Download or read book John Mills and British Cinema written by Gill Plain and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2006-03-23 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although his film career extended from the early days of sound to the British New Wave and beyond, Sir John Mills is nonetheless remembered as the archetypal hero of the Second World War. Regarded as an English 'everyman', his performances crossed the class divide and, in his easy transition from below decks to above, he came to represent a newly democratic masculine ideal.But what was this exemplary masculinity and what became of it in the aftermath of war? John Mills and British Cinema asks how was it possible for an actor to embody national identity and, by exploring the cultural contexts in which Mills and the nation became synonymous, the book offers a new perspective on 40 years of cinema and social change. Through detailed analysis of a wide range of classic British films, John Mills and British Cinema exposes the shifting constructions of 'national' masculinity, arguing that the screen persona of the actor is a fundamental, and often overlooked, dimension of British cinema.
Download or read book Idols of the Odeons written by Andrew Roberts and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-23 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Idols of the Odeons examines British film stardom in the post-war era, a time when Hollywood movies were increasingly supplanting the Pinewood/Elstree studio system. The book encompasses the careers of sixteen actors, including Stanley Baker, Diana Dors, Norman Wisdom, Hattie Jacques, Peter Finch and Peter Sellers. Such extremely diverse careers provide the opportunity to explore overlooked films, in addition to examining how the term ‘star’ could apply to a stalwart leading man, a Variety comic, a self-created ‘Vamp’ and a character actor. Above all, this is a book that celebrates, with idiosyncratic humour and warmth, how these actors accomplished much of their best work during the transitional period between the Rank/ABPC roster of stars and the US domination of the British film industry.
Download or read book A Mirror for England written by Raymond Durgnat and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Raymond Durgnat's classic study of British films from the 1940s to the 1960s, first published in 1970, remains one of the most important books ever written on British cinema. In his introduction, Kevin Gough-Yates writes: 'Even now, it astounds by its courage and its audacity; if you think you have an 'original' approach to a filmor a director's work and check it against A Mirror for England, you generally discover that Raymond Durgnat had said it already.' Durgnat himself said about the book that 'the main point was arranging a kind of rendezvous between thinking about movies and thinking, not so much about sociology, as about the experiences that people are having all the time.' Durgnat used Mirror to assert the validity of British cinema against its dismissal by the critics of Cahiers du cinéma and Sight and Sound. His analysis takes in classics such as In Which We Serve (1942), A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and The Blue Lamp (1949), alongside 'B' films and popular genres such as Hammer horror. Durgnat makes a cogent and compelling case for the success of British films in reflecting British predicaments, moods and myths, at the same time as providing some disturbing new insights into a national character by whose enigmas and contradictions we continue to be perplexed and fascinated.
Download or read book Up in the Clouds Gentlemen Please written by John Mills and published by Orion Publishing Company. This book was released on 2001 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling autobiography of one of Britain's best-loved actors - updated for this edition
Download or read book Offbeat Revised Updated written by Julian Upton and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2022-04-07 with total page 748 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years there has been consensus about the merits of Britain’s ‘cult films’ — Peeping Tom, Witchfinder General, The Italian Job — but what of The Mark, Unearthly Stranger, The Strange Affair and The Squeeze? Revisionist critics wax lyrical over Get Carter and The Wicker Man, but what of Sitting Target, Quest for Love and The Black Panther? OFFBEAT redresses this imbalance by exploring Britain’s obscurities, curiosities and forgotten gems — from the buoyant leap in film production in the late fifties to the dying days of popular domestic cinema in the early eighties. Featuring essays, interviews and in-depth reviews, OFFBEAT provides an exhaustive, enlightening and entertaining guide through a host of neglected cinematic trends and episodes, including: • The last great British B-movies • ‘Anti-swinging sixties’ films • Sexploitation — from Yellow Teddy Bears to Emmanuelle in Soho • The British rock ‘n roll movie • CIA-funded British cartoons • Asylums in British cinema • The Children’s Film Foundation • The demise of the short as supporting feature • Val Guest, Sidney Hayers and the forgotten journeyman of British film • Swashbucklers, crime thrillers and other non-horror Hammers Now updated with more than 150 pages of new reviews and essays, featuring: • The Beatles in Colour! • The History of the AA Certificate • Ken Russell’s 1980s Films • Iris Murdoch’s A Severed Head • Curating Offbeat films in the Digital Age And much more!
