Film England: Culturally English Filmmaking Since the 1990s

by Andrew Higson

Overview

In a film business increasingly transnational in its production arrangements and global in its scope, what space is there for culturally English filmmaking? In this groundbreaking book, Andrew Higson demonstrates how a variety of Englishnesses have appeared on screen since 1990, and surveys the genres and production modes that have captured those representations. He looks at the industrial circumstances of the film business in the UK, government film policy and the emergence of the UK Film Council. He examines several contemporary 'English' dramas that embody the transnationalism of contemporary cinema, from 'Notting Hill' to 'The Constant Gardener'. He surveys the array of contemporary fiction that has been re-worked for the big screen, and the pervasive - and successful - Jane Austen adaptation business. Finally, he considers the period's diverse films about the English past, including big-budget, Hollywood-led action-adventure films about medieval heroes, intimate costume dramas of the modern past, such as 'Pride and Prejudice', and films about the very recent past, such as 'This is England'.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781848854543
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/18/2010
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Andrew Higson is Professor of Film and Television at the University of York. He has written extensively about British cinema, including the books 'Waving the Flag: Constructing a National Cinema in Britain and English Heritage', 'English Cinema: Costume Drama Since 1980'. He has also edited several books, including 'Young and Innocent? The Cinema in Britain 1896-1930', and "Film Europe' and 'Film America': Cinema, Commerce and Cultural Exchange, 1920-1939' (with Richard Maltby).

Table of Contents

Introduction
• Film production in the UK in the 1990s and 2000s
• Film policy and national cinema: cultural value and economic value
• English cinema, transnationalism and globalisation
• English literature, the contemporary novel and the cinema
• Jane Austen: “The hottest scriptwriter in Hollywood”
• The Austen screen franchise in the 2000s
• Intimate and epic versions of the English past
• Blurring boundaries: historical myopia and period authenticity
• Conclusion
• Filmography
• Bibliography
• Index