CIN 3110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Historical Fiction, Length Overall, Uptodate
16 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
The History of British Cinema class 3:
Colonial Romance: British Cinema and the Spaces of Empire
• Both movies represent foreign lands of what was once British Empire.
• Mediating empire for a domestic audience.
• Nations are not just geographical spaces. They have a mediated quality, where everyone
can identify with a set of symbols, etc.
• Cinematic reps of the british empire, imagined community has a new asset to it because
the filmmakers are representing parts of the empire the vast majority of the audience will
not have seen directly.
• Popular culture becomes central feature of representing and rejecting british colonial
power.
• Render distant and foreign familiar.
King Solomon’s Mines
• Based on novel by H. Rider Haggard
o Features of literature like this.
o Foreign, highly eroticized landscapes.
o Masculine adventure hero, strong, cultivated, highly educated
o Narrative driven by travel, action, quest and exploration.
o About a distant frontier.
o Self-fulfillment.
o Tropes playing to domestic audience.
o Obscures reality of actual people who live there
• Adventure, masculine, foreign lands, etc.
Two v different films on the surface of things
King Solomon’s Mines - film
• Action-adventure film, into “undiscovered” part of Africa, around a quest for material
wealth
• Fight scenes, danger, difficulty, ever increasing difficulty of landscape.
• Generic hybrid – adaptation of literary source material.
o Romance plot btwn Cathy and upper class English gentleman.
o Social comedy. Poke fun at upper class English characters.
o Musical numbers
o Action-adventure, of course
o Documentary footage, shot on location in Zimbabwe, in tribal villages.
• Lots of awards.
Lawrence of Arabia
• Action adventure, masculine hero, etc.
• Tests his character in the desert. Colonial land becomes existential crucible where he
discovers the core of who he really is.
• Based on historical events. Source material is a memoir rather than historical fiction.
o Non-fictional background
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Colonial romance: british cinema and the spaces of empire: both movies represent foreign lands of what was once british empire, mediating empire for a domestic audience, nations are not just geographical spaces. Two v different films on the surface of things. Poke fun at upper class english characters: musical numbers, action-adventure, of course, documentary footage, shot on location in zimbabwe, in tribal villages, lots of awards. Lawrence of arabia: action adventure, masculine hero, etc, tests his character in the desert. Colonial land becomes existential crucible where he discovers the core of who he really is: based on historical events. Very diverse social group. (certain characters aren"t present in the novel: offer up people to identify with, so they can understand colonialization. Lawrence as having sympathetic bond with arab characters, in contrast to racially highbound ideas of military: kick against outmoted and regressive forms of colonialism, and accept a more open version of it, l plays dress up.
