BRITISH CINEMA Professor Lawrence Napper Course Number ULF Film 110 Aims and Objectives The course introduces a wide range of issues in connection with the role of cinema in the British cultural context, especially in contrast to the cinema of Hollywood. The course focuses on the following issues: cinema as an economic system within the world audio-visual market; cinema and national identity, particularly representations of London as a National and Imperial city; cinema as an ideological system for social representation; genre in cinema; cinema as a formal system, looking at questions of genre, narrative, realism and spectatorship. Learning Outcomes Students will learn some of the major features of the broader relationships between cinema and society. Students will learn some of the major features of the cinematic institution in the United Kingdom. Students will learn some of the major critical and theoretical paradigms for academic study of the cinema. Students will develop analytic skills in the reading and analysis of film texts. Method of Study The class proceeds by means of a weekly lecture, film screening, and seminar. Attendance at all elements is compulsory. All classes start promptly at stated times. Class Schedule Wednesday 9:30am-1:00pm Lecture and Screening 2:00-3:00pm Seminar Group A 3:30-4:30pm Seminar Group B 5:00-6:00pm Seminar Group C Film Screenings A series of key films is presented in the course of the weekly Screening Programme, ranging from contemporary commercial successes such as The Queen through to early and silent films such as The Lodger. You are expected to consider these closely and seriously in the academic context of Film Studies, and within the wider context of your stay in the UK. It does not matter whether or not you are already familiar with these films. Prospective students should note that the films which constitute required viewing for the course contain a wide range of representations of British society. Some may contain a degree of explicitness where issues of sexuality and violence are concerned. All films shown have been publicly exhibited and have formed part of the critical discourse on British 27
cinema. Most are widely available on DVD or videocassette. Backup copies are held in the library. Course Reader Students are expected to fulfil weekly Basic Reading tasks. A Course Reader, containing all the Basic Reading, is available for purchase. For contents see later in syllabus. Attendance Policy Attendance will be monitored by means of a register which will be copied each week to the Programme Director. For details, please refer to full UC London Programme attendance policy elsewhere. Classroom Etiquette We start immediately at the times stated; please attend promptly. Eating and drinking is not permitted in our classrooms. Kindly dispose of litter in the bins provided. Please turn off all mobile phones and related devices on entering the classroom. The use of laptops is not permitted. If you need to leave the room during a screening, please do so carefully and quietly - in the dark! - with regard to your own safety and the comfort of others. Please remain seated until the absolute end of the screening, including any credits, until I have turned the lights on. This is so as not to disturb others and in order to permit an orderly exit for the whole group. Assessment Assessment will be three-fold. It will involve 1) An in-class essay (30% of final grade) to be written in Seminars during Week 5 Your first piece of work will be a timed essay to be written during the seminar of Week 5. You will be required to respond to an essay question designed to test your understanding of the issues covered thus far in the course 2) A mid-term essay (30% of final grade) to submitted by the end of Week 8 This 2000-word essay, which should be submitted by the end of Week 8 will reflect on the issues covered during the first eight weeks of the course. You will have the opportunity to devise your essay topic, in consultation with me 3) A Final Examination (3 hours, 40% of final grade), date to be announced Revision guidance and advice relating to the examination will be provided during seminars. Your third component for assessment will be a Final Examination. You will be required to write TWO essays chosen from a series of questions covering the whole course. The task is designed to test your relationship to the broad academic content of the course as a whole. Please note: successful candidates are likely to take the whole time allowed for this examination. Grade Criteria The Instructor will value work which provides clear evidence that it: - answers the question directly and fully - contains substantial content - is clearly expressed and argued - is able to describe and analyse its chosen objects well 28
