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The aims and status of arts and culture criticism are currently up for revision and under attack, according to a whole host of indicators. It is clear that the reasons for the current situation include the worldwide recession, the recent drop in print advertising revenues and, more fundamentally, the declining circulations attributable to reluctant consumers of print media. These developments have brought forth ontological, if not existential, questions about the purpose and worth of criticism in the age of WordPress blogospheres and a perceived democratization of criticism. Despite the ‘brave new world’ rhetoric underpinning the debate, precedents and some of the solutions to these ‘new media’ problems are to be found in old historical lessons. This article focuses one such case study. Examining Sight and Sound's 1960 ‘Critical Question’, a reaction to Cahiers du cinéma but, more importantly, an intervention into a key debate on the purpose of criticism instructs us about the construction of particular, Lionel Trilling-inspired kind of ‘liberal’ taste that would come to define Sight and Sound's part in the establishment of a ‘broad church’ national film culture, a role it plays to this day. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The impact that the 1947 fuel crisis and the subsequent drive to increase industrial output had on the standing of Clement Attlee's first Labour government has often been understood in primarily economic terms. This article demonstrates that for many Britons these events were not only the cause of daytime power cuts and short-term unemployment, but also the source of restrictions on a host of leisure pursuits that altered the established rhythms of everyday social and cultural life. Such restrictions, which affected, amongst other things, the cinema, theatre, radio and sporting events, helped to determine the experience of the fuel crisis and thereby shaped attitudes towards the government, not least because of the emotive way in which they were reported in the press. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the impact of the movie "Billy Elliot," directed by Stephen Daldry and starring Jamie Bell on the society in Great Britain. It mentions that it was due to the movie that the British Schools Minister, David Milliband, announced the opening of four advanced dancing facilities with fee grants to students belonging to low income families. It further mentions about the similarities between the movie and the miners strike, which took place in England during 1984-1985.

The article discusses representations of women in British films in the 1920s and 1930s and how these films show popular opinions and expectations about women's work and gender roles at that time. The research of scholars John Sedgwick, Sue Harper, and Christine Gledhill on British popular cinema is considered. The popularity of American films in Britain is considered. It is noted that during this time women entered the British workforce in greater numbers and that the author is also interested in how the films portray women's love lives. Other topics include a history of women's employment in Britain during the interwar period, the films "Squibs Wins the Calcutta Sweeps," "The Rat," and "Camille," and the audience response to these films.

The relationship between film and the city is increasingly recognised as the archetypical ground for examining visual and sensory experience, form and style, perception, cognition and the meaning of the filmic image and filmic text. Liverpool, widely regarded at the end of the nineteenth century as the 'gateway to the British empire', provides an exemplary instance of a city in which moving image culture has played an ongoing role in shaping perceptions of its urban environment. With cities such as New York and Philadelphia often taken as standard examples of 'film cities' in the North American context, Liverpool, the first UK city to create a film office to promote the city as a location, is an excellent example of how moving image culture has contributed to changing the identity of a city from post-industrial wasteland to post-modern playground. This paper explores how an approach informed by interdisciplinary perspectives can expand understandings of the relationship between moving image environments and perceptions of the urban landscape through a study of the ways in which Liverpool's character, form and identity were projected between 1897 and 2008. The City in Film project (www.liv.ac.uk/lsa/cityinfilm) has catalogued over 1700 film and video recordings made in and about the city, available on a publicly accessible database. The database creates opportunities for quantitative and in-depth analysis of a relationship that Charlotte Brunsdon (2007) describes as a background presence, always there, often a source of interest and speculation but rarely the focus of explicit commentary and excavation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the impact of Hollywood cinema on British culture. It recalls the effort of economist John Maynard Keynes to protect British culture from the damage brought by Hollywood and the initiative of the British Arts Council to repair the damage. It also relates the impact to the growth of American English to rival British English and the emergence of modernists writing in English. In addition, the article explores the development of British cinema and its relationship with Hollywood cinema.

