British Cinema in the Fifties: Gender, Genre and the 'New Look' / Edition 1

by Christine Geraghty

Overview

In the fifties British cinema won large audiences with popular war films and comedies, creating stars such as Dirk Bogarde and Kay Kendall, and introducing the stereotypes of war hero, boffin and comic bureaucrat which still help to define images of British national identity. In British Cinema in the Fifties, Christine Geraghty examines some of the most popular films of this period, exploring the ways in which they approached contemporary social issues such as national identity, the end of empire, new gender roles and the care of children.
Through a series of case studies on films as diverse as It Always Rains on Sunday and Genevieve, Simba and The Wrong Arm of the Law, Geraghty explores some of the key debates about British cinema and film theory, contesting current emphases on contradiction, subversion and excess and exploring the curious mix of rebellion and conformity which marked British cinema in the post-war era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415171571
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/10/2000
Series:	Communication and Society Series
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Christine Geraghty is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She is the author of Women and Soap Opera (Polity, 1991), the co-editor of The Television Studies Book (Arnold, 1998) and has contributed essays on British cinema to a number of important collections.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Preface 1. The Experience of Picturegoing: Cinema as a Social Space 2. Modernity, the Modern and Fifties Britain 3. Rural Rebels and the Landscape of Opposition 4. Resisting Modernity: Comedies of Bureaucracy and Expertise 5. The Post-War Settlement and Women's Choices: Melodrama and Realism in Ealing Drama 6. European Relations: Sex, Politics and the European Woman 7. The Commonwealth Film and the Liberal Dilemma 8. Reconstituting the Family: 'It's for Children that I'm Worried.' 9. Femininity in the Fifties: The New Woman and the Problem of the Female Star 10. The Fifties War Film: Creating Space for the Triumph of Masculinity

Editorial Reviews

'In this serious but approachable tome, Christine Geraghty examines not only the industry's output, but also what it was like to visit the pictures in the middle of the last century.' - Film Review

From the Publisher

Geraughty (media and communications, Goldsmiths College, U. of London, England) explores a select few of the movies produced in this period<-->including , , , and <-->as a vehicle to apply a feminist view to the history of the period, with chapters on the experience of picturegoing, modernity, the theme of rebellion, comedies that satirized bureaucracy, the British and Europe, liberal politics, the family, images of femininity, and images of masculinity in British war films. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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