- shows evidence of familiarity with the relevant critical and theoretical approaches GRADE A Grade A will be awarded to work which demonstrates AN OUTSTANDING DEGREE OF COMPETENCE. This work will be distinguished by a very high quality of knowledge and analysis. This category of work will reflect detailed acquaintance with given examples of British Cinema and with given instances of film criticism and theory. Work at this level will reflect an advanced level of ability in the presentation of an academic case, and in term of written expression. GRADE B Grade B will be awarded to work which demonstrates A GOOD DEGREE OF COMPETENCE. This work will be distinguished by a good quality of knowledge and analysis. This category of work will reflect acquaintance with given examples of British cinema and with given instances of film criticism and theory. Work at this level will reflect a strong level of ability in the presentation of an academic case, and in terms of written expression. GRADE C Grade C will be awarded to work which demonstrates A MODERATE DEGREE OF COMPETENCE. This work will be distinguished by a moderate quality of knowledge and analysis. This category of work will reflect acquaintance with given examples of British cinema and with given instances of film criticism and theory. Work at this level will reflect a moderate level of ability in the presentation of an academic case, and in terms of written expression. GRADE D Grade D will be awarded to work which demonstrates A BASIC DEGREE OF COMPETENCE. This work will be distinguished by a basic quality of knowledge and analysis. This category of work will reflect acquaintance with given examples of British cinema and with given instances of film criticism and theory. Work at this level will reflect a basic level of ability in the presentation of an academic case, and in terms of written expression. GRADE F Grade F will be awarded to work which FAILS TO DEMONSTRATE A BASIC DEGREE OF COMPETENCE. This work will be distinguished by an inadequate quality of knowledge and analysis. This category of work will reflect inadequate acquaintance with given examples of British cinema and with given instances of film criticism and theory. Work at this level will reflect an inadequate level of ability in the presentation of an academic case, and in terms of written expression. Weekly Schedule Lectures and Screenings take place on Wednesday mornings, 9:30am-1:00am in the Lecture Theatre. Seminar sections follow in Room 46 on Wednesday afternoons, 2:00-3:00pm, 3:30-4:30pm and 5:00-6:00pm. Part One Cinema and Nation This part will introduce students to some key general concepts which will underpin the weeks which follow ideas about nationality, national cinema, London, and British cinema will be discussed through debate about two films which openly attempt to articulate the relationship between the State and its citizens though the figure of the monarch. Week 1 Wednesday 26 August 2009 The English/The British/The Empire/The Monarch 29
Screening John and Julie (William Fairchild, 1955) Reading Katie Fox, Watching the English (London: Hodder, 2005) James Chapman, Cinema, Monarch and the making of heritage, A Queen is Crowned (1953), in Amy Sargeant and Clare Monk (eds) British Historical Cinema (London: Routledge, 2002) Week 2 Wednesday 2 September 2009 The Concept of British Cinema Screening The Queen (Stephen Frears, 2006) Reading Charles Barr, Amnesia and Schizophrenia in Barr (ed.) All Our Yesterdays (London: BFI Publishing, 1986) John Hill, British cinema as National Cinema: Production, Audience and Reception in Robert Murphy (ed), The British Cinema Book (BFI Palgrave, 2009) Nick James, British Cinema s US Surrender A View from 2001 in Robert Murphy (ed), The British Cinema Book (BFI Palgrave, 2009) Part Two Victorian London on Screen Using three key films from the pre-ww2 period, this part will establish the aesthetic and narrative connections between British cinema and earlier storytelling and performance traditions. It will also provide an overview of a key period in British cinema one that offers a range of different responses to the continuing problem of how to attract a popular audience for British cinema in the light of strong competition from Hollywood product. Week 3 Wednesday 9 September 2009 Hitchcock and International Arts Cinema Screening The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (Alfred Hitchcock, 1926) Reading Charles Barr, The Lodger in Barr, English Hitchcock (Cameraon & Hollis, 1999) Tom Ryall, British Film Culture in the Interwar Period in Ryall, Alfred Hitchcock and the British Cinema (Croom Helm, 1986) Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz, (Penguin, 1995 (1839)) extracts NB Those with iphones can download the original novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes direct to Stanza via Project Guttenberg Week 4 Wednesday 16 September 2009 Protection and the Quota Screening Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (George King, 1936) Reading Lawrence Napper, A Despicable Tradition?: Quota quickies of the 1930s in Robert Murphy (ed), The British Cinema Book (BFI, 2001) Jeffrey Richards, Todd Slaughter and the Cinema of Excess in Richards (ed), The Unknown Thirties (IB Tauris, 2001) 30
