Part 4: The British Film Industry Since 1984

Unit G322 Section B: Audiences & Institutions

PART 4: A HISTORY OF BRITISH FILM SINCE 1984

Q1. Firstly, the kind of popular British film that is internationally known and receives the largest audience are the romantic comedies set in a rose-tinted London, focusing lightly on the lives of the Southern, upper-middle class. Notable examples include Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones and Love Actually. They sometimes use the cunning strategy of pairing a British actor romantically with a well-known American actress, and have a similar plot premise to another type of popular British film – the costume drama or ‘heritage’ film. Early examples include Merchant & Ivory productions, and copious amounts of Jane Austen adaptions. On the other hand, ‘gritty’ social realist dramas represent and explore the lives of the “the working British underclass”, giving ‘real’ backdrop and regional identity an importance and not just using it as a bland backdrop between London-based scenes. Examples include Trainspotting, This Is England and Brassed Off.

Q2. Dredd 3D is a science fiction crime thriller whilst Never Let Me Go is a drama. Dredd differs from earlier productions because it is an adaption of a comic, as well as partially being a re-imagining of an earlier American film, Judge Dredd. Furthermore, unlike other DNA films it is not set in the UK but America.

Q3. Momentum pictures have recently distributed films containing high-profile and therefore automatically bankable actors, with Maggie Smith et al in Quartet, and Colin Farrell et al in Seven Psychopaths. Their British cinema releases cover a variety of demographics and entertainment angles, be it young male, the elderly or upper middle class ‘liberals’.  By aiming for all sections of the market, there is more chance that at least one of their high profile ventures will be profitable. On the other hand, a lot of their current DVD releases are horror films, some with famous actors and others not. Horror films are the genre that is famously critic proof, and horror films will always manage to find an audience that does not care about the quality of the film-making.