When The European Art-house Lot Came To Blighty - Britmovie

Clinton Morgan · 28-08-2005, 10:15 PM

You might notice that there is a thread somewhere about 'Blow Up'. Now I don't need to tell you that the film was directed by one Michangelo Antonioni who made 'L'Avventura' and 'La Notte'. Other art-house filmmakers have also popped over to Britain to make British films. Think of Roman Polanski's 'Repulsion', Francois Truffaut's 'Fahrenheit 451', Jean Luc-Godard's 'One Plus One' and even Rene Clair who made the surrealist film 'Entr'acte' and the brilliant comedy 'A Nous A Liberte' directed a film starring Robert Donat called 'The Ghost Goes West' which has a Jean Cocteauesque sequence. Can anyone else tell me of other art-house foreign film-makers (sorry, Marcel Varnel does not count) who contributed to British film culture? How do their British works fit in with their other works? Imagine if Robert Bresson had made a British film?

catflap · 28-08-2005, 11:46 PM

Going back a bit, does Alberto Cavalcanti count?

Hugo · 28-08-2005, 11:48 PM

Two other examples that spring to mind are the famous Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki who made a curious film in London in 1990 called I HIRED A CONTRACT KILLER with Jean Pierre Leaud, Truffat's favourite actor. His not so famous brother, Mika Kaurismaki, made a film of L A WITHOUT A MAP, a large portion of which was shot in Bradford, West Yorkshire, including scenes in the famous Undercliffe cemetary which was also used in BILLY LIAR.
Franco Zeffirelli came to the UK in 1996 to film his version of JANE EYRE much of it shot in Haddon Hall in Derbyshire

sanndevil · 29-08-2005, 10:15 AM

I've always considered the European Art movement to be around late fifties to early seventies. But, if you abandon that criterion then how about DANCER IN THE DARK (2000) by Lars Von Trier or PARIS, TEXAS (1984) by Wim Wenders - not strictly British but funded by Channel4.

Clinton Morgan · 29-08-2005, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by catflap@Aug 28 2005, 11:46 PM
Going back a bit, does Alberto Cavalcanti count?

Did he do experimental arty films in his native Brazil? If not I shall put him up as an honourary member of that list.

JamesM · 30-08-2005, 10:47 AM

Hans Petter Moland came to the UK to make Aberdeen,

Clinton Morgan · 30-08-2005, 11:43 AM

Tell me more. What's his best work?

JamesM · 10-09-2005, 10:55 PM

I don't know much about him. He was the most recent European director to come to the UK I could think of. This film has probably received the most accolades of all his work.

Wetherby Pond · 15-09-2005, 09:12 PM

Quote:

(Clinton Morgan @ Aug 28 2005, 11:15 PM)
Can anyone else tell me of other art-house foreign film-makers (sorry, Marcel Varnel does not count) who contributed to British film culture?

Off the top of my head...

Patrice Chéreau (Intimacy)
Pier Paolo Pasolini (The Canterbury Tales)
Pawel Pawlikowski (Last Resort, My Summer of Love)
Lotte Reiniger (various animated shorts in the 1950s)
Karel Reisz (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and many others)
Jerzy Skolimowski (Deep End, King Queen Knave, The Shout, Moonlighting, Success is the Best Revenge)
Bertrand Tavernier (Death Watch)
Lars Von Trier (Breaking the Waves)
Mai Zetterling (Scrubbers)

Bernardo Bertolucci and Jan Svankmajer have also made films with extensive British funding, though I wouldn't call any of them culturally British (though Svankmajer's features draw on Lewis Carroll and Christopher Marlowe as source material). Jean Renoir's The River is a French/Indian/US production, but has British elements. Marcel Carné also never made a proper British film, but Drôle de drame is fascinating for its bizarre notion of Englishness filtered through a very French sensibility (all the characters' names are slightly dissonant, like Madam Pencil) - and Pedro Almodóvar's Live Flesh is similarly fascinating for its Spanish take on Ruth Rendell. I haven't seen it, but I suspect Alain Resnais' take on Ayckbourn, Smoking/No Smoking, should be acknowledged too.

And while this is blatant cheating, I think the Brothers Quay should be mentioned as well - although they were born in Philadelphia, it's hard to think of anyone else currently active in Britain who has absorbed such an overwhelming European arthouse sensibility.

red squirrel · 29-10-2005, 06:55 PM

I find Intimacy and Breaking the Waves to be totally unconvincing. With Intimacy, Chereau's attempt to make a 'French' film in a British setting just doesn't work. It turns out to be a mundane BBC Screen Two type production with the sex being shown rather than inferred. It does maybe give a realistically grim picture of London as a place to live. Timothy Spall is far better than either Fox, Rylance or the token gay froggy character.

