Media and film studies

British Cinema A

Module code: P3044
Level 5
30 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Seminar, Lecture, Film
Assessment modes: Coursework

This module provides a historical survey of British cinema as well as an introduction to critical and theoretical debates associated with national cinema. Specifically, we cover the relationship between British cinema and British culture, history and identity.

 You examine how British cinema has represented other dimensions of identity such as class, ethnicity and sexuality. You consider a range of films in order to explore how British cinema:

• responded to the Second World War and the decline of the British Empire
• has reflected transformations of society associated with multiculturalism
• functions in a transnational or even post-national era
• and how specific genres such as the crime film and the period drama have functioned in the national and international marketplace.

 Films to be studied include Submarine, Brief Encounter, Fires Were Started, Black Narcissus, Performance, A Room With A View, Bend It Like Beckham and Red Road.

Module learning outcomes

• Awareness of the problems involved in constituting a 'history' of a British national cinema
• Critical understanding of British cinema's production of representations of Britishness/Englishness, its constitution of 'otherness', and its representations of gender, 'race', class and community
• Understanding of the changing political and cultural context in which such representations have been produced
• Ability to critically analyse specific film texts in the light of these understandings