Week 5 Wednesday 23 September 2009 Quality Cinema Screening Victoria the Great (Herbert Wilcox, 1937) Reading James Chapman, Monarchy and Empire in Chapman, Past and Present (IB Tauris, 2005) Part Three London at War The Second World War is a crucial moment in British history, still evoked at moments of crisis as a key experience the forging of the national character. It is also understood by many critics as the point when British cinema truly experienced its golden age through a new realist aesthetic born of the marriage between fiction film and documentary. This section of the course will investigate and interrogate both of these ideas Week 6 Wednesday 30 September 2009 The Blitz and the Documentary Imperative Screening London Can Take It (Jennings/Watt, 1940) Listen to Britain (Jennings/McAllister, 1942) Fires Were Started (Jennings, 1943) ext Reading Andrew Higson, Britain s Outstanding Contribution to the Film : The Documentary-Realist Tradition in Barr (ed) All Our Yesterdays (BFI Publishing, 1986) James Chapman, Cinema, Propaganda and National Identity: British Film and the Second World War in Ashby and Higson (eds) British Cinema: Past and Present (Routledge, 2000) Week 7 Wednesday 7 October 2009 Documentary, Fiction and the State Screening The Bells Go Down (Basil Dearden, 1943) Reading J. B. Priestley, Postscripts Jo Fox, Blitzkrieg: The Bombers and the Bombed in Fox, Film Propaganda in Britain and Nazi Germany (Oxford: Berg, 2007) Week 8 Wednesday 14 October 2009 The Bombsite and the Future Screening Waterloo Road (Sidney Gilliat, 1946) Reading Pam Cook, Breaking the consensus on British Cinema in Cook, Fashioning the Nation, (BFI Publishing, 1996) Philip Gillett, Family Fortunes: Portrayals of the Working Class Family in Gillett, The British Working Class in Postwar film (Manchester University Press, 2003) Week 9 Wednesday 21 October 2009 MID TERM BREAK 31
Part Four Swinging London The sixties sees a radical change in the style and content of British cinema, partly in response to the influence of the French New Wave on a younger generation of film-makers, but also a reflection of wider changes occurring in the society, particularly in social attitudes towards sexuality, race and gender. This section will explore the vibrant cinema which emerges in this period a cinema which attracts international attention, and is instrumental in the first flowering of cool Brittania. Week 10 Wednesday 28 October 2009 The Old Culture and the New Screening Expresso Bongo (Val Guest, 1954) Reading Kevin Donnelly, The Perpetual Busman s Holiday: Sir Cliff Richard and British Pop Musicals in the Journal of Popular Film and Television, Vol. 25, No. 4, Winter 1998. John Hill, British Society 1956-1963 in Hill, Sex, Class and Realism: British Cinema 1956-63 (BFI Publishing, 1986) Richard Hoggart, The Full Rich Life & the Newer Mass Art: Sex in Shiny Pockets in The Uses of Literacy (Penguin, 1957) Week 11 Wednesday 4 November 2009 Social Problems Screening Victim (Basil Dearden, 1961) Reading Andy Medhurst, Victim: Text as Context in Andrew Higson (ed), Dissolving Views (Cassell, 1996) Richard Dyer, Victim: Hegemonic Project in Dyer, A Matter of Images: Essays on Representation (Routledge, 2002) Week 12 Wednesday 11 November 2009 Hollywood, England Screening Darling (John Schlesinger, 1965) Reading Christine Geraghty, Women and Sixties British Cinema: The Development of the Darling Girl in Robert Murphy (ed) The British Cinema Book (BFI Publishing, 1997) Moya Luckett, Travel and Mobility Femininity and national identity in the Swinging London films in Ashby & Higson (eds) British Cinema Past and Present (Routledge, 2000) Part Four Contemporary British Cinema This final section of the course will encourage students to reflect on the opportunities and difficulties which affect contemporary British film-makers, and to understand a range of different film-making practices and funding structures within the context of the longer history of British cinema which they have encountered during the course. The policies of the UK Film Council will be discussed, as well as the production strategies of successful organisations such as Working Title. 32
Week 13 Wednesday 18 November 2009 Art for Export Screening Somers Town (Shane Meadows, 2008) a wider discussion of modern auteurs and film-makers working within a realist/low budget or art-house tradition. Detailed debate about the role of the UK Film Council s New Cinema Fund and Premiere Fund Reading Sarah Street, The British film debate: Introduction and Margaret Dickinson & Sylvia Harvey, Public policy and public funding for film: some recent developments in the UK in Screen, vol. 46, no. 1, Spring 2005 Dick Hebdige, The Function of Subculture (1979) collected in Simon During (ed.) The Cultural Studies Reader (Routledge, 1993) John Hill, A working class hero is something to be? Changing representations of Class and Mascu linity in British Cinema in Phil Powrie et al (eds), The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema (Wallflower, 2004) Week 14 Wednesday 24 November 2009 The International Rom Com Screening Run Fatboy Run (David Schwimmer, 2008) a wider discussion of the imperatives for international commercial success within the Curtis/Heri tage tradition. Detailed debate about the opportunities for commercial production, and interna tional co-production within the UK. Reading Andrew Spicer, The Reluctance to Commit: Hugh Grant and the New British Romantic Comedy in Phil Powrie et al (eds), The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema (Wallflower, 2004) Neil Watson, Hollywood UK in Robert Murphy (ed.) British Cinema of the 90s (British Film Institute, 2000) Week 15 Wednesday 2 December 2009 Exam Revision and Concluding discussion Screening Film to be Chosen by Common Consent Week 16 Wednesday 2 December 2009 EXAM 33
