Key words:
British film, Brighton, documentary movement, Ilya comedy, free cinema movement and new film.
The century-long development of British films has been inextricably linked with Hollywood films. Even in many cases, the national identity of British films is very problematic. This may be an important reason why British films often show a persistent and even anxious "identity complex" on identity issues. Because Britain and the United States speak the same language, because the two countries are almost brothers in history, and because British films and American films have unimpeded exchanges in actors, directors, funds and production (there is no natural gap between them in language and culture). Many British films are funded by the United States, and many actors and directors travel back and forth between Hollywood and Britain to make films. In addition to the great influence of American movies, the complex composition of the British nation (such as the rising national sentiment in Northern Ireland) makes the title of a unified British movie a bit suspicious. Of course, these increasingly complicated situations do not hinder the existence of a British film history or a British film culture that has its own unique position in the world film history.
The ups and downs of British movies in the past century
Let's combine several schools or phenomena of great significance in the history of British film to sort out and integrate the development of British film in the past 100 years.
brighton college
Brighton School was the first film group with certain types in the early 20th century.
In recent years, the world film history circle has highly appraised the British Brighton School, which is not only regarded as the earliest film school in the world film history, but even attributed the earliest use of montage to the Brighton School. Then Potter and Griffith in America. Moreover, the film practice of Porter and Griffith is indeed influenced by the Brighton School in England to some extent.
Brighton School originated in Brighton, a coastal city in England, with Smith and Williamson as its main representatives. Smith and James? Williamson used to be a still photographer, and later set foot in the field of film production. Their exploration of film special effects and editing techniques has influenced many filmmakers in other countries. His works, such as Wedding in the Car (1903), initially merged with Mei's exploration: he inherited the documentary aesthetic principle of truly recording real life, but was no longer limited to the simple reproduction and reproduction of life, but absorbed Mei's artistic processing of life and fictional drama or expressionism aesthetic thought. Their creative principle is "popularization", that is, most of them are based on ordinary daily life, but they are not purely objective recording photography, but touch on and explore some social problems, which has certain social criticism. It can be said that these principles have largely laid many traditions of British films. In terms of film language, they tried the techniques of secondary exposure, mobile photography, overprint, stop shooting, close-up and panoramic shooting, mobile camera shooting and film montage. Such as Smith's 1903 weird comedy "Mary? Jenny's Disaster uses quite complicated editing techniques.
Brighton School has a great influence on American movies, especially the early works of Porter and Griffith. Brighton School is the intermediary and bridge between the "cultural drift" of films from the European continent and the American continent.
(2) Documentary Movement
In the 1920s and 1930s, British films had a preliminary prosperity. With the resolution of the film sound problem, Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929) became the first film with sound in Britain.
Before the 1920s, the shooting system of documentaries was mainly limited to the shooting system of newsreels and landscape short films. Although there are occasional documentaries with plot length, the significance of this film type has not been established. So far, it can't be said to be a real documentary with independent film significance. However, in the 1920s, as documentaries were gradually positioned as art films, they gradually gained a new position in the film family. In this process, the documentary movement in Britain once played an important historical role.
Illya's comedy
Senior British director m? Balcaen was in charge of Ilya Film Studio from 65438 to 0938. Barkain gave some filmmakers strong independence through very democratic management decisions, and on this basis, he created some works with relatively consistent styles, which often satirized various backward and ridiculous phenomena in life, and were called "Iliad Comedy" in the film history. The film production of Ilya's comedies continued until the 1950s. More importantly, Ilya's comedies typically represent the British comedy style and tradition. This tradition has a profound influence on British films.
1949 kindness and crown (also translated as mercy) is a famous British comedian Alexander? Dzhanis played eight different roles by himself, which made him famous overnight. Different from most Hollywood comedies, these comedies often create comic effects by gagging or hippie jokes. The humor of Ilya's comedies is mostly based on ordinary life scenes, and more on daily life. But English comedies often add a bold assumption or assumption to their daily life.
Another typical Ilya comedy was written by Charles? Clayton's The Gangster of Ravenbo (195 1). This film is a mixture of realism and stylized expression. The opening segment shows the daily life habits of the protagonist in the form of a documentary. In fact, this comedy style of English movies is familiar to us in Swift's Gulliver's Travels and other famous novels. Decades later, Clayton caught people's attention in 1989 with a fish named Wanda. The film is full of eccentric British black humor. It can be said that this film is a modern upgrade of Ilya's comedy tradition, and it can also be said that it is a postmodern modulation of traditional Ilya's comedy style.
Free cinema Movement and New Movies
The "free cinema Movement" in Britain is the overlap of British documentary tradition and realism tradition. It is also called "kitchen sink movies" because the themes of these movies are often taken from humble and trivial daily life. But from a certain point of view (such as the age of occurrence, its artistic innovation significance, its "angry youth" characteristics and so on. ), equivalent to the French "new wave" in Britain. Its main director is Lindsay? Anderson and Carlyle? Rez, Walter? Lasali, etc.
In the mid-1950s, in British dramas and novels, the rebellious ordinary working class was the main object of expression, thus forming a wave of "angry youth". This wave of literature has also spread to movies. First, Lindsay and others organized a series of documentaries to shoot and broadcast, and then they set up an informal group organization, which people used to call "free cinema Committee". Its program is "emphasizing the freedom of filmmakers"; Filmmakers should become critics of contemporary society "and" explore contemporary British society fairly ". This movement then developed into the field of drama creation. This kind of film is also called new film. Representative works are Tony? Richardson's angry review, the smell of honey, the loneliness of a long-distance runner, Carlisle? "Saturday night and Sunday morning" by Reitz et al.
(5) Youth movies
In the 1970s, British films entered an obvious decline period. Both box office and film production have fallen sharply. Sometimes the annual output even drops to more than 30. Britain has become the production and screening place of American films.
It was not until the 1980s that British films took a major turn for the better. 1982, screenwriter Colin of Chariots of Fire? When Welland won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, he even declared: "The time of the British has come."
A number of films called "Thatcher-era films" such as Abundance and Scandal, a number of cultural reflection films reflecting on British colonial history such as Gandhi and A Passage to India, and films trying to rebuild British national spirit such as Chariot of Fire, Hope and Glory and My Left Foot have always been better than famous films adapted from literature (so their films are called "literature". Avery's Quartet, A Room with a View, Morris and howards end are all important works after the revival of the British film industry in 1980s, representing a peak in the development of British film.
The composition of British film directors here is also more complex and younger, such as Roland, who directed Killing Land and Mission (also translated as Preaching). Qiao Fei, Jordan who directed Mona Lisa and The Game of Excitement and Crying, Greenaway who directed The Painter's Contract, The Chef, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, and Mike? Newill, etc. They are a group of young movie stars born in the 1940s. This group of film directors is also called "Youth Film" directors. Their creation makes the style, theme and theme intention of British films more diverse, complex and colorful. According to Stephen? Chibnall's article "Brothers with Weird Hearts in Britain" can be summarized as follows: "British films in the 1980s greatly ignored the traditions of past audiences and tended to seek alternative identity relations, multi-culture and multi-gender market positioning."
References:
[1][ America] Christine? Thompson, David? Bodwell. World film history [M]. Beijing: Peking University Publishing House, 2003.
[2][ English] Stephen? Chibnall Britain's Strange Brothers —— Gender, Family and Country in New British Films [J]. World Movies, 2002, (4).
[3] Li. Selected series of world famous works in the past century: British film volume [Z]. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, 1996+05438+07.
[4] john seale. Contemporary British Films-Industry, Policy and Identity [J]. World Movies, 2002, (4).