A History of British Film since 1984

A History of British film since 1984-Booklet 4

What are the main genres produced by the UK film Industry in the last 25 years? Try and think of some more recent examples from the last few years. Who do you think goes to see these types of films?

The costume drama/heritage film rose to, ‘great prominence during the 1980’s’ (a room with a view etc.) – Four weddings and a funeral. Gainsborough melodramas have been around since early 40’s. British social realist cinema seem to withstand Thatcherism (harsh economy). Moved away recently from ‘portraying Victorian and Edwardian aristocracy at home and abroad’.. Comedy has always been a favourite genre but not as much as recent times – Notting Hill, Bridget Jones Diary and Love Actually all made great success in Britain and across the world.

DNA Films last two productions were Dredd 3D (2012) and Never Let Me Go (2010). What kind of films are they? How are they different from earlier films? Have they been successful at the box office?

Dredd 3D, Action and Sci-Fi. It is a film set in the future, with a lot of action but not a huge amount of substance in terms of storyline. This film was very unsuccessful at the box office, making only 13 million from a 50 million budget. Never let me go, Romance and Sci-Fi. Similar in terms of the fact that it is set in the future but much more heart breaking than the aforementioned. It is a romance story, so completely different to Dredd 3D. This film, however, was not very successful at the Box Office, taking only 1.5 million in UK box office. (15million budget)

Summarise in your own words what kind of films Momentum Pictures look to distribute and why?

Momentum Pictures have distributed recently Insidious Chapter 2 and Woman in Black which were both Horror films in which did well in the cinemas and the Horror genre is very popular in the UK and around the world. Momentum pictures seem to have distributed some of the biggest films in the UK film industry such as The King's Speech and The Woman in Black. These were both big films with well known british actors in which both did very well in money terms.