zigo

OK this is where I need to pick the brains of all you cinephiles out there.

I am putting together 2 film seasons (11 films each) to augment a university course -‘Background to Modern Britain’ (essentially 1945 onwards). Both the course and the films are targeted at an audience of visiting overseas students who need to develop a sense of the host culture over the last 50 years. The film seasons each have a thematic thread. The first theme is entitled ‘Love in a Cold Climate: From Brief Encounter to My Summer of Love’ and aims to track changes in attitudes to sex and relationships.

The following two criteria are used as a basis for selection. The 11 films should:

o provide a clear picture of social change since 1945.
o be entertaining but showcase the breadth, quality and originality of British film-making talent

It would be good to get your feedback on the following ‘draft’ list. Are there any glaring omissions – obvious classics or little known gems? And how about what is listed - anything that seems baffling, uninspired, or plain wrong? The idea is to generate a bit of debate and then, with the help of your input, finalise a list sometime in the summer.

I should add that the films are to be presented chronologically in order of date of film setting, not date of film production.

1. Brief Encounter
2. Saturday Night Sunday Morning
3. The Chatterley Affair
4. Blow Up
5. Don’t Look Now
6. My Beautiful Launderette
7. Close My Eyes
8. Truly, Madly, Deeply
9. Four Weddings
10. Secrets and Lies
11. My Summer of Love

Bubbling Under

Room at the Top
Victim
Sunday Bloody Sunday
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Betrayal

Watch out for ‘Brit Film Season 2’ thread – to be announced shortly!

Zigo

DB7

A good selection of films. I'd add Gregory's Girl, Rita, Sue and Bob too, Beautiful Thing, Performance and A Kind of Loving for consideration.

Victim would certainly be in the eleven.

smudge

If the aim is to track social change, surely VICTIM should not be 'bubbling under' ? I would think it would be a good film to open a discussion on the predicament of homosexuals around that time and set you on the track towards subsequent liberal developments.

A follow on to consider might be the Joe Orton biopic PRICK UP YOUR EARS ?

Just my thoughts...

SMUDGE

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smudge

A further thought....

How about THE FAMILY WAY and the effect of the extended family on relationships, even though it's power was by then diminishing somewhat ?

SMUDGE

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DB7

Think I'd have to go with Spring and Port Wine. Mason reminds me so much of my own dicitorial father. (replace fish with liver [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/angry.gif[/img] )

penfold

I'd lose Brief Encounter...I believe it's actually set pre-war....and Four Weddings, as it's too false... for an immediate post-war film I'd choose A Diary For Timothy....or Hue and Cry...and you seem to skip the fifties..so The Ladykillers for the social/political setting, Angry Silence or I'm Alright Jack, or even Man In The White Suit for the rise of the unions and industrial relations...

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

theuofc

Hello, Zigo,

I'd have to second DB7 and Smudge in saying that "Victim" fits your criteria better than let's say, 'Four Weddings." I agree with Penfold in its "falsity," as I usually consider it more in the vein of a typical Hollywood fluff film and also agree with Penfold's questioning the inclusion of 'Brief Encounter' because of its date.

In addition to its quality of British talent and gutsy thematic stand back then, "Victim" actually helped change homophobic laws in the UK at the time. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Best,

Barbara

penfold

Oops, missed the 'Love theme' part of your posting...in which case...Frieda, dealing with post-war anti-German hostility...1950's...hmmm.... Miranda?? The Man Who Loved Redheads?? Tricky....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Wolfgang

I would omit Don't Look Now and Truly Mady Deeply - I think their core relationships could be set any time. You have to have Brief Encounter because it is your baseline. I think you should have one Confessions of... in there. I think The War Zone would be interesting inclusion too. The Crying Game maybe. Twinky with Susan George doing her jailbait thing.

smudge

Hmmm - I was going for WAY due to the restrictive effect the extended family (and the close community) had on the Mills/Bennett character's relationship - following the 'romance' line of the brief.

Memory fails me on WINE ; I know Mason is the overbearing patriarch, but can't remember what was happening with the Susan George character in terms of relationships....it's me age ! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blushing.gif[/img]

SMUDGE

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dylan

[quote name='zigo' date='May 16 2006, 09:17 PM' post='41646']
OK this is where I need to pick the brains of all you cinephiles out there.


I'd add A TASTE OF HONEY because it deals with inter-racial love and 50s attitudes to promiscuity, unmarried mothers and homosexualitity.

D

Fellwanderer

I'd second SAPW - I'd also throw in I Start Counting for consideration.

All the best
FELL
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zigo

Wow. Thanks for the great response. Much food for thought.

There are a good few films you mention that I have not seen: The Family Way, Spring and Port Wine, Frieda, Beautiful Thing, and A Kind of Loving ( know the Barstow book, not the film). Must check them out.

Some mentioned excluding Brief Encounter (1945) because of its pre-war setting but I feel it has to be there just because it does represent- as Wolfgang says- 'a baseline' from which to track social change. It also meets criterion 2 well - Brief Encounter is No 2 in the BFI top 100 Brit films. I stuck Don't Look Now in because I love Nic Roeg and it does have a ground-breaking love-making scene in it but totally get Wolfagang's point about how the core relationship could be set in any period. Would like to include Performance because of its message about androgyny (and the sixties) but wonder how this film would go down with some of the more straight-laced foreign students.Gregory's Girl is definitely reflective of a particular period but might fit more neatly into a theme about education (along with a dozen other great Brit films).Taste of Honey is a suggestion which I had considered but while it meets criterion 1 perfectly, I am not convinced about how good it is (IMHO). Must look at Rita, Sue again - forgotten all about that one.

Many mentioned Victim as a pretty obvious candidate. I have seen clips from the film (Bogarde is great) but is it any good taken as a whole?

Yes agreed that the 50s is under-represented!

4 weddings is there because although it is rather schmaltzy, it never fails to amuse overseas students, and it is a good one for deconstruction - the packaging of a form of Britishness (as personified by self-deprecating, burbling Hugh Grant) for American consumption.

Will stick your suggestions on my original post in due course. Keep them coming!

Zigo

DB7

Good choice Frieda, dealt with a lot of issues people weren't ready to face so soon after the war.

noglea

I agree with those that have suggested 'Victim'. I also think that 'Quadrophenia' is worthy of consideration.