The Lasting Influence of the War on Postwar British Film [electronic resource] /
Boyce, M.author.
Many of the most celebrated British films of the immediate post-war period (1945-55) seem to be occupied with "getting on" with life and offering distraction for postwar audiences. It is the time of the celebrated Ealing comedies, Hue and Cry (1946) and Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Dickens adaptations, and the most ambitious projects of the Archers. While the war itself is rarely mentioned in these films, the war and the conditions of postwar society lie at the heart of understanding them. While various studies have focused on lesser known realist films, few consider how deeply and completely the war affected British film. Michael W. Boyce considers the preoccupation of these films with profound anxieties and uncertainties about what life was going to be like for postwar Britain, what roles men and women would play, how children would grow up, even what it meant - and what it still means today - to be British.
Description based upon print version of record.
Cover; Contents; List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Don't Mention the War; I: Gender; 1 The Power of Choice: Complicating Traditional Female Identity; 2 British Masculinities: Duty, Confinement, and Stiff Upper Lips; II: Genre; 3 Toward a Reading of British Film Noir: Expatriates and Ancient Cities; III: Reframing National Narratives; 4 Adapting Shakespeare: Once More unto the Breach; 5 Adapting Dickens: Orphans, Parents, and Postwar Britain; Conclusions: Going Home; List of Films; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Many of the most celebrated British films of the immediate post-war period (1945-55) seem to be occupied with "getting on" with life and offering distraction for postwar audiences. It is the time of the celebrated Ealing comedies, Hue and Cry (1946) and Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Dickens adaptations, and the most ambitious projects of the Archers. While the war itself is rarely mentioned in these films, the war and the conditions of postwar society lie at the heart of understanding them. While various studies have focused on lesser known realist films, few consider how deeply and completely the war affected British film. Michael W. Boyce considers the preoccupation of these films with profound anxieties and uncertainties about what life was going to be like for postwar Britain, what roles men and women would play, how children would grow up, even what it meant - and what it still means today - to be British.
Motion pictures-Great Britain.
Motion pictures-History.
Great Britain-History.
Motion pictures and television.
Motion pictures-Production and direction.
British Cinema and TV.
Film History.
History of Britain and Ireland.
Screen Studies.
Directing.