Download or read book British Cinema and the Second World War written by Robert Murphy and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2005-08-15 with total page 814 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author provides a decade-by-decade analysis of every film ever made in Britain about World War II. It provides a comprehensive account of how Britain has portrayed the war through films.
Download or read book Forever Young written by Hayley Mills and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iconic actress Hayley Mills shares personal memories from her storied childhood, growing up in a famous acting family and becoming a Disney child star, trying to grow up in a world that wanted her to stay forever young. The daughter of acclaimed British actor Sir John Mills was still a preteen when she began her acting career and was quickly thrust into the spotlight. Under the wing of Walt Disney himself, Hayley Mills was transformed into one of the biggest child starlets of the 1960s through her iconic roles in Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, and many more. She became one of only twelve actors in history to be bestowed with the Academy Juvenile Award, presented at the Oscars by its first recipient, Shirley Temple, and went on to win a number of awards including a Golden Globe, multiple BAFTAs, and a Disney Legacy Award. Now, in her charming and forthright memoir, she provides a unique window into when Hollywood was still 'Tinseltown' and the great Walt Disney was at his zenith, ruling over what was (at least in his own head) still a family business. This behind-the-scenes look at the drama of having a sky-rocketing career as a young teen in an esteemed acting family will offer both her childhood impressions of the wild and glamorous world she was swept into, and the wisdom and broader knowledge that time has given her. Hayley will delve intimately into her relationship with Walt Disney, as well as the emotional challenges of being bound to a wholesome, youthful public image as she grew into her later teen years, and how that impacted her and her choices--including marrying a producer over 30 years her senior when she was 20! With her regrets, her joys, her difficulties, and her triumphs, this is a compelling read for any fan of classic Disney films and an inside look at a piece of real Hollywood history.
Download or read book Truffaut written by Antoine De Baecque and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2022-02-23 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most celebrated filmmakers of all time, Francois Truffaut was an intensely private individual who cultivated the public image of a man completely consumed by his craft. But his personal story—from which he drew extensively to create the characters and plots of his films—is itself an extraordinary human drama. Now, with captivating immediacy, Antoine de Baecque and Serge Toubiana give us the definitive story of this beloved artist. They begin with the unwanted, mischievous child who learned to love movies and books as an escape from sadness and confusion: as a boy, Francois came to identify with screen characters and to worship actresses. Following his early adult years as a journalist, during which he gained fame as France's most iconoclastic film critic, the obsessive prodigy began to make films of his own, and before he was thirty, notched the two masterpieces The 400 Blows and Jules and Jim. As Truffaut's dazzling body of work evolves, in the shadow of the politics of his day, including the student uprisings of 1968, we watch him learning the lessons of his masters Fellini and Hitchcock. And we witness the progress of his often tempestuous personal relationships, including his violent falling-out with Jean-Luc Godard (who owed Truffaut the idea for Breathless) and his rapturous love affairs with the many glamorous actresses he directed, among them Jacqueline Bisset and Jeanne Moreau. With Fanny Ardant, Truffaut had a child only thirteen months before dying of a brain tumor at the age of fifty-two. Here is a life of astonishing emotional range, from the anguish of severe depression to the exaltation of Oscar victory. Based on unprecedented access to Truffaut's papers, including notes toward an unwritten autobiography, de Baecque and Toubiana's richly detailed work is an incomparably authoritative revelation of a singular genius.
