This course examines the role of British cinema in providing a window into the changing nature of British identity and society since World War Two. Through the study of key films across the past sixty years it charts the progress of political, social and cultural change in Britain as represented in British film. Students examine the changing economic fortunes of British cinema and its effect on the development of British film style during each period. A strong emphasis is placed on studying the contexts in which the films were originally circulated and read. The course provides opportunities to utilize the resources of the British Film Institute archive and library, as well as steering students towards researching the locations, the stars and directors of the London-based film.
Learning outcomes:
Students will learn how to analyze film in detail using a formal method; how to understand the material, historical, ideological and economic elements of British life interface with the way that British film represents British identity; will learn about the influence of Hollywood on production, distribution and reception of feature film in the UK.
Method of presentation:
This course will combine lectures, presentations of readings and selected excerpts of film clips.
Required work and form of assessment:
Participation in course discussion and research (20%);
Mid-term essay paper (approximately 1,500 words) (30%);
Group research project (15%);
End of semester essay paper (approximately 2,000 words) (35%)
WEEK 2: Passion Repressed
This iconic British film of repressed desire and extra marital infidelity throws up debates about ideology and the way that film represents British identity at a critical moment in British history. There will be an introduction to formal film language analysis.
Report back on Brief Encounter.
Reading: Sue Aspinall: ‘Women, Realism and Reality in British Films, 1943-53’, from Curran J and Porter (eds) British Cinema History (London, 1983);Gledhill, C and Swanson, G (1984) ‘Processing History’ Chapter 4 in Hurd, Geoff (ed) National Fictions, London; BFI; Sue Harper, Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know, (Continuum 2000), World War 11: Control and Evasion, chapter 2; Brief Encounter, BFI Classics, Richard Dyer,
1993; www.bfi.org.uk/lean
Film screening: Brief Encounter, David Lean, 1945
Comparative text: The End of the Affair, Neil Jordan, 1999
WEEK 3: Museum Visit
This field trip to Imperial War Museum will help to explore the history of WW2 and The Blitz Experience, the context for the production of Brief Encounter. Entry to the museum is free. Nearest tube station is Lambeth North, Bakerloo line; directions will be provided.
Reading: John Ellis British Cinema as Performance Art in Justine Ashby; Andrew Higson, British
Cinema, Past and Present, London: Routledge, 2000); British Cinema in the Second World War, Robert Murphy,
2000; World War Two and its Aftermath on film: www.screenonline.org.uk/education/id/1161243/index.html
WEEK 4: Passion Versus Duty
This award-winning historical heritage drama portrays the monarch in very contemporary ways. Debates focus on faithfulness to historical fact, the spectacle that is the monarchy and the representation of femininity.
Report on Elizabeth
Reading: From Dancing Queen to Plaster Virgin, Elizabeth and the end of the English Heritage? Pamela
Church Gibson, Journal of Popular British Cinema, no. 5, 2002
Film screening: Elizabeth, Sheka Kapur, 1998
Comparative text: The Queen, Stephen Frears, 2006
WEEK 5: Passion Denied
This is a Mike Leigh film about sexual morality and back street abortion in 1950’s London. Oscar nominated performances.
Report on Vera Drake
Film screening: Vera Drake, Mike Leigh, 2005
Comparative text: Dance With a Stranger, Mike Newell, 1985
WEEK 6: A Passionate Defense
The north of Ireland is a fiercely contested political and ideological space, at once part of and at war with the British state. Based on real events, this film aims to represent the difficulty of being Irish in the UK at a time when the IRA and other paramilitary groups are bombing the mainland.
Report on In The Name of the Father
Reading: Traditions of Representation: Political Violence and the Myth of Atavism, Chapter 3, Irish Film, Martin McLoone, BFI Publishing, 2000; Hunger review; http://www.dirtsweatsoul.com/2009/04/hunger- film-review.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger_(2008_film)
Film screening: In The Name of the Father, Sheridan, 1993
Comparative text: Hunger, Steve McQueen, 2008
WEEK 7: Hybrid Passions
This is one of the first British films to feature Pakistanis as protagonists. It examines the way in which black and white relationships were affected by the policies of Margaret Thatcher’s government (1979 -1990) and the struggle of children born of immigrants in Britain to define their identity.
