The Elephant Man (1980)

[Steve Crook]

Don't follow your logic Graeme, British cast, lot of British crew, British subject, British locations = British film ? Anglo-American film?

There are lots of different ways of classifying a film and deciding if it's a British film or not. Even the people like the UK Film Council (recently abolished) or the BFI aren't sure and don't have very clear rules.

Some people, like the IMDb, just go by the source of funding, who paid for it, the nationality of the main production companies.

Michael Powell once described The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) as a "typically British" film: Written by a Hungarian, filmed by a Frenchman, music by a Pole, design by a German with an Austrian as one of the leads. The other leads were Scottish and Welsh (or born in Wales). Still, the editor and one director were English

Steve

[GRAEME]

Don't follow your logic Graeme, British cast, lot of British crew, British subject, British locations = British film ? Anglo-American film?

It isn't my logic, Richard. The film was an American production - so, by the industry definition, it was an American film.

If you want to argue that a Brit subject and locations, actors and so on, make it British (or part British) then that's up to you. That would mean that Disney's Mary Poppins was part Britsh; Errol Flynn's Robin Hood.

Where do you stop? Does one Brit actor make it a Brit movie? or two? British director? What about Hitchcock's films in Hollywood?

British subject matter? How about the old Charge of the Light Brigade - shot in Hollywood, but it has a British subject and several cast members...

As I said, the film industry looks at where the money came from. The Elephant Man is an American production because it was entirely funded by American companies - Mel Brooks produced. If you want to call it a British film for other reasons, that's up to you.

But the reason it doesn't feature on any industry lists as one of the best British films, is because officially it isn't.

It does work the other way around too: Captain Apache (1971) is a British film (Spanish co-prod) despite having three American stars, director, setting, subject matter and being filmed entirely not in Britain!

[wellendcanons]

Just watched this film again. First time in a long time. I'd more or less forgotten it! Great film.

wec