Select Bibliography Anthony ALDGATE, Jeffrey RICHARDS (1999) Best of British: Cinema and Society from 1930 to 1990 (London: I.B.Tauris) Justine ASHBY, Andrew HIGSON (eds) (2000) British Cinema, Past and Present (London: Routledge) Dave BERRY (1996) Wales and the Cinema: The First Hundred Years (Cardiff: Univ. Wales Press) David BORDWELL, Kristin THOMPSON (1995) Film Art: An Introduction (4th ed; New York: McGraw-Hill) Stephen BOURNE (2001) Black in the British Frame: Black People in British Film and Television (New York: Continuum) James CHAPMAN (2005) Past and Present: National Identity and British Historical Film (London: I.B. Tauris) Steve CHIBNALL, Robert MURPHY (eds) (1999) British Crime Cinema (London: Routledge) Paul DAVE (2006) Visions of England: Class and Culture in Contemporary Cinema (London: Berg) John ELLIS (1992) Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Video (2nd ed; London: Routledge) Lester FRIEDMAN (ed) (1993) British Cinema and Thatcherism (London: UCL Press) Philip GILLETT (2003) The British Working Class in Post-war Film (Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press) Sue HARPER (2000) Women in British Cinema: Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know (London: Continuum Andrew HIGSON (1995) Waving the Flag: Constructing a National Cinema in Britain (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press) Andrew HIGSON (ed) (1996) Dissolving Views: Key Writings on British Cinema (London: Cassell) John HILL (1999) British Cinema in the 1980s: issues and Themes (Oxford: Clarendon Press) John HILL, Pamela Church GIBSON (eds) (1998) The Oxford Guide to Film Studies (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press) Samantha LAY (2003) British Social Realism: From Documentary to Brit Grit (London: Wallflower Press) Jacob LEIGH (2002) The Cinema of Ken Loach: Art in the Service of the People (London: Wallflower Press) Brian MCFARLANE, Anthony SLIDE (eds) (2003) The Encyclopedia of British Film (London: Methuen) Samantha LAY (2003) British Social Realism: From Documentary to Brit Grit (London: Wallflower Press) Robert MURPHY (1992) Sixties British Cinema (London: British Film Institute) Robert MURPHY (ed) (2000) The British Cinema Book (London: British Film Institute, rev ed) Duncan PETRIE (2000) Screening Scotland (London: British Film Institute) Geoffrey NOWELL-SMITH (ed) (1997) The Oxford History of World Cinema (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press) David PUTTNAM (1997) The Undeclared War: The Struggle for Control of the World s Film Industry (London: Harper Collins) Jeffrey RICHARDS (1997) Films and British National Identity: From Dickens to DAD S ARMY (Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press) Karen ROSS (1996) Black and White Media: Black Images in Popular Film and Television (Cambridge: Polity) Amy SARGEANT (2005) British Cinema: A Critical History (London: British Film Institute) Andrew SPICER (2001) Typical Men: The Representation of Masculinity in Popular British Cinema (London: I.B. Tauris) Sarah STREET (1997) British National Cinema (London: Routledge) Sarah STREET (2002) Transatlantic Crossings: British Feature Films in the USA (London: Continuum) Kristin THOMPSON, David BORDWELL (1994) Film History: An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill) Patricia WARREN (1995) British Film Studios: An Illustrated History (London: Batsford) Background Resources Film Culture British Film Institute The most important cultural institution in relation to the cinema in Britain is the British Film Institute (BFI), at 21 Stephen Street, London W1. It is located just a couple of hundred yards from the new UNC base go across Bedford 34
Square to Tottenham Court Road and Stephen Street runs off on the other side of the road. It runs the National Film Theatre, the BFI London IMAX Cinema and the National Film Archive, and the new BFI Southbank. General Reference The most useful cinema listings magazine is the weekly Time Out, whilst the best broadcast listings magazine is the BBC weekly Radio Times (this covers television as radio; its title goes back to its origins in the days before TV). Screen International is the weekly industry paper; Empire is a lively popular monthly; Sight and Sound is the BFI s own serious monthly; Screen, from the University of Glasgow, is Britain s long-standing academic quarterly journal of film theory. See Course Bibliography for specialised literature. Film Viewing Cinemas You are situated at the heart of a major metropolis, with the usual wide array of cinemas - mainline commercial, art house, and so on. The area around Leicester Square is particularly rich in major cinemas, and the Prince Charles is