This book is a study of the contemporary audiences for quality period films, and their responses to these films, with reference to the critical debate which constructs many of these films as 'heritage films'.

The British heritage film : nation and representation -- Production cycles and cultural significance : a European heritage film? -- Narrative aesthetics and gentered histories : renewing the heritage film -- Afterword: tradition and change.

Essay from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, Nottingham Trent University, course: British Cinema, language: English, abstract: The term “heritage film” is not easily recognised, even among fans of historical films and costume dramas. That is because it does not describe a genre of films as such, but rather a critical concept that is associated with “a powerful undercurrent of nostalgia for the past conveyed by historical dramas, romantic costume films and literary adaptions”. Costume dramas were neither new nor confined to the UK, as films such as “Gone with the Wind” (1939, US) and “My Fair Lady” (1964, US) prove, however it was the British film studies that defined the term “heritage film” in the early 1980s in light of the National Heritage Act. The original cycle refers to films, almost all of them adapted from literature, from the 1980s and 1990s that depict pre-Wold-War-II England in a nostalgic fashion. The basic ideas and concepts of the plot and the setting tend to be very similar. Nostalgia, the image of the upper-middle class and rural white Englishness are used to define a supposed English national identity. Because of these features, the heritage films were quickly related to Thatcherism and the very conservative Thatcherite values. In this essay, I am going to look at three films that are considered “heritage”, two of them coming from the first stages of the heritage film in the 1980s and the third one coming from the late 1990s when the heritage film had already undergone a major shift due to changes in politics and it being criticised. In comparing the three films firstly to the Thatcherite values and secondly to each other, I will look at the conservative undertones and the shift they underwent.

This book provides a unique examination of the way Europe’s past is represented on contemporary screens and what this says about contemporary cultural attitudes to history. How do historical dramas come to TV and cinema screens across Europe? How is this shaped by the policies and practices of cultural institutions, from media funding boards to tourist agencies and heritage sites? Who watches these productions and how are they consumed in cinemas, on TV and online?, are just some of the questions this volume seeks to answer. From The Lives of Others to Game of Thrones, historical dramas are a particularly visible part of mainstream European film production, often generating major national debates on the role of the past in contemporary national identity construction.

Contemporary French cinema is an essential introduction to popular French film of the last 35 years. It charts recent developments in all genres of French cinema with analyses of over 120 movies, from Les Valseuses to Caché. Reflecting the diversity of French film production since the New Wave, this clear and perceptive study includes chapters on the heritage film, the thriller and the war movie, alongside the 'cinéma du look', representations of sexuality, comedies, the work of women film makers and le jeune cinéma. Each chapter introduces the public reception and critical debates surrounding a given genre, interwoven with detailed accounts of relevant films. Confirmed as a major contribution to both Film Studies and French Studies, this book is a fascinating volume for students and fans of French film alike.

This book is a study of the contemporary audiences for quality period films, and their responses to these films, with reference to the critical debate which constructs many of these films as 'heritage films'.

This study explores artistic choices in cinema exhibition, focusing on film theaters, film festivals, and film archives and situating film-curating issues within an international context. Artistic and commercial film availability has increased overwhelmingly as a result of the digitization of the infrastructure of distribution and exhibition. The film trade's conventional structures are transforming and, in the digital age, supply and demand can meet without the intervention of traditional gatekeepers—everybody can be a film curator, in a passive or active way. This volume addresses three kinds of readers: those who want to become film curators, those who want to research the film-curating phenomenon, and those critical cinema visitors who seek to investigate the story behind the selection process of available films and the way to present them.

Presents both traditional and current concepts in the interpretive profession.

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Environmentalism and ecology are areas of rapid growth in academia and society at large. Screening Nature is the first comprehensive work that groups together the wide range of concerns in the field of cinema and the environment, and what could be termed “posthuman cinema.” It comprises key readings that highlight the centrality of nature and nonhuman animals to the cinematic medium, and to the language and institution of film. The book offers a fresh and timely intervention into contemporary film theory through a focus on the nonhuman environment as principal register in many filmic texts. Screening Nature offers an extensive resource for teachers, undergraduate students, and more advanced scholars on the intersections between the natural world and the worlds of film. It emphasizes the cross-cultural and geographically diverse relevance of the topic of cinema ecology.