Download or read book British Cinema of the 1950s written by Sue Harper and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2003-09-11 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this definitive and long-awaited history of 1950s British cinema, Sue Harper and Vincent Porter draw extensively on previously unknown archive material to chart the growing rejection of post-war deference by both film-makers and cinema audiences. Competition from television and successive changes in government policy all forced the production industry to become more market-sensitive. The films produced by Rank and Ealing, many of which harked back to wartime structures of feeling, were challenged by those backed by Anglo-Amalgamated and Hammer. The latter knew how to address the rebellious feelings and growing sexual discontents of a new generation of consumers. Even the British Board of Film Censors had to adopt a more liberal attitude. The collapse of the studio system also meant that the screenwriters and the art directors had to cede creative control to a new generation of independent producers and film directors. Harper and Porter explore the effects of these social, cultural, industrial, and economic changes on 1950s British cinema.
Download or read book The Cinema of Britain and Ireland written by Brian McFarlane and published by Wallflower Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh, concise but wide-ranging introduction to and overview of British and Irish cinema, this volume contains 24 essays, each on a separate seminal film from the region. Films under discussion include 'Pink String and Sealing Wax', 'Room at the Top', 'The Italian Job', 'Orlando', and 'Sweet Sixteen'.
Download or read book Classic Movie Fight Scenes written by Gene Freese and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-10-19 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both brawls and elaborate martial arts have kept movie audiences on the edges of their seats since cinema began. But the filming of fight scenes has changed significantly through the years--mainly for the safety of the combatants--from improvised scuffles in the Silent Era to exquisitely choreographed and edited sequences involving actors, stuntmen and technical experts. Camera angles prevented many a broken nose. Examining more than 300 films--from The Spoilers (1914) to Road House (1989)--the author provides behind-the-scenes details on memorable melees starring such iconic tough-guys as John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Robert Mitchum, Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan.
Download or read book Transformation and Tradition in 1960s British Cinema written by Farmer Richard Farmer and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-03 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over half a century on, the 1960s continue to generate strong intellectual and emotional responses - both positive and negative - and this is no less true in the arena of film. Making substantial use of new and underexplored archive resources that provide a wealth of information and insight on the period in question, this book offers a fresh perspective on the major resurgence of creativity and international appeal experienced by British cinema in that dramatic decade. Transformation and Tradition in 1960s British Cinema is the first scholarly volume on this period of British cinema for more than twenty-five years. It provides a major reconsideration of the period by focusing on the central tensions and contradiction between novelty/revolution and continuity/tradition during what remains a highly contentious period of cultural production and consumption.
Download or read book The Best of British Cinema Volume XI History in the Making written by John Mills and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Typical Men written by Andrew Spicer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2001-04-12 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Typical Men is the first book length study of masculinity in British cinema and offers a broad and lively overview from the Second World War to the present day. Spicer argues that masculinity in popular fiction can best be understood as a range of dynamic and competing cultural types which rise and fall in relation to shifting patterns of film production, audience taste and social change. Specific chapters are devoted to each of the major types debonair gentlemen, civilian professionals, action adventurers, the Ever yma n, Fools and Rogues, criminals, rebels and damaged men - which trace their changing histories through innovative readings of key films, together with a fresh look at the performances of particular stars including James Mason, Kenneth More, Michael Caine and Sean Connery. A final chapter explores the complex and hybrid types that have evolved within a volatile and unstable contemporary British cinema, now part of an array of interrelated media images of masculinity. Typical Men will be of keen interest to those concerned with the cultural history of gender, and its detailed and carefully contextualised interpretations of films afford a reappraisal of British cinema history, especially the neglected and despised 1950s. 'Andrew Spicer's Typical Men is a major intervention in debates about masculinity in the cinema. It takes a lot of intellectual risks, and locates cinematic stereotypes of masculinity in a cinematic and cultural context. It is trenchant and original, and redefines the field of gender representation.' – Sue Harper, Professor of Film History, University of Portsmouth 'The strength of this elegantly and wittily written book is that, in the precision of its detail about individual performances, actors and films, it never loses sight of its argumentative threads.' – Brian McFarlane, Screening the Past
