Structures of desire : British cinema, 1939-1955 / Tony Williams. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Tony, 1946-

Series:

The SUNY series, cultural studies in cinema/video

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Great Britain--History.

Motion pictures.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 213 p. ) ill. ;

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2000.

Summary:

"This book examines representations of desire in British cinema during a period of turbulent change, 1940-1955. In addition to investigating male-female desire in status quo "realist" films and in various "anti-realist" movements represented by Gainsborough Melodrama and the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the book also explores the various factors that affected utopian aspirations for a better postwar world and how these desires eventually became restrained by the dominant forces of conservative ideology.

Structures of Desire provides new perspectives on previously recognized film movements such as Ealing Comedy and Gainsborough Melodrama while also offering analyses of interesting but neglected films such as Love on the Dole (1941), Perfect Strangers (1945), They Made Me a Fugitive (1947), The Bad Lord Byron (1949), and Madeleine (1950)."--Jacket.

Contents:

Forever Gainsborough?

The Wartime Archers

Utopian Desires

Postwar Representations

Postwar Archers

Ealing and Beyond.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-7914-9228-1

0-585-34466-3