Romantics and Modernists in British Cinema
John Orr
Abstract
This book examines the neglected relationship between romanticism and modernism in British cinema from 1929 to the present day. Encompassing a broad selection of films, filmmakers and debates, it brings a new perspective to how scholars might understand and interrogate the major traditions that have shaped Britain's cinema history. The book identifies two prominent genres in the British template that often go unrecognised, the fugitive film and the trauma film, whose narratives have bridged the gap between romantic and modern forms. Here Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Ian Powell, Carol Reed and ... More
This book examines the neglected relationship between romanticism and modernism in British cinema from 1929 to the present day. Encompassing a broad selection of films, filmmakers and debates, it brings a new perspective to how scholars might understand and interrogate the major traditions that have shaped Britain's cinema history. The book identifies two prominent genres in the British template that often go unrecognised, the fugitive film and the trauma film, whose narratives have bridged the gap between romantic and modern forms. Here Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Ian Powell, Carol Reed and Robert Hamer are identified as key romantics; Nicolas Roeg, Joseph Losey, Michelangelo Antonioni, Stanley Kubrick and Jerzy Skolimowski as later modernists. The book goes on to assess the narrowing divide through the films of Terence Davies and Bill Douglas, and concludes by analysing its persistence in the new century, in the prize-winning features Control and Hunger.
Keywords:
romanticism,
modernism,
Britain,
cinema,
Hunger,
filmmakers,
fugitive film,
trauma film,
Terence Davies,
Control
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2010 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780748640140 |
Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: September 2012 |
DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640140.001.0001 |