Download or read book The British Cinema Book written by Robert Murphy and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new edition of The British Cinema Book has been thoroughly revised and updated to provide a comprehensive introduction to the major periods, genres, studios, film-makers and debates in British cinema from the 1890s to the present. The book has five sections, addressing debates and controversies; industry, genre and representation; British cinema 1895-1939; British cinema from World War II to the 1970s, and contemporary British cinema. Within these sections, leading scholars and critics address a wide range of issues and topics, including British cinema as a 'national' cinema; its complex relationship with Hollywood; film censorship; key British genres such as horror, comedy and costume film; the work of directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Asquith, Alexander Mackendrick, Michael Powell, Lindsay Anderson, Ken Russell and Mike Leigh; studios such as Gainsborough, Ealing, Rank and Gaumont, and recent signs of hope for the British film industry, such as the rebirth of the low-budget British horror picture, and the emergence of a British Asian cinema. Discussions are illustrated with case studies of key films, many of which are new to this edition, including Piccadilly (1929) It Always Rains on Sunday (1947), The Ladykillers (1955), This Sporting Life (1963), The Devils (1971), Withnail and I (1986), Bend it Like Beckham (2002) and Control (2007), and with over 100 images from the BFI's collection. The Editor: Robert Murphy is Professor in Film Studies at De Montfort University and has written and edited a number of books on British cinema, including British Cinema and the Second World War (2000) and Directors in British and Irish Cinema (2006). The contributors: Ian Aitken, Charles Barr, Geoff Brown, William Brown, Stella Bruzzi, Jon Burrows, James Chapman, Steve Chibnall, Pamela Church Gibson, Ian Conrich, Richard Dacre, Raymond Durgnat, Allen Eyles, Christine Geraghty, Christine Gledhill, Kevin Gough-Yates, Sheldon Hall, Benjamin Halligan, Sue Harper, Erik Hedling, Andrew Hill, John Hill, Peter Hutchings, Nick James, Marcia Landy, Barbara Korte, Alan Lovell, Brian McFarlane, Martin McLoone, Andrew Moor, Robert Murphy, Lawrence Napper, Michael O'Pray, Jim Pines, Vincent Porter, Tim Pulleine, Jeffrey Richards, James C. Robertson, Tom Ryall, Justin Smith, Andrew Spicer, Claudia Sternberg, Sarah Street, Melanie Williams and Linda Wood.
Download or read book War Representation in British Cinema and Television written by Kevin M. Flanagan and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-10-25 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores alternatives to realist, triumphalist, and heroic representations of war in British film and television. Focusing on the period between the Suez Crisis of 1956 and the Falkland War but offering connections to the moment of Brexit, it argues that the “lost continent” of existential, satirical, simulated, and abstractly traumatic war stories is as central to understanding Britain’s martial history as the mainstream inheritance. The book features case studies that stress the contribution of exiled or expatriate directors and outsider sensibilities, with particular emphasis on Peter Watkins, Joseph Losey, and Richard Lester. At the same time, it demonstrates concerns and stylistic emphases that continue to the present in television series and films by directors such as Lone Scherfig and Christopher Nolan. Encompassing everything from features to government information films, the book explores related trends in the British film industry, popular culture, and film criticism, while offering a sense of how these contexts contribute to historical memory.
Download or read book British Film Music and Film Musicals written by K. Donnelly and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-08-16 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first book-length consideration of the topic for sixty years, Kevin Donnelly examines the importance of music in British film, concentrating both on musical scores, such as William Walton's score for Henry V (1944) and Malcolm Arnold's music for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and on the phenomenon of the British film musical.
