One word to describe the future of the British film industry, well ‘Fecked’ would be my choice.
Yep the extravagance of British cinema has depleted more and more over the years. We went from one of the great contributors to the worlds cinema, to Bupkis almost over night. Now thanks to that good ol’ recession and constant budget cuts from the joke of a government that is the British coalition. We can now look forwards about, hmmmmm No more films from the Isles that was once Great Britain.
I mean sure your gonna get the occasional production, but they will be self paid for or more likely funded by a large International Studio. Basically, selling out. Casing point: Love actually by Working Title Films, which sold itself and merged to Universal studio for ‘Stability’. Sure I mean it makes sense to do this in the current economic climate, but when they do this you kinda lose the feeling of Raw British Talent. The sort of vibe that British films have become accustom to and have adapted to fill that hole in the market. But never the less, the recent demolition of the UK Film Council will make sure these films will be abolished from cinema. I know they weren’t all winners, but you cant blame us for trying.
So as a salute to the sinking ship that is Pure British film, here’s a list of the My nations most successful in my opinion(but not always recognised):
5: Kes
It was a simple film about a boy and his bird, and when I say bird I actually mean bird. Stuck in a town where everybody would eventually take there place in the mines. The story of a boy who dreams of becoming a little more ambitious, but being held back by his surroundings and era. Kes is one of those films that will stick in your head, because of how realistic it is. There’s no special effects, or over zealous acting. It looks as it is and as it should. The story isn’t rushed forward by antagonists, but it just unfolds in a natural manner. And through this perception you see a real life story. That is the reason its in my Top 5, because there’s nothing more humbling then a simple story about a boy and his Bird.
4: Slumdog millionaire:
The title of the film is pretty self explanatory. He’s a millionaire, who came from the Slums. Throw in a love story and a couple of interesting flashbacks and you’ve got yourself a movie. This was one our last attempts to break into the world of cinema and show just how popular we can be. Only thing is, we did it by accident. Yes, Slumdog Millionaire went on to profit millions. But the film wasn’t anticipated to be this big, in fact it was meant to be a small film and was only funded by Film Four. But somehow it went out amongst the worlds and gave us some recognition. Just goes to show, its not about CGI or huge budgets. Just good writing and a Interesting heart warming story will do it.
3: 28 Days Later:
This British Zombie film takes a twist from conventions at the time, and decides to take a more medical approach to the cause of a Zombie Apocalypse. Instead of Hell overflowing like in Dawn of the Dead, all of these British zombies are full of Rage. After medical experiments with monkeys, it leads to a new biologically altering virus. Which fills all of the people who get infected to become enraged and wanna kill whatever is near them. In essence, add the Rage virus to a population of queuers and you’ve got yourself a movie. This film show just how far we can take our horror movies, and we can make our zombies run with a simple explanation. Instead of the typical zombie movie now adays, where they somehow just Learn that they have legs. The British zombie can run because there not the typical zombie, there empowered by a virus. BOOM! The next step was to teach them to use a phone like ‘Bob’ in ‘Day of the Dead’.
2: Dead mans Shoes:
Another low budget masterpiece from the well respected British director Shane Meadows, who also brought you greats like ‘This is England’ and ‘A Room for Romeo Brass’. The film Dead mans Shoes is a story about a disaffected soldier, played by Paddy Considine. As he returns to his hometown to get even with the thugs who brutalized his mentally-challenged brother Toby Kebbell literally to death. The psycho representation and easy anger point of the main character, as well as his interesting logical spiral into bloody revenge is simply stunning. The film is one of my favourites, and really captures how far British cinema can go even on the lowest of budgets.
1: Italian Job:
There’s nothing more iconic to Britain than the Mini Cooper, and there’s nothing more iconic to British Cinema then Michael Caine. Through this logic Italian Job is my Number 1. This film has acted as a bar for British film, becoming one of the best and inevitably a classic. Its got Car chases, mobsters and teaches kids that stealing is pretty funny with the right people. As well as this, the Film has left the nation with the never ending challenge of impersonating the famous “You were just supposed to blow the bloody *doors* off!” line. There’s is no better movie that iconically shows how successful British cinema can be, and Italian job will stand as our brightest monument.
Farewell Proper British movies, well miss you…