Report on My Beautiful Launderette
Reading: John Hill ‘Race and Cultural Hybridity’ &
John Hill ‘Film and Television: A New Relationship in British Cinema in the 1980s (Clarendon Press, Oxford,
1999); Dirty Linen, Jamal, ICA Documents;http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/475617/index.htmll
Film screening: My Beautiful Launderette, Stephen Frears (1985) Comparative text: Bhaji on the Beach, Gurinder Chada, 1993
WEEK 8: Culture Clash
This Ken Loach film looks at interracial and inter-religious relationships in Glasgow. We examine Loach’s social realist style and his unique approach to post 9/11 Britain.
Report on Ae Fond Kiss
Reading: Class, Politics and Gender: High Hopes and Riff Raff, chapter 9, British Cinema of the 1980’s, John Hill, Clarendon Press, 1999. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A3009098 BBC audio interviews with Ken Loach and information on the film.
Film: Ae Fond Kiss, Ken Loach, 2004
Comparative text: My Name is Joe, Ken Loach, 1998
WEEK 9: Happy Endings
This remains one of the most successful films in British cinema history. It is a US/UK financed production featuring Hugh Grant. We examine the fairy tale nature of the films in this sub genre and the nature of stardom, using Hugh Grant as a case study of star quality.
Report on Notting Hill
Reading: Citylife: Urban Tales in Late 90’s British Cinema, Robert Murphy, British Cinema Book Chapter 35; A path through the moral maze, Robert Murphy in British Cinema of the 90s, BFI:2000; The Reluctance to Commit: Hugh Grant and the new British Romantic Comedy, Andrew Spicer, Chapter 6 in The Trouble With Men, ed. Powrie, Davies, Babington, Wallflower Press 2004.
Film screening: Notting Hill, Roger Michell (1999) Comparative text: Sliding Doors, Peter Howitt.
WEEK 10: Racial Passions
Very few British films have featured the Afro Caribbean community. This film, directed by a young white man and featuring a successful rapper, Asher D, caused a minor sensation when it was released for its truthful and
disturbing representation of the life of young black inner London males. We will explore the history of black
British representation. Report on Bullet Boy
Reading: Beyond ‘The Cinema of Duty’? The Pleasures of Hybridity a: Black British Film of the 1980’s;
1990’s, Sarita Malik, chapter 13 in Dissolving Views, ed. Higson, Cassell 1996
Bullet Boy production notes from http://www.vervepics.com/bb.shtml
Film screening: Bullet Boy, Saul Dibb, (2005) Comparative text: Kidulthood, Menhaj Huda, 2006
WEEK 11: A Passion for Dance
A young working class woman, desperately looking for her identity, teaches herself in the hope of moving up and out of her no-hope environment. Very well received in Cannes, this woman-directed film lays it bare for contemporary British youth, with a gritty awareness combined with sensitivity. Small films about big issues: perhaps the future of the British film industry?
WEEK 12: Group Research Presentations
Students will present PowerPoint presentations of their group research.
Required readings:
Curran, J. & Porter, V., eds. British Cinema History, Wiedenfield, 1983
Harper, S., Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know, Continuum, 2000
Higson, A., ed. Dissolving Views, Cassell, 1996
Higson, A., British Cinema, Past and Present, Routledge, 2000
Hill, J., British Cinema in the 1980s, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1999
Hurd, G., National Fictions, London, BFI
Leggott, J., Contemporary British Cinema: From Heritage to Horror, Shortcuts, Wallflower Press, 2008
McLoone, M., Irish Film, BFI Publishing, 2000
Murphy, R., ed. British Cinema Book, BFI publishing, 2001
Murphy, R., ed. British Cinema in the Second World War, Continuum, 2000
Powrie, P., et al, The Trouble With Men, Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema, Wallflower Press, 2004
Watson, G., The Cinema of Mike Leigh’, Wallflower Press, 2004
Recommended readings:
Chibnall, S., & Murphy, R., eds. British Crime Cinema, Routledge,1999
Dyer, R., Brief Encounter, BFI, 1993
Friedman L., ed. British Cinema and Thatcherism. London: UCL Press, 1996
Higson, A., & Ashby, J., eds. British Cinema Past and Present, London, Routledge, 2000
Phillips, P., Understanding Film Texts. London: BFI, 2000.
