British Cinema in the 1980s: Issues and Themes

In recent years, the role and identity of British Cinema has been changing, and it is these changes with which British cinema in the 1980s is concerned. It looks at the increasing domination of the world film industry by Hollywood and the response of British filmmaking to this, the role ofgovernment, and the increasingly close relationship between film and television. It also examines the kinds of images British Cinema produced in this period and how they relate to the shifting sense of `British' identity. The book not only looks at the appeal of images of the past in the heritagefilm (such as Howard's End) and `films of Empire' (such as A Passage to India) but also discusses the more questioning images of the present by the `state of the nation' film such as Letter to Brezhnev and My Beautiful Laundrette. In doing so, it explores how these films deal with issues of class,gender and ethnicity and how these in turn to connect to our understanding of the `Britishness' of British cinema.British Cinema in the 1980s will become the definitive study of an important period of British filmmaking. Bringing together a discussion of British society, the British film industry and British films, John Hill provides an accessible analysis of the main themes and issues characterizing Britishcinema of the time.