Cinema & Movies: Britain

[Under development: 8 February 2005]

A first adult love was for the British `kitchen sink' films of the late 1950s and 1960s (e.g. those produced by Woodfall Films), the star of which for me is Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, based on the novel by Alan Silitoe. They are approachable, attempt to portray an image of life as experienced by many people in Britain during that period, and employ a stylisation which captures aspects of how I think about those times from my own experience. There are also more recent British social commentary films from directors such as Ken Loach. The Full Monty (which also examines men's perception of themselves in 1990s Britain), Brassed Off, Trainspotting, Billy Elliot, and Purely Belter approachably examine the unforgivable impact and result of Thatcherism on the industrial heartlands of Britain.

Three films examine some of the psychological pre-occupations of the British middle class: Wetherby, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Peter's Friends (with Kenneth Brannagh). Kenneth Brannagh and Emma Thompson also work together in Much Ado About Nothing and Dead Again.

David Lean's film of Pasternak's novel Dr Zhivago is clearly British.

I have an enthusiasm for the work of Peter Greenaway.

Title	Comment	Cinema	Video
Kes	Director: Ken Loach	ü	ü
Cathy Come Home	Director: Ken Loach
Up The Junction	Director: Ken Loach
Looks and Smiles	Director: Ken Loach	ü
Carlito's Way	Director: Ken Loach		ü
Raining Stones	Director: Ken Loach	ü
Drowning By Numbers	Director: Peter Greenaway		ü
The Cook, The Thief, etc.	Director: Peter Greenaway		ü
Prospero's Books	Director: Peter Greenaway		ü
The Pillow Book	Director: Peter Greenaway	ü	ü
The Draughtsman's Contract	Director: Peter Greenaway		ü
A Zed and Two Noughts	Director: Peter Greenaway		ü

p.g.h@btinternet.com

Culture: sitemap

Peter Hughes: Introduction