Task 4

Part 1

The films I will be comparing are This Is England and Richard Curtis’ film Love Actually.

One of the key differences between these two films is the budgets, for example the budget for this is England was £1.5m whereas the budget for love actually was £30m which is obviously an enormous difference, this difference in budgets allowed Richard Curtis to bring in star actors such as Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy which brought in a much wider audience.

In a comparison of these two films, Richard Dyers concept of a star system is extremely relevant, if you look at Hugh Grant and his past films, he has general come on to play, what is believed to be a posh stereotypical British male character, and his stereotypical l character is used to represent Britain in Love Actually, however in This is England, a more realistic portrayal of Britain and it’s working class citizens is shown through unknown actors and actresses such as Thomas Turgoose who played his first ever role in this film and quite literally was taken off the streets and put into this realistic character.

Two very different sides of Britain are shown in these two films, were in This is England it shows a much lower working class in a depression whereas in Love Actually it focuses in on a much happier,  higher class of Britain.

These two portrayals of brutishness are highly reflected through many things such as the genre for example, where This is England is a social realism and Love Actually is a rom-com, further more the actors and actresses in the two films represent the what we see of brutishness such as Hugh Grant Posh voice and southern accent in comparison to Thomas Turgoose’s Rough accent.

In This is England, it focuses in on the “Thatcher Era” during the 1980’s where there was a depression and large cases of racism, violence and generally poor control of the country, this is shown clearly throughout the film due to the jobs of most people such as working in Cole mines and the violence that occurs between different races, in Love Actually however, this is very different, as it focuses in on London and a much higher class of people Such as Hugh Grant who plays the Priminister and Bill Nighy who plays a vocal artist, this is also reflected in the clothes which are warn and the houses which people live in.

Over the years Britain as a whole has produced many films however if you separate Britain and look more closely at English cinema, Scottish cinema etc it is clear to see that most successful British made films are set in England and do come from England, however there are many films created in the Hollywood system that are set in Scotland for example, such as Braveheart, Directed by Mel Gibson, which was a very large hit.

Within these two films many stereotypes and countertypes are seen for example, Hugh Grant is considered by most film makers as a stereotypical British male, however when compared to that of Thomas Turgoose he would be considered much as a countertype and most definitely binary opposites in looks, class, dress sense etc. Therefore these two very different characters portray very different sides of Britain, i.e. the working class and the upper class.

There are also a large amount of stereotypes and countertypes within the female characters within both of these films, for example Kiera Knightly represents a much higher class of British females in Love Actually compared to the more “slutty” female characters seen in This is England.

Generally due to budgets and the nature of British films they are mostly rom-coms aimed at the female audience, they usually include familiar actors such as Collin Firth or Hugh Grant which plays a key role in the female gaze, however they are also aimed at male audiences using good-looking female characters such as Kiera Knightly for example bringing in the male gaze as well as the blue pound market.

The genre of British films takes a large toll in which market they are aimed at, British genres are very different to that of American genres where they tend to focus in on action, horror, western etc, however British films tend to be either comedy, documentaries, social realism etc and this is all mostly due to the heritage of British cinema and the history of Britain itself, therefore British films have a very precise target market i.e. 30+ for most however for such things as rom-coms they may target a much younger more female based target audience.

Part 2

Hollywood cinema has an enormous dominance over British cinema, however i do not believe that British cinema should be ignored because of this and below are some reasons for that.

·      Firstly British cinema has its own unique line of genres such as social realism, slapstick comedy, as well as introducing documentaries and these genres are very rarely covered by Hollywood giving British cinema an almost unique market

·      British cinema has also produced many stars over the years which have been widely used in Hollywood cinema,  actors and actresses such as Kiera Knightly, Hugh Grant, Ewan McGregor,  these sorts of characters not only play British roles in American films but also many lead roles.

·      Similar to producing many different actors and actresses, British cinema has also produced many widely known directors and writers such as Danny Boyle for instance who directed “28 days later” and his latest hit film, “Slumdog Millionaire”

Part 3

Three other films that I have looked at for representations of Britishness are Transpotting, Kidulthood and The Long Good Friday

·      Trainspotting portrays the working class of Britain and involves crime, drugs, robbery and such things as that, it was also the breakthrough performance from renowned actor Ewan McGregor

·      Kidulthood portrays a more modern Britain through the working class in teens known as “Chavs” it explores knife crime, drugs and alcohol

·      The Long Good Friday was a very early British film and widely explores gangster activity in Britain