The British working class in postwar film / Philip Gillett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gillett, Philip (Philip John)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Working class in motion pictures.

Motion pictures--Great Britain.

Motion pictures.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

230 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 2003.

Summary:

An incidental pleasure of watching a film is what it tells us about the society in which it is made. Using a sociological model, The British working class in postwar film looks at how working-class people were portrayed in British feature films in the decade after the Second World War. Though some of the films examined are well known, others have been forgotten and deserve reassessment. Original statistical data is used to assess the popularity of the films with audiences. With its interdisciplinary approach and the avoidance of jargon, this book seeks to broaden the approach to film studies. Students of media and cultural studies are introduced to the skills of other disciplines, while sociologists and historians are encouraged to consider the value of film evidence in their own fields. This work should appeal to all readers interested in social history and in how cinema and society interact.

Contents:

1 Exploring a lost culture 1

2 Who were the workers? 8

3 The guns fall silent: recollections of war 26

4 People don't lock their doors: the working-class community 38

5 Family fortunes: portrayals of the working-class family 75

6 Going up in the world: goodbye to the working class 92

7 The wrong side of the law: who were the criminals? 106

8 Going to the bad: the treatment of the young offender 119

9 The Janus faces of the dance hall 136

10 Echoes of applause: from music hall to celluloid 150

11 Think of the kids: the postwar child in films 164

12 The looking-glass world of the cinema 177.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [213]-217), filmography and index.

ISBN:

0719062578

0719062586

OCLC:

50783286