Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: modern British culture
- 1 Becoming British
- 2 Language developments in British English
- 3 Schooling and culture
- 4 The changing character of political communications
- 5 Contemporary Britain and its regions
- 6 Contemporary British cinema
- 7 Contemporary British fiction
- 8 Contemporary British poetry
- 9 Theatre in modern British culture
- 10 Contemporary British television
- 11 British art in the twenty-first century
- 12 British fashion
- 13 Sport in contemporary Britain
- 14 British sexual cultures
- 15 British popular music, popular culture and exclusivity
- 16 British newspapers today
- 17 The struggle for ethno-religious equality in Britain: the place of the Muslim community
- Guide to further reading
- Index
6 - Contemporary British cinema
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: modern British culture
- 1 Becoming British
- 2 Language developments in British English
- 3 Schooling and culture
- 4 The changing character of political communications
- 5 Contemporary Britain and its regions
- 6 Contemporary British cinema
- 7 Contemporary British fiction
- 8 Contemporary British poetry
- 9 Theatre in modern British culture
- 10 Contemporary British television
- 11 British art in the twenty-first century
- 12 British fashion
- 13 Sport in contemporary Britain
- 14 British sexual cultures
- 15 British popular music, popular culture and exclusivity
- 16 British newspapers today
- 17 The struggle for ethno-religious equality in Britain: the place of the Muslim community
- Guide to further reading
- Index
Summary
Introduction
The UK Film Council, the government-sponsored body responsible for allocating public funds to film-making, declares that 'Cinema is an immensely powerful medium at the heart of the UK's creative industries and the global economy. Cinema entertains, inspires, challenges and informs audiences. It helps shape the way we see and understand ourselves and the world'. Yet the task of examining the extent to which British cinema encourages us to 'see and understand ourselves and the world' is not entirely straightforward, since British cinema is, and always has been, a complex site of representation. Additionally, the cinema audience for British films is relatively small since US films dominate the box office and DVD sales; many British films do not get released or only reach art-house audiences, while some are broadcast on television. There is also the complicating issue of classification. Indeed, most analyses tend to begin with a preamble about how difficult it is to define a British film, especially since much of current production is funded by a variety of sources originating from several countries. The debate generally considers the amount of British 'cultural content' which may or may not be reflected in its personnel, locations and subject matter.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Culture , pp. 96 - 114Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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