The British Cinema Book

'The third edition of this excellent, illustrated collection of essays on British cinema provides an overview of the key issues, debates and history. First published in 1997, it has been expanded to include case studies of individual films, and several new essays on subjects such as the representation of women in 1950s cinema and the birth of British Asian cinema in the 90s. Its range is impressive.' - Peter Smith, The Guardian '...a delightful gateway into the rich world of British cinema.' - Simon Brown, Viewfinder

ROBERT MURPHY is Professor in Film Studies at De Montfort University, UK 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: A Reference Companion (2006).

Acknowledgments.- Notes on Contributors.- Introduction.- PART I: DEBATES AND CONTROVERSIES.- The British Cinema: The Known Cinema?; A.Lovell.- British Cinema as National Cinema: Production, Audience and Representation; J.Hill.- They Think It's All Over: British Cinema's US Surrender, A View from 2001; N.James.- Paradise Found and Lost: The Course of British Realism; G.Brown .- Lindsay Anderson and the Development of British Art Cinema; E.Hedling .- The Wrong Sort of Cinema: Refashioning the Heritage Film Debate; S.Hall.- British Cult Cinema; J.Smith.- PART II: INDUSTRY, GENRE, REPRESENTATION.- British Film Censorship; J.Richards & J.Robertson.- Exhibition and the Cinema-going Experience; A.Eyles.- Action, Spectacle and the Boy's Own Tradition in British Cinema; J.Chapman.- Traditions of the British Horror Film; I.Conrich.- Traditions of British Comedy; R.Dacre.- British Cinema and Black Representation; J.Pines.- Exiles and British Cinema; K.Gough-Yates.- Where Are Those Buggers?: Aspects of Homosexuality in Mainstream British Cinema; S.Bruzzi.- PART III: BRITISH CINEMA 1895-1939.- Before Blackmail: Silent British Cinema; C.Barr.- Big Studio Production in the Pre-Quota Years, J.Burrows.- Late Silent Britain; C.Gledhill.- The British Documentary Film Movement; I.Aitken.- British Film and the National Interest, 1927-39; S.Street.- A Despicable Tradition? Quota-quickies in the 1930s; L.Napper.- A British Studio System: The Associated British Picture Corporation and the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation in the 1930s; T.Ryall.- Low-budget British Films in the 1930s; L.Wood.- PART IV: BRITISH CINEMA FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR TO THE 70S.- The Heart of Britain: British Cinema at War; R.Murphy.- Melodrama and Femininity in Second World War British Cinema; M.Landy.- No Place Like Home: Powell, Pressburger Utopia; A.Moor.- Some Lines of Inquiry into Post-war British Crimes; R.Durgnat.- A Song and Dance at the Local: Thoughts on Ealing; T.Pulleine.- Methodism versus the Market-place: The Rank Organisation and British Cinema; V.Porter.- Bonnie Prince Charlie Revisited: British Costume Film in the 1950s; S.Harper.- 'Twilight women' of 1950s British Cinema; M.Williams.- Male Stars, Masculinity and British Cinema, 1945-60; A.Spicer.- Beyond the New Wave: Realism in British Cinema, 1959-63; P.Hutchings.- Women and 60s British Cinema: The Development of the 'Darling' Girl; C.Geraghty.- Strange Days: British Cinema in the Late 1960s; Robert Murphy.- 'Tutte e marchio!': Excess, Masquerade and Performativity in 70s Cinema; P.Church Gibson & A.Hill.- PART V: CONTEMPORARY BRITISH CINEMA.- New Romanticism' and the British Avant-Garde Film in the Early 80s; M.O'Pray .- Internal Decolonisation? British Cinema in the Celtic Fringe; M.McLoone.- Citylife: Urban Fairy-tales in Late 90s British Cinema; R.Murphy.- The More Things Change . . . British Cinema in the 90s; B.McFarlane.- Travels in Ladland: The British Gangster Film Cycle, 1998-2001; S.Chibnall.- Asian British Cinema since the 1990s; B.Korte & C.Sternberg .- Bright Hopes, Dark Dreams: A Guide to New British Cinema; R.Murphy.- Not Flagwaving But Flagdrowning, or Postcards from Post-Britain; W.Brown.- Postscript: A Short History of British Cinema; R.Murphy.- Index.