British Film Industry

British Film Industry Classics

28 days later
 Casino Royale
 Dracula
 Enigma
Gandhi
 The great escape
Hamlet
Italian Job
Slum dog millionaire
The Kings Speech
Zulu
Trainspotting
The Pink Panther series


British film history
http://www.britishcinemagreats.com/cinema_history/pre_british/page_1.htm

Emergent British Cinema 1880-1900

Modern cinema is generally regarded as descending from the work of the French Lumière brothers in 1892, and their show first came to London in 1896. However, the first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. 

The film is the first known instance of a projected moving image. At the end of the 19th America had started to experiment in how to get a moving image onto a screen and in Britain Friese-Green was working hard at doing much the same thing on a commercial basis.

 The first people to build and run a working 35 mm camera in Britain were Robert W. Paul and Birt Acres. They made the first British film ‘Incident at Clovelly Cottage’ in February 1895, shortly before falling out over the camera's patent.


Early British Cinema 1900 - 1920

Another British person called George Albert Smith devised the first colour system, Kinemacolor, in 1908. But even now there was competition - Gaumont and Pathe had both opened film companies by 1909 and there were now films coming into England from Europe.


America was advancing at a similar pace to Britain at around this time (pre –war) and two Americans, Jupp and Turner, were staring to make American films in Britain. This of course was all halted by the Great War in 1914 and efforts were directed elsewhere. 

By this stage Britain was starting to lag behind the US. Post war saw the nearly the death of British cinema as the desire for American films, and lack of money in Britain saw the industry slow down and by the mid twenties it had practically stopped.


The  20’s and  30’s

But there was several embers of hope the careers of Ronald Coleman, Victor McLaglen, Leslie Howard and Charles Laughton were starting and although Howard was to be a casualty of WWII these actors along with Balcon and Wilcox were determined that British pictures should survive. 

Even the son of the Prime Ministers Anthony Asquith joined in to keep the industry alive. But in 1927 Parliament brought in an important piece of legislation the Cinematographers Trade Bill, designed to ensure there was a guaranteed home market for British made films. This meant that 5% of the total number of movies shown in theatres had to be from Britain this figure rose to 20% by 1936. Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929) is regarded as the first British sound production.


The 40’s

WWII caused a minor miracle to happen to movie making in Britain. A new spirit of enthusiasm coupled with strenuous work led to the abandonment of the stupidity and extravagance of the previous decade. After a faltering start, British films began to make increasing use of documentary techniques and former documentary film-makers to make more realistic films, like In Which We Serve (1942), Went the Day Well? (1942).

With many of the employees being engaged in war work, available manpower was reduced to one third and half of the studio space was requisitioned, only sixty films were produced annually. New realism in wartime pictures and a demand for documentaries gave a whole new look to British films. 

Initially, many cinemas closed down for fear of air raids, but the public needed a way of escaping the reality of war, and turned to the more genteel, sanitized versions available in the cinema. The majority was war related, The Stars Look Down; 49th Parallel; Convoy and This Happy Breed.


1950 – 59

The fifties saw the beginning of Hammer Horror studios which went to be by far the most successful studio in the History of the British Isles. It launched the careers of Christopher lee and Peter Cushing and the directorial success of Terence Fisher.

Then in 1947, Ealing's comedy Hue and Cry, was a surprise hit. An entertaining story of a criminal gang foiled by an enthusiastic army of schoolboys, the film met a public desire for relief after years of fighting and continuing hardships.

The studio released many comedies before and during the war but 'Ealing Comedy' proper began in 1949, with the consecutive release of Passport to Pimlic, Whisky Galore! and Kind Hearts and Coronet. The Lavender Hill Mob was also very successful, in which a mild-mannered bank clerk masterminds a robbery of the Bank of England's gold reserves.


The 60’s Boom??? 

The boundaries were pushed further by Alfie; Up The Junction and Women in Love. New, young actors were needed; Richard Harris, Julie Christy, Peter Sellers, Terrence Stamp, David Hemmings, Donald Pleasance and Paul Scofield. Brian Forbes and Richard Attenborough began to make names for themselves as up and coming directors.

Not all movies were of this genre David Lean made Bridge over the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia amongst others there was Oliver!; and the beginnings of the James Bond series of movies. 

Overseas film makers began to come to London too, including Roman Polanski and Michelangelo Antonioni. Blacklisted in America Joseph Losey had a significant influence on UK Cinema in the 60s as did Stanley Kubrick, especially in the decade to follow.


The sixties was the ‘holding era’ for British cinema with an expansive 50’s directors like Lean really held the reins and the industry charged on. Commercially the bond movies were highly successful and quality films were also directed by Basil Dearden. Actors and actresses were aplenty and in much demand. Four of the decade's Academy Award winners for best picture were British productions.

The Stagnation of the 70’s

With the film industry in both Britain and the United States entering into recession, American studios cut back on domestic production, and in many cases withdrew from financing British films altogether. 

Major films were still being made at this time, including Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), Battle of Britain (1969), and David Lean's Ryan's Daughter (1970), but as the decade wore on financing became increasingly hard to come by.
Also in the 70’s, spurred on by his success with Women In Love, Ken Russell challenged the censors wildly with ‘The Music Lovers’ and ‘The Devils’ only just managing to get a certificate.

 Likewise Roegs ‘Performance’ with James Fox was a shock to the system for many who saw it. But boundaries were gone by now and a couple of years later ‘The Exorcist’ was to hit the screens only to be banned after to many people fainted or were sick in the cinema, but by then the boom of British horror had finally come to an end.


The 80’s decline and re-emergence

The 1980s began with the worst recession the British film industry had ever seen. In 1980 only 31 UK films were made, down 50% on the previous year, and the lowest output since 1914. This decade also started the downward trend in self financing British movies – the Americans began to take over and really never looked back. When movies were made in Britain they were either American financed or had American directors / producers. This was in part because the market potential in Britain is too small to produce a profit return on anything more than the most modestly budgeted production.

Divergent 90’s

Film production in Britain hit one of its all-time lows in 1989. While cinema audiences were climbing in the UK in the early 1990s, few British films were enjoying significant commercial success, even in the home market. Among the more notable exceptions were the Merchant Ivory productions Howards End (1992) and The Remains of the Day (1993), Richard Attenborough's Chaplin (1992) and Shadowlands (1993) and Neil Jordan's acclaimed thriller The Crying Game (1992).
The surprise success of the Richard Curtis-scripted comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), especially in the United States, lead to renewed interest and investment in British films, and set a pattern for British-set romantic comedies, including Sliding Doors (1998), Notting Hill (1999) and the Bridget Jones films. Several of these were also written by Curtis, who went on to make his directorial debut with Love Actually in 2003. Working Title Films, the company behind many of these films, quickly became one of the most successful British production companies, with other box office hits including Bean (1997), Elizabeth (1998) and Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001).

21st Century

I would have to speculate rather depressingly. In terms of actors and actresses there are plenty still begin discovered and Jude Law, Clive Owen, Keira Knightly Christian Bale, Ioan Gruffudd and Damian Lewis carry the candle. In terms of quilt British film making Billy Elliott and Bend it like Beckham are two that would make it onto my short list.
The government needs to be serious about funding and plough a great deal more into the film industry and establish a quality British production company.
The turn of the new century also saw a revival of sorts of the British horror film, with The Hole, 28 Days Later, Dog Soldiers and the comedy Shaun of the Dead being among the more successful examples.