CIN 3110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Ridley Scott, Art School
16 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
The History of British Cinema Class 5:
Heritage Nation
• Both films highly different, but both deal with Britains history.
• Long historical sweep, but radically different perspectives.
• Both are interested also in historiography, the writing of history. How history is taken up
into language, media, communication and transmitted.
o The matter of the past and its form
• Engaged in representing britains past and reflecting upon how it should be
communicated, and how it should be touched upon now
• Both emerge from social cultural landscape of Britain to 70s and 80s.
• Prolonged economic slump in the 70s and 80s. Widespread strikes (1977), Brtain went
down to a 3-4 day working week, rolling blackouts, etc.
• 1979 – rise of thatcher, new kind of politics. Move towards what’s known as a market
society.
Chariots of Fire
• Made with American money, came out of Hollywood.
o MGM and 20th Century Fox.
• It was very successful in box office and in awards season.
• Appeal to quality.
• Precursor – Heritage filmmaking. (1937-The Private Life of Henry VIIIth, same with
Lawrence of Arabia)
o Historical narrative
o Upper-class milieu from a time before the post-WW2 welfare state
o Frequently based on or adapted from literary source material
o Conventional narrative structure (although high quality drama)
o Self-conscious appeal to “quality”
o International market
o Frequently recognised at national and international award ceremonies.
• You can trace some ideas from Ridley Scott, Hugh Hudson, Alan Parker’s time in
advertisement filmmaking.
o Short amounts of time mean you have to be able to communicate in a very snappy
way.
o Art school was key for innovation.
• Hovis Advert
o Sepia tinted glow
o Smooth, warm feeling
o High gloss aesthetic style to represent modern Britain.
o Compressed timeframe.
o Connection between new generation and older generation. Unity.
Jubilee
• Represents important moments from Britains history
• Gages relationship from the past/present, using radically different cinematic and visual
style.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Heritage nation: both films highly different, but both deal with britains history, long historical sweep, but radically different perspectives, both are interested also in historiography, the writing of history. Widespread strikes (1977), brtain went down to a 3-4 day working week, rolling blackouts, etc: 1979 rise of thatcher, new kind of politics. Move towards what"s known as a market society. Chariots of fire: made with american money, came out of hollywood, mgm and 20th century fox. It was very successful in box office and in awards season: appeal to quality, precursor heritage filmmaking. (1937-the private life of henry viiith, same with. Jubilee: represents important moments from britains history, gages relationship from the past/present, using radically different cinematic and visual style. Private funding sources: embraces its own cheapness, limitations. Made up of lots of different kinds of film: speculative science fiction, sensuous aesthetic experience, draws on language of pornography, lighting to invoke great master paintings, breakdown in us as viewers.
