Manchester University Press British Art Cinema: Creativity, Experimentation and Innovation

Film history often views British filmmakers as aesthetically conservative. Even British critics have tended to concur with François Truffaut’s dictum that there is a certain incompatibility between the terms ‘cinema’ and ‘Britain’. When it comes to discussions of art cinema this neglect has been doubly felt. This volume argues that Britain actually has a long tradition of experiment and artistry, both within and beyond mainstream filmmaking. At the same time it is careful to show that art cinema in Britain is a complex and fluid concept that needs to be situated within broader cultural and transnational concerns. Covering the silent period to the 2010s, the chapters address a range of topics, notably British New Wave, poetic realism and social realism, the producer Don Boyd, the Black Audio Film Collective, films about Shakespeare and the work of the Arts Council after World War Two. The filmmakers examined include established figures such as Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Derek Jarman, Ken Russell, Joseph Losey and Nicolas Roeg, along with lesser-known artists such as Enrico Cocozza and Sarah Turner. British art cinema assembles original contributions by distinguished scholars such as John Hill, Tom Ryall and Duncan Petrie, and newer film studies voices such as Sally Shaw, Sarah Martindale and Peter Jameson. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of British cinema history, film genre, experimental filmmaking and British cultural history.