As for Breaking the Waves, Emily Watson's portrayal is unintentionally hilarious. Has anyone ever met anyone so obsessively Calvinistic? A 'Wee Free' slut?! I mean, give over. Why did Skellan Skarsgard, who gave an excellent performance as the Swedish cop in the original of Insomnia, waste his time with such crap? All anyone has to do is say the phrase 'art-house' and a ludicrous story is praised to the heavens!

estienne · 01-12-2005, 01:11 PM

One name that doesn't seem to have come up yet is Tinto Brass, who was going through a counter-cultural phase in the late 60s. His films L'Urlo (The Howl) and Nerosubianco (which probably works better untranslated - nerosubianco, see?) both have strong connections to England. I've seen a fairly complete version of L'Urlo: quite mad but probably worth a watch, especially if your senses have already been deranged in some way. Certainly not without some striking, if hardly subtle, images. Nerosubianco is almost impossible to obtain except in a heavily censored form, but it probably wouldn't make that much sense anyway. There is an (unnecessarily?) excellent Brass site with plenty of information about these films: www.geocities.com/busterktn/tinto4.html.

red squirrel · 04-12-2005, 05:37 PM

Quote:

(SJMW @ Dec 1 2005, 01:11 PM)
One name that doesn't seem to have come up yet is Tinto Brass.

Tinto Brass = tit 'n' ass (in Italian)

penfold · 13-03-2006, 05:34 PM

E.A.Dupont - top (German) UFA director, came over in the late 20's to make two of the best late-era silent films made in this country... Piccadilly, and Moulin Rouge...

Steve Crook · 13-03-2006, 06:35 PM

Well if nobody else is going to mention them I'll speak up for all the European emigrees that came here to escape the break up of the Austro Hungarian after WWI and then those that fled because of the Nazis before & during WWII. They meant that most "British" cinema of the 1930s & 40s was actually made by foreigners.

This is especially true of Denham studios which used to have 3 Union flags outside.
Wags said that they represented the 3 British people that worked there amongst all the Europeans.

Take a typical example The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Writer & Producer - Emeric Pressburger (Hungarian)
Music - Allan Gray (aka Josef Zmigrod) (Polish)
Cinematography - Georges Périnal (French)
Production Design - Alfred Junge (German)

Michael Powell was one of the few British people behind the camera.

Steve

AndrewLA · 13-03-2006, 07:05 PM

Julian Duvivier for the Vivien Leigh version of ANNA KARENINA and Jacques Feyder for KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOR -- both for Alexander Korda who, with brother Zoltan, also qualifies here. Korda worked with many other European film people, including directors Hans Schwartz (RETURN OF THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL), Lothar Mendes (THE MAN WHO COULD WORLD MIRACLES), Paul Czinner (CATHERINE THE GREAT), and, as mentioned, Rene Clair. Also, writers like Lajos Biro (PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII).

And then there was Edmond Greville who worked on and off in England -- BEAT GIRL, THE HANDS OF ORLAC, THE ROMANTIC AGE...

01-12-2005, 01:11 PM	#11
estienne Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 3 iTrader: (0)	One name that doesn't seem to have come up yet is Tinto Brass, who was going through a counter-cultural phase in the late 60s. His films L'Urlo (The Howl) and Nerosubianco (which probably works better untranslated - nerosubianco, see?) both have strong connections to England. I've seen a fairly complete version of L'Urlo: quite mad but probably worth a watch, especially if your senses have already been deranged in some way. Certainly not without some striking, if hardly subtle, images. Nerosubianco is almost impossible to obtain except in a heavily censored form, but it probably wouldn't make that much sense anyway. There is an (unnecessarily?) excellent Brass site with plenty of information about these films: www.geocities.com/busterktn/tinto4.html. __________________ Brute force and ruddy ignorance!

13-03-2006, 05:34 PM	#13
penfold Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Bristol Posts: 2,799 Country: iTrader: (0)	E.A.Dupont - top (German) UFA director, came over in the late 20's to make two of the best late-era silent films made in this country... Piccadilly, and Moulin Rouge... __________________ Bit of a Bay Window, what??

