Film Studies

Sweet Sixteen Co-funded by BBC, Sweet Sixteen productions, Scottish Screen, Road Movies Paul Laverty - screenplay (partnership with Loach on many films) Ken Loach Cathy come home (1966) British new wave ‘kitchen-sink’ drama Small screen Setting Industrial Glasgow Importance of place ad environment in British film and cinema Characters Jean Liam Piball Performance Improvised acting Natural performances Real people/Real lives Reactions and emotions Overview Liam 15, mum (Jean) in prison (drugs) - soon to be released Stan - Jean’s boyfriend (drug dealer), abusive to Liam; controlling partner to Jean Maternal grandad - in for himself, not supporting Liam Liam Truant - petty crime then drug dealing (groomed) Sister Chantelle - young single mum trying to better herself Key ideas/themes Dysfunctional families Working glass Glasgow - industrial setting ‘gentry’ live in Greenock Prospects/Opportunities for young people Poverty Cause and effect trajectory Propp’s archetypes Binary opposites: soc...

  What are these women’s story? I think a fairly interesting woman to look at in Secrets & Lies would be Monica. Whilst we are not given a huge amount of backstory for her, we can sort of work out their story from a feminist perspective from her actions and thoughts. The main issue that Monica has in life is the fact that she can’t have children, and this clearly upsets her. However from this notion, we can assume that the feminist wave that we can compare her with would be the 1960’s wave. The 1960’s wave of feminism tackled the huge illusion that women need to have children, not work, and take care of the home. You can see massive contrasts between this ideology and Monica. Firstly, as said before, Monica is very clearly upset by the fact that she can’t have children. Whilst this isn’t a complete contradiction, her behaviour towards the subject for a while made it seem she wasn’t going to be content without a child which completely goes against the 1960’s wave ideology....

  Secrets and Lies article Secrets and Lies is a film thats based around a successful black woman who manages to get into contact with her biological mother, who happens to be a white factory worker who lives in poverty is East London. This film is part of British cinema, as it takes a more realistic and relatable approach to storytelling, and uses real locations with lesser known actors. Secrets and Lies includes themes of class, race and gender throughout the film, and is largely based around just that.  We can see the theme of class, and money is a big part of this film. We have Cynthia who is part of the lower class, living in a rented terraced house in east London, whilst her brother, a house owner who lives in North London in a nicely decorated house. She even has a daughter who is more successful than her, and owns a flat in North London. We can clearly see this divide in class and financial standing when Maurice comes to visit Cynthia, and uses the outside toilet. ...

  Fish Tank - Arnold 2009 Overview - CONTEXT New mood in British film in mis 1990s Lack of funding for British films during Thatchers time in office (1979-91) 1990s new initiatives on financial front contribute to output from different directors Work varied reflecting social and cultural contexts of Britain  Work of Gurindha Chada - marks contribution of Asian-British film production - Bhaji on the beach (ethnic diversity from gender perspective) 1990s onwards - continuing to offer what British film and cinema does best in terms of social realism but also new directions across genres: sci-fi, comedy, horror, urban - Danny Boyle, 28 days later, Shaun of the dead, Attack the Block, Under the skin Social realism continues to respond to new social issues: Loach, Leigh and also Andrea Arnold, Carol Morley, Sarah Gavron, Sally Potter New wave cinema 1960s Rebelled against social hierarchies - making working class people (ordinary people) and their issues visible and ...