McKnight G., ed. Agent of Challenge and Defiance: the Films of Ken Loach. 1997.
Murphy, R., British Cinema of the 1990s. London: BFI, 2000.
Nelmes, J., ed. Introduction to Film Studies. 2nd edition, London: Routledge, 1999.
Richards, J., Films and British National Identity. Manchester: University Press, 1997.
Street, S., British National Cinema. London: Routledge, 1997.
Journals:
Close Up: The Electronic Journal of British Cinema
Journal of Popular British Cinema
Sight and Sound (monthly British Film Institute publication)
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Kate Domaille holds an M.A. in Film & Media Studies in Education She has taught in universities for ten years and works with the Media Education Association promoting teacher education in teaching about the media. She has acted as a tutor and advisor to the British Film Institute, written publications about cinema and television and for a brief time in the 1990s worked as a BBFC Examiner.
Passions And Repressions: Cinematic Representations Of British Identity In British Cinema
This course examines the role of British cinema in providing a window into the changing nature of British identity and society since World War Two. Through the study of key films across the past sixty years it charts the progress of political, social and cultural change in Britain as represented in British film. Students examine the changing economic fortunes of British cinema and its effect on the development of British film style during each period. A strong emphasis is placed on studying the contexts in which the films were originally circulated and read. The course provides opportunities to utilize the resources of the British Film Institute archive and library, as well as steering students towards researching the locations, the stars and directors of the London-based film.
Students will learn how to analyze film in detail using a formal method; how to understand the material, historical, ideological and economic elements of British life interface with the way that British film represents British identity; will learn about the influence of Hollywood on production, distribution and reception of feature film in the UK.
This course will combine lectures, presentations of readings and selected excerpts of film clips.
Participation in course discussion and research (20%);
Mid-term essay paper (approximately 1,500 words) (30%);
Group research project (15%);
End of semester essay paper (approximately 2,000 words) (35%)
WEEK 1: Introduction to British Cinema
British Cinema: history, economics and aesthetic constraints. A brief introduction to British Cinema, the course and each other. What is distinctively British about British cinema?
Background reading on the Internet to read before the first class. British Cinema timeline
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/entertainment/03/bfi_cinema_timeli... ; British Cinema
facts; http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/facts/index.html http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tours/britishness/tour1.html http://www.britishcinemagreats.com/cinema_history/pre_british/page1.htm
WEEK 2: Passion Repressed
This iconic British film of repressed desire and extra marital infidelity throws up debates about ideology and the way that film represents British identity at a critical moment in British history. There will be an introduction to formal film language analysis.
Report back on Brief Encounter.
Reading: Sue Aspinall: ‘Women, Realism and Reality in British Films, 1943-53’, from Curran J and Porter (eds) British Cinema History (London, 1983);Gledhill, C and Swanson, G (1984) ‘Processing History’ Chapter 4 in Hurd, Geoff (ed) National Fictions, London; BFI; Sue Harper, Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know, (Continuum 2000), World War 11: Control and Evasion, chapter 2; Brief Encounter, BFI Classics, Richard Dyer,
1993; www.bfi.org.uk/lean
Film screening: Brief Encounter, David Lean, 1945
Comparative text: The End of the Affair, Neil Jordan, 1999
WEEK 3: Museum Visit
This field trip to Imperial War Museum will help to explore the history of WW2 and The Blitz Experience, the context for the production of Brief Encounter. Entry to the museum is free. Nearest tube station is Lambeth North, Bakerloo line; directions will be provided.