a particularly useful, low-cost repertory cinema. Do not forget the equally important specialist venues such as the National Film Theatre (on the South Bank), the Metro (in Soho), the ICA cinema (in the Mall), the Renoir (in the Brunswick Centre) and, nearly seventy years old, the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead. National Film and Television Archive The NFTVA offers a specialist viewing service of prints from their historic archive. Fees apply for this advance-booking service; you may need to wait for some weeks for a print to come up from the archive, which is out in the country, to the main BFI premises. Please discuss this option with me if you consider it essential for your work - normally other channels should be adequate. Television Britain offers five high quality terrestrial television channels - BBC 1 and BBC2, ITV (Independent Television/Channel 3), Channel Four (a lively, innovative channel), and Channel Five (still forging a clear identity). All these channels, especially 1-4, have good film programming. A large number of cable and satellite channels complete the offer. Video/DVD Rental London has plenty of video rental shops large and small. The American Blockbuster chain is probably the best, but you will also find some of the smaller outlets like Prime Time Video useful. Video/DVD Purchase You are a stone s throw away from the Virgin Megastore and HMV, major media stores with large video selections for sale, often including sale items. NB: Any material purchased in the UK will be Region 2 (DVD) or PAL (Video) which will not be playable in the US except on multiregion machines, but you may wish to consider donating any such materials to the UC Bloomsbury Study Centre collection. Campus Copies of all films screened, including those from which extracts have been shown, will be available for borrowing on DVD from the campus library. NB: Private viewing does not substitute for attendance at Class Screenings. Laptop Viewing (DVD) 35
If you have a DVD-equipped laptop, you will be able to watch British and European DVDs by switching your player to from US Region 1 to European Region 2 for a limited number of occasions (usually no more than five), or by downloading a switcher such as DVD Genie. Specialist Library Facilities British Film Institute Library The BFI Library at 21 Stephen Street, London W1, just off Tottenham Court Road, has one of the best collections of film and television literature in the world, dating back a very long way. It includes a large book collection and vast range (300-400) of film journals. You will not have borrowing rights, but you will find this a valuable base for specialised research at a charge of approx. 6 per day or 22 for the whole semester (annual concessionary pass). Please note that the BFI Library does not loan out videocassettes or DVDs. Internet Resources Please use the resources of the Internet and the Worldwide Web to support your learning, but also please treat these as secondary to substantial academic scholarship. Internet materials in this area are often dominated by hype. Academic work in this area is more commonly found in books and journals, as reflected in the extensive holdings of the BFI Library or, on a tinier scale, in the materials I have brought together for you in the Course Reader. With this caveat, here are some useful websites for British Cinema. ScreenOnline www.screenonline.org.uk This is run by the British Film Institute (BFI) and has considerable amounts of material on all aspects of British cinema, with some clips available to download. There are also transcriptions of many of the NFT s interviews with contemporary British film-makers available here. British Pathe www.britishpathe.com This remarkable site contains weekly newsreel footage from pre WW1 up to the early 1970s. All the films are available to download and keep on your desktop. British Cinema History Research Project http://www.uea.ac.uk/eas/britcin/ Features an index to the key cinema trade magazine, Kineweekly 1957-71, and transcriptions of BECTU interviews with many many veteran British film-makers. The password for the index is ftvkine. You have to register to access the interviews. Regional Film Archives http://www.movinghistory.ac.uk/index.html This site provides an introduction to the holdings of the network of regional film archives around the country. Regional film archives hold an extensive collection of local fiction and non fiction films, as well as amateur material and commercial footage. While there is currently no regional archive specifically for London, the National Film and Television Archive is based here and is part of the BFI s operations at Stephen Street. British Universities Film and Video Council http://www.bufvc.org.uk The BUFVC is involved in various activities concerning the promotion of film culture and film education in Britian, they have an excellent web presence with links to various projects, including an extensive newsreel project, and the MAAS Media Online project which streams a huge amount of historical moving image material, including artists films, political films, experimental films, etc. 36