History Of British Film

A History of British Film Since 1984

1

•  Independent cinema grew in popularity immensely from the 1980's-1990's - This was helped by the work of directors such as Derek Jarman
• Drama films also rose to a mass popularity, it was seen as a golden age for films like Four Weddings And A Funeral and others of its genre.
• Thatcherism was prominent, but British realist cinema withstood the harsh economy caused by it. This caused an abundance in films like Riff Raff
• Then, in 1996 the film industry went in 2 directions. One of which is that of Sense and Sensibility - Based on the Jane Austin Novel, and the other of Trainspotting, the classic. Both of which helped increase Britpop's influence in the film scene.
• Trying to capture other groups of audiences, such as the youth and the elderly.

2

• Never Let Me Go - A film set in the future, would fall in to the category of Drama, Romance and Sci-fi. Not very successful at the box office however, only making £1.5million off a £15million budget. The film seems to take a different stance to the rest of DNA films, taking a more character bsaed approach to the films compared to their other productions such as -
• 28 Days Later
• 28 Weeks Later
• Strictly Sinatre
• One other film which the company made is Dredd 3d, a remake of the original Judge Dredd. This was even less successful at the box office, taking only £13million off a £50million budget. It falls under the sci-fi genre again but is also action and adventure, and crime. It is lacking in the storyline department and focus' mainly on action
• This focus on action is a stark contrast to the focus on character in Never Let Me Go - Their earlier films are much more like Dredd and focus on action, drugs and other themes associated with the crime genre. Their earlier films are also much more successful, like Trainspotting and Shallow Grave.

3

• Momentum pictures are very focused around horror films. Of their latest releases, Insidious Chapter 2, Woman in Black, Dark Skies and V/H/S, all are centred around the horror genre. This could be because of the growing market for horro films in the UK, or because they have produced so many it has become a stereotype of Momentum, it is profitable as most of the films receive a profit.
• Although horror is their main genre, they have also produced a wide range of independent and different films such as Welcome to The Punch, The Kings Speech, and Enders Game. This shows a diversity and just how big they are as a distributor, seeing as Kings Speech is one of the top 5 highest grossing films.