Reading: John Ellis British Cinema as Performance Art in Justine Ashby; Andrew Higson, British
Cinema, Past and Present, London: Routledge, 2000); British Cinema in the Second World War, Robert Murphy,
2000; World War Two and its Aftermath on film: www.screenonline.org.uk/education/id/1161243/index.html
WEEK 4: Passion Versus Duty
This award-winning historical heritage drama portrays the monarch in very contemporary ways. Debates focus on faithfulness to historical fact, the spectacle that is the monarchy and the representation of femininity.
Report on Elizabeth
Reading: From Dancing Queen to Plaster Virgin, Elizabeth and the end of the English Heritage? Pamela
Church Gibson, Journal of Popular British Cinema, no. 5, 2002
Film screening: Elizabeth, Sheka Kapur, 1998
Comparative text: The Queen, Stephen Frears, 2006
WEEK 5: Passion Denied
This is a Mike Leigh film about sexual morality and back street abortion in 1950’s London. Oscar nominated performances.
Report on Vera Drake
Film screening: Vera Drake, Mike Leigh, 2005
Comparative text: Dance With a Stranger, Mike Newell, 1985
Reading: Chapter 1 in Garry Watson ‘The Cinema of Mike Leigh’, Wallflower Press, 2004; Remembering the 1950’s: Dance With a Stranger, chapter 6, British Cinema of the 1980’s, John Hill, Clarendon Press, 1999; http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/feature.jsp?id=140270
http://www.veradrake.com/ Video interview with Mike Leigh http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/interviews/leigh.html
Film screening: Vera Drake (Mike Leigh) 2005
Comparative text: Dance With A Stranger, (Mike Newell), 1985.
WEEK 6: A Passionate Defense
The north of Ireland is a fiercely contested political and ideological space, at once part of and at war with the British state. Based on real events, this film aims to represent the difficulty of being Irish in the UK at a time when the IRA and other paramilitary groups are bombing the mainland.
Report on In The Name of the Father
Reading: Traditions of Representation: Political Violence and the Myth of Atavism, Chapter 3, Irish Film, Martin McLoone, BFI Publishing, 2000; Hunger review; http://www.dirtsweatsoul.com/2009/04/hunger- film-review.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger_(2008_film)
Film screening: In The Name of the Father, Sheridan, 1993
Comparative text: Hunger, Steve McQueen, 2008
WEEK 7: Hybrid Passions
This is one of the first British films to feature Pakistanis as protagonists. It examines the way in which black and white relationships were affected by the policies of Margaret Thatcher’s government (1979 -1990) and the struggle of children born of immigrants in Britain to define their identity.
Report on My Beautiful Launderette
Reading: John Hill ‘Race and Cultural Hybridity’ &
John Hill ‘Film and Television: A New Relationship in British Cinema in the 1980s (Clarendon Press, Oxford,
1999); Dirty Linen, Jamal, ICA Documents;http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/475617/index.htmll
Film screening: My Beautiful Launderette, Stephen Frears (1985) Comparative text: Bhaji on the Beach, Gurinder Chada, 1993
WEEK 8: Culture Clash
This Ken Loach film looks at interracial and inter-religious relationships in Glasgow. We examine Loach’s social realist style and his unique approach to post 9/11 Britain.
Report on Ae Fond Kiss
Reading: Class, Politics and Gender: High Hopes and Riff Raff, chapter 9, British Cinema of the 1980’s, John Hill, Clarendon Press, 1999. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A3009098 BBC audio interviews with Ken Loach and information on the film.
Film: Ae Fond Kiss, Ken Loach, 2004
Comparative text: My Name is Joe, Ken Loach, 1998
WEEK 9: Happy Endings
This remains one of the most successful films in British cinema history. It is a US/UK financed production featuring Hugh Grant. We examine the fairy tale nature of the films in this sub genre and the nature of stardom, using Hugh Grant as a case study of star quality.
