Moodle

This module explores the relationship between cinema and society in Britain from the interwar depression, through the Second World War and the onset of affluence and mass-consumerism in the 1950s and 60s, to the rise of Thatcherism and the collapse of the so-called 'post-war settlement'. More specifically, cinematic representations of classes and cultures will be examined in relation to the lived history of the period, in order to track what they both reveal and conceal about the historical processes which transformed Britain during the twentieth century. The main sources will be feature films but other primary sources will be employed when appropriate in order to situate the texts more firmly in their contexts. Films studied will include the following: 'Sing As We Go' (Basil Dean, 1934); 'The Stars Look Down' (Carol Reed, 1939); 'In Which We Serve' (David Lean, 1942); 'The Wicked Lady' (Leslie Arliss, 1945); 'Hue and Cry' (Charles Crichton, 1947); 'I'm Alright Jack' (John Boulting, 1959); 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' (Karel Reisz, 1960); 'A Taste of Honey' (Tony Richardson, 1961); 'Kes' (Ken Loach, 1969); 'A Clockwork Orange' (Stanley Kubrick, 1971); 'Jubilee' (Derek Jarman, 1977); 'The Long Good Friday' (John MacKenzie, 1979); 'Rita, Sue and Bob Too' (Alan Clarke, 1987); 'Brassed Off' (Mark Herman, 1996). The module is interdisciplinary in design and content: texts will be read in conjunction with a wide range of secondary sources taken from the fields of film studies, social, economic and political history and sociology. A variety of genres and styles will be considered including comedy and musical comedy, melodrama, the crime thriller, social documentary and social realism. Major themes to be studied include images of class, race, community and nation; gender division and gender identity; ideology and hegemony; social mobility and alienation; affluence and class-consciousness.