"British cinema is a contradiction in terms"

Was he right?

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Depends what you mean really. There isn't really an identifiable form of 'British Cinema' but there are British films, distinctive British studios (Ealing would be the best example), lots of British film makers and a lot of British film making although much of that probably falls under the rubric of American movies (a lot of Pinewood stuff for example).

The question really is whether "French cinema" has been good for French film making. While it conveys a certain level of prestige, I'd suggest not as industry whose scope and reach is feeble.

*Blocks ur path*

He meant that the British, for the most part, did not consider film as an artform on the level of theater or literature. Outside of Hitchcock (who eventually moved to Hollywood) and Powell & Pressburger, British cinema was staid, flat, and lifeless by the early 60s when this quote is from

There isn't the hype for it here like there is in Hollywood or with French movies/Bollywood (same thing).

...

Nah, there's hype (see: The Full Monty)
Just no artistic value.

That was more for the fact that people were hoping to see Robert Carlyle's penis. There just isn't the "magic" or whatever it is here like there is in Hollywood. Sure films are made and whatever but it's not on the scale of Bollywood/French (same thing) or Hollywood. I'm not saying that it doesn't exist btw so don't get all screechy.

Carry On films are kino

I think it was right to say it doesn't have the same status. Not sure I agree about dull and lifeless, I mean, the predominant artistic movement in the 1960s was kitchen sink realism which has a very grey aesthetic but people found it shocking and edgy and related to the social change of the time. Its not moribund anyway. Theres also stuff like Lawrence of Arabia and Dr No getting made too, but again, is it British cinema or American movies?

Lean's epics were American co-productions
Either way, the James Bond flicks and Lean's later films were all derivative of American styles; nothing makes them distinctly and uniquely "British" except the accents

agreed

even though ken russell exists nobody takes brit cine as art srsly

Kitchen sink was also primarily a phenomenon in theater and literature; film was on the backburner in the eye of culture

What is Dr No derivative of? I'd have thought it was pretty innovative.

Gritty movies like Fish Tank are good, Monty Python, Carry on and the Bond movies are not very good, some Bond movies are alright but bleh.

Uniquely British movies are things like Lock Stock, This is England, Harry Brown, Layer Cake, Adulthood, Bronson, Snatch, Trainspotting, Hot fuzz.

These are the more recent ones I can think of and they all share that same gritty feel.

But you also have the more classier/older movies like Bond, Sherlock(variations), Lawrence of Arabia, Jings speech, Bridge on the river kwai, Zulu, Monty Python?, The italian Job

Well there were the Angry Young Men of course.

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning; Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner; Cathy Come Home etc.

You can't separate that from the gestalt that produced the Beatles as stars and a social revolution particularly around class, the end of deference and a certain level of sexual liberation (and its not a coincidence that they covered A Taste of Honey on their first LP). These things are what the 60s were about in the UK, hippies were more an American thing although they certainly existed for a brief period.

I see a line of progression into more surreal things like Kes and If... Even A Hard Day's Night is a sort of whacky distaff cousin.

I don't think you can really section it off. But again, just as the country of Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, Laurence, etc. is going to think maybe literature is the king of art forms, the country of the Beatles and the Stones might think that music was really where it was at. The French would have given their left arms for an act as good as the Kinks in that cultural era.

Cillian murphy flicks like Peaky Blinders and that new movie he's in The Party one are quite interesting

>Bronson
>Uniquely British

yeah what the fuck have the frogs made recently apart from a meme mime film and a porno with blue haired lesbos

British New Wave is objectively better than French New Wave and that's really all France is known for

>meme mime film
quelle?

>denis
>assayas
>noe
>pialat
>techine
>dumont
>ozon
None of those are from nouvelle vague, le faggot

Yes, even the lowest common denominator shit from them has the air of pretentiousness about them that they act like they invented it, I'm not saying who did because I'm a dumb American and don't know shit. I know religion ain't big over there but they seem to religiously believe in their "I'm better than the rest of the world" bullshit which is ironic because Ricky Gervais seems like a fanatic at that.
Only stupid Americans like us can see that, it's why the last person you wanna get preached to on this side of the pond is a British person. We fought you first while being British, and our "King" fucking quit after 8 years because he knew he wasn't one. And our WWI lessons was "we got duped back into european bullshit even though it went against the people who literally left to not be in that european bullshit anymore." Watch Gangs of New York, there's a sequel between the lines where Bill the Butcher fucking won, then watch the Goodfellas.
WWII was different obviously because Japs drew first blood and we went full savage on those fucks, unfortunately back at home too.

Problem is we did invent most things. This shouldn't surprise you, we've been around more or less intact for a thousand years as a cultural entity in a way that is more or less unique.
The pretentiousness/superiority is in your own heads, the Australians used to call this the "cultural cringe" but they got over it, you could do the same. Its not our fault you associate stuff with us that we don't. My accent for example isn't pretentious, I'm not "trying to sound intelligent", thats American culture that says those things, not our culture.

Also Captain America: The First Avenger was largely filmed in England (Manchester and Liverpool mostly) which is why it has so many British actors in bit parts. You're welcome.

>used to rule 25% of the land and 100% of the seas
>most common baby name for the past decade has been muhammad
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