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28-08-2005, 10:15 PM	#1
Clinton Morgan Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 158 iTrader: (0)	You might notice that there is a thread somewhere about 'Blow Up'. Now I don't need to tell you that the film was directed by one Michangelo Antonioni who made 'L'Avventura' and 'La Notte'. Other art-house filmmakers have also popped over to Britain to make British films. Think of Roman Polanski's 'Repulsion', Francois Truffaut's 'Fahrenheit 451', Jean Luc-Godard's 'One Plus One' and even Rene Clair who made the surrealist film 'Entr'acte' and the brilliant comedy 'A Nous A Liberte' directed a film starring Robert Donat called 'The Ghost Goes West' which has a Jean Cocteauesque sequence. Can anyone else tell me of other art-house foreign film-makers (sorry, Marcel Varnel does not count) who contributed to British film culture? How do their British works fit in with their other works? Imagine if Robert Bresson had made a British film?

28-08-2005, 11:46 PM	#2
catflap Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 63 Country: iTrader: (0)	Going back a bit, does Alberto Cavalcanti count?

28-08-2005, 11:48 PM	#3
Hugo Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 351 Country: iTrader: (0)	Two other examples that spring to mind are the famous Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki who made a curious film in London in 1990 called I HIRED A CONTRACT KILLER with Jean Pierre Leaud, Truffat's favourite actor. His not so famous brother, Mika Kaurismaki, made a film of L A WITHOUT A MAP, a large portion of which was shot in Bradford, West Yorkshire, including scenes in the famous Undercliffe cemetary which was also used in BILLY LIAR. Franco Zeffirelli came to the UK in 1996 to film his version of JANE EYRE much of it shot in Haddon Hall in Derbyshire

29-08-2005, 10:15 AM	#4
sanndevil Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Streatham SW2 Posts: 387 Country: iTrader: (0)	I've always considered the European Art movement to be around late fifties to early seventies. But, if you abandon that criterion then how about DANCER IN THE DARK (2000) by Lars Von Trier or PARIS, TEXAS (1984) by Wim Wenders - not strictly British but funded by Channel4.

30-08-2005, 10:47 AM	#6
JamesM Moderator Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: London Posts: 1,452 Country: iTrader: (0)	Hans Petter Moland came to the UK to make Aberdeen,

30-08-2005, 11:43 AM	#7
Clinton Morgan Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 158 iTrader: (0)	Tell me more. What's his best work?

10-09-2005, 10:55 PM	#8
JamesM Moderator Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: London Posts: 1,452 Country: iTrader: (0)	I don't know much about him. He was the most recent European director to come to the UK I could think of. This film has probably received the most accolades of all his work.

29-10-2005, 06:55 PM	#10
red squirrel Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 54 iTrader: (0)	I find Intimacy and Breaking the Waves to be totally unconvincing. With Intimacy, Chereau's attempt to make a 'French' film in a British setting just doesn't work. It turns out to be a mundane BBC Screen Two type production with the sex being shown rather than inferred. It does maybe give a realistically grim picture of London as a place to live. Timothy Spall is far better than either Fox, Rylance or the token gay froggy character. As for Breaking the Waves, Emily Watson's portrayal is unintentionally hilarious. Has anyone ever met anyone so obsessively Calvinistic? A 'Wee Free' slut?! I mean, give over. Why did Skellan Skarsgard, who gave an excellent performance as the Swedish cop in the original of Insomnia, waste his time with such crap? All anyone has to do is say the phrase 'art-house' and a ludicrous story is praised to the heavens!

13-03-2006, 06:35 PM	#14
Steve Crook Moderator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: London Posts: 8,951 Country: iTrader: (1)	Well if nobody else is going to mention them I'll speak up for all the European emigrees that came here to escape the break up of the Austro Hungarian after WWI and then those that fled because of the Nazis before & during WWII. They meant that most "British" cinema of the 1930s & 40s was actually made by foreigners. This is especially true of Denham studios which used to have 3 Union flags outside. Wags said that they represented the 3 British people that worked there amongst all the Europeans. Take a typical example The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp Writer & Producer - Emeric Pressburger (Hungarian) Music - Allan Gray (aka Josef Zmigrod) (Polish) Cinematography - Georges Périnal (French) Production Design - Alfred Junge (German) Michael Powell was one of the few British people behind the camera. Steve

13-03-2006, 07:05 PM	#15
AndrewLA Senior Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 147 iTrader: (0)	Julian Duvivier for the Vivien Leigh version of ANNA KARENINA and Jacques Feyder for KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOR -- both for Alexander Korda who, with brother Zoltan, also qualifies here. Korda worked with many other European film people, including directors Hans Schwartz (RETURN OF THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL), Lothar Mendes (THE MAN WHO COULD WORLD MIRACLES), Paul Czinner (CATHERINE THE GREAT), and, as mentioned, Rene Clair. Also, writers like Lajos Biro (PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII). And then there was Edmond Greville who worked on and off in England -- BEAT GIRL, THE HANDS OF ORLAC, THE ROMANTIC AGE...