making a comparison with the British class system and its representation in film is not really fair or correct

GRAEME

Hammer horror and its ilk... Carry On... Ealing comedy...

Steve Crook

I don't think many people would consider those in Dallas to be middle class
There are class distinctions in the USA just as there are everywhere else.

Steve

Aaryk Noctivagus

It tends to be along racial or religious lines, rather than class as we Brits might understand it. A lot of people in the USA live like in a third world country, others are wealthy. Perhaps India is more in parrallel with it than we are.

Steve Crook

It also tends to be along money lines as well as the other two.

India has a very rigid class system (caste system). That's why they liked the British Empire so much

Steve

rskershaw

Yes, as Gandhi did.

Merchant Ivory's British set films mostly dealt with the Middle Classes.

Everett Sloane

I think Nic was talking mainly about contemporary British films, and has a reasonably valid point. Middle-class middle England, which is the world a sizeable portion of the country inhabits, is barely portrayed on film nowadays, and when it is, it's mocked or satirised. (The only recent exception I can think of, offhand, is that film directed by Julian Fellowes a couple of years back.)

A better comparison might have been with modern French cinema. It struck me when I saw HIDDEN that the well-off milieu of the central couple (two middle-class intellectuals) was just taken for granted - the film didn't have an attitude towards it. If the film had been British, the main character would have had to be a sort of Mark Lawson figure presenting some show like Newsnight Review on BBC 2. He, and his wife, and the programme, would probably have been sent up something rotten.

Think of THE LADY VANISHES and how it shows a whole cross-section of the British middle class - they are certainly satirised, but their good qualities are also celebrated. I find it hard to imagine anyone doing that today.