Report on Notting Hill
Reading: Citylife: Urban Tales in Late 90’s British Cinema, Robert Murphy, British Cinema Book Chapter 35; A path through the moral maze, Robert Murphy in British Cinema of the 90s, BFI:2000; The Reluctance to Commit: Hugh Grant and the new British Romantic Comedy, Andrew Spicer, Chapter 6 in The Trouble With Men, ed. Powrie, Davies, Babington, Wallflower Press 2004.
Film screening: Notting Hill, Roger Michell (1999) Comparative text: Sliding Doors, Peter Howitt.
WEEK 10: Racial Passions
Very few British films have featured the Afro Caribbean community. This film, directed by a young white man and featuring a successful rapper, Asher D, caused a minor sensation when it was released for its truthful and
disturbing representation of the life of young black inner London males. We will explore the history of black
British representation. Report on Bullet Boy
Reading: Beyond ‘The Cinema of Duty’? The Pleasures of Hybridity a: Black British Film of the 1980’s;
1990’s, Sarita Malik, chapter 13 in Dissolving Views, ed. Higson, Cassell 1996
Bullet Boy production notes from http://www.vervepics.com/bb.shtml
Film screening: Bullet Boy, Saul Dibb, (2005) Comparative text: Kidulthood, Menhaj Huda, 2006
WEEK 11: A Passion for Dance
A young working class woman, desperately looking for her identity, teaches herself in the hope of moving up and out of her no-hope environment. Very well received in Cannes, this woman-directed film lays it bare for contemporary British youth, with a gritty awareness combined with sensitivity. Small films about big issues: perhaps the future of the British film industry?
Report on Fish Tank
Reading; http://www.fishtankmovie.com/ Peter Bradshaw, Guardian film critic, http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/sep/10/fish-tank-review; Andrea Arnold interview http://www.timeout.com/film/features/show-feature/8682/andrea-arnold-int... Film screening: Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold, 2009.
Comparative film: Red Road, Andrea Arnold, 2005
DEADLINE FOR HANDING IN FINAL PAPER
WEEK 12: Group Research Presentations
Students will present PowerPoint presentations of their group research.
Curran, J. & Porter, V., eds. British Cinema History, Wiedenfield, 1983
Harper, S., Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know, Continuum, 2000
Higson, A., ed. Dissolving Views, Cassell, 1996
Higson, A., British Cinema, Past and Present, Routledge, 2000
Hill, J., British Cinema in the 1980s, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1999
Hurd, G., National Fictions, London, BFI
Leggott, J., Contemporary British Cinema: From Heritage to Horror, Shortcuts, Wallflower Press, 2008
McLoone, M., Irish Film, BFI Publishing, 2000
Murphy, R., ed. British Cinema Book, BFI publishing, 2001
Murphy, R., ed. British Cinema in the Second World War, Continuum, 2000
Powrie, P., et al, The Trouble With Men, Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema, Wallflower Press, 2004
Watson, G., The Cinema of Mike Leigh’, Wallflower Press, 2004
Chibnall, S., & Murphy, R., eds. British Crime Cinema, Routledge,1999
Dyer, R., Brief Encounter, BFI, 1993
Friedman L., ed. British Cinema and Thatcherism. London: UCL Press, 1996
Higson, A., & Ashby, J., eds. British Cinema Past and Present, London, Routledge, 2000
Phillips, P., Understanding Film Texts. London: BFI, 2000.
McKnight G., ed. Agent of Challenge and Defiance: the Films of Ken Loach. 1997.
Murphy, R., British Cinema of the 1990s. London: BFI, 2000.
Nelmes, J., ed. Introduction to Film Studies. 2nd edition, London: Routledge, 1999.
Richards, J., Films and British National Identity. Manchester: University Press, 1997.
Street, S., British National Cinema. London: Routledge, 1997.
Journals:
Close Up: The Electronic Journal of British Cinema
Journal of Popular British Cinema
Sight and Sound (monthly British Film Institute publication)
Kate Domaille holds an M.A. in Film & Media Studies in Education She has taught in universities for ten years and works with the Media Education Association promoting teacher education in teaching about the media. She has acted as a tutor and advisor to the British Film Institute, written publications about cinema and television and for a brief time in the 1990s worked as a BBFC Examiner.