British Movies
The British movie industry has undergone a bit of a renaissance in recent years, with strong contributions being made by a new generation of directors to the lexicon of British Film.
Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Full Monty were big international hits during the 1990's, and are an amusing introduction to British cinema. In more recent times Notting Hill (starring Hugh Grant) and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (a black comedy set in the East End underworld), the excellent Shakespeare In Love, and East Is East (hilarious depiction of Pakistani family life in 1970's Salford) have continued this popular and critical success.
British film-makers have been better known (and, at times, pilloried) for their period dramas. The pick of the crop include screen adaptations of the novels Sense and Sensibility (with Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, and Kate Winslet), Remains of the Day (Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson), A Room With A View (Helena Bonham Carter), The Madness of King George, A Passage To India (another Merchant Ivory adaptation), Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett), and the hugely popular (even if historically distorted) Braveheart.
Edgier British films of recent years include slices of dysfunctional London life Secrets and Lies and Nil By Mouth, Scottish drug abuse in Trainspotting (Ewan McGregor), prostitution in Mona Lisa (Bob Hoskins), seaside England and the quest for fame in Little Voice (Michael Caine), racial dynamics in My Beautiful Laundrette (Daniel Day Lewis), and fascism personified by Richard III (a brutal interpretation of the Shakespeare play).
Classic British movies well worth checking out on video include: Hope and Glory (the tribulations of the Second World War Blitz seen through the eyes of a small boy), Brighton Rock (moody interpretation of the Graham Greene novel), Chariots of Fire (overblown but enjoyable story of athletic endeavour), Henry V (Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh adaptations), The Thirty Nine Steps (thriller by Alfred Hitchcock), and Get Carter (with a villainous Michael Caine).
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