In the last three years a new vocabulary of social class has emerged in Britain. The word "chav," alongside its various synonyms and regional variations, has become a ubiquitous term of abuse for the white poor. This article explores the emergence of the grotesque and comic figure of the chav within a range of contemporary British media focusing on the role played by disgust reactions in the generation and circulation of the chav figure through popular media. Concentrating on the figure of the female chav, and the vilification of young white working-class mothers, this article argues that the "chav mum" is produced through disgust reactions as an intensely affective figure that embodies historically familiar and contemporary anxieties about female sexuality, reproduction, fertility, and "racial mixing." The reason Vicky Pollard caught the public imagination is that she embodies with such fearful accuracy of several of the great scourges of contemporary Britain: aggressive all-female gangs of embittered, hormonal, drunken teenagers; gym slip mums who choose to get pregnant as a career option; pasty-faced, lard-gutted slappers who'll drop their knickers in the blink of an eye ... these people do exist and are every bit as ripe and just a target for social satire as were, say, the raddled working-class drunks sent up by Hogarth in Gin Lane. (James Delingpole 2006, p. 25) Disgust and contempt motivate and sustain the low ranking of things, people, and actions deemed disgusting and contemptible. (William Miller 1997, p. xiv) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the circumstances of the creation of British Film Institute (BFI) in the early 1930, the postwar transformation and its impact on the development of a national film culture in Great Britain. The first 15 years of BFI's existence was concerned with the promotion of film as a modern means of instruction. At the same time, BFI was removed from the early manifestations of a British film culture which emerged since the late 1920s. During the World War II years, BFI was criticized for its conservatism and incompetence. That pushed BFI to refocus its activities on the development of public appreciation of film as an art form through the National Film Library, film criticism, network of film societies, and the collection of information about films.

The article discusses the factors which fashioned the public image of asylum seekers and migrants in Great Britain. The cinematic treatments of migrants and asylum seekers have significantly affected the public perception of migrants in the country. Moreover, government policies and legislations have also contributed to the plight and public image of migrants.

The article profiles British comedian Will Hay. The actor's films between 1935 and 1939 provide a vision of the country divided by class, economic, institutional and nepotistic barriers. In a survey for film popularity (POPSTAT) and star popularity (STARSTAT), his film "Those Were the Days" ranked seventh and his popularity had increased with the film "Good Morning Boys." He has used the schoolmaster as his symbol of institutional power in his music-hall career.

The article focuses on issues raised by speakers and panelists to the Local Film Culture, Global Exchange conference organized by the Independent Film Parliament (IFP) in Great Britain. The event was designed to combine views on public policy for film and to contribute to the review policy by James Purnell, Minister for Creative Industries. The twelve core concerns on the cultural value of film and audiovisual culture raised during debates are presented. Recommendations made by IFP Steering Committee members are cited.

Representations and images of tourist destinations constructed by popular cultural forms of media such as films, television and literature play a significant role in influencing people's holiday decision-making process. This article illustrates the significance of media representations of destinations based upon findings from the author's survey of Japanese tourists to the UK and briefly examines popular images of the UK created in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the television series of Sherlock Holmes, and Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit stories, all of which were identified as influential in the survey. It suggests that the ways in which the UK is represented in those media works have implications for the ways in which Japanese tourists define the UK as a destination and the character of the British. Thus, popular cultural forms of the media can promote, confirm and reinforce particular images, views, and identities of destinations in a very powerful manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the British television and motion picture theater in the 1950s. It is noted that aesthetic and technological comparisons between film and television have historically favored the theater, constructing a dichotomy based on many essentialist claims about the media. This is particularly so with respect to the 1950s, where the established historical narrative surrounding the relations between theater and television pivots on a technological contrast between the big screen and the small. In seeking to emphasize the visual and technological limitations of the small screen rival, the general consensus is that motion picture theater sought to reinvent its specificities by exploiting innovations such as color and widescreen.

Investigates the British reaction to the 1958 film 'King Creole,' starring Elvis Presley. Initial reaction to Presley in Britain; Cultural assumptions accounted for the 'Monthly Film Bulletin's' disdain for the film; Implication of the film for the social and cultural fabric of mid- to late 1950s Britain.

Discusses how the 1950 British film 'Chance of a Lifetime' influenced the British society and the local film-making industry. Relations between film production and distribution; Metaphor for British hospitality; Public response to the film.

The article discusses the presentation of the relationship between people in authority and those who oppose them in motion pictures in Great Britain. The presentation on their relationship greatly affect the society in terms of emotion and social correspondence. There are films that presents feelings of resentment repressed against those who controlled their lives and films of these genre would be popular depending on the social class of the audience. Lower class viewers like rough amusements, chases and spectacles but upper class prefer sensuous and gentle films. Gypsies, children, criminals and antagonists appear in films that represent attacks on conventional manners and the authoritative structures of the society.

Proposes a three-stage periodization for crime films in Great Britain. Complexity of the relationship between media representations and social influence; Investigation of assumptions concerning actual trends in crime media; Content analysis of popular crime films in Great Britain released between 1945 and 1991.

The article explores the connections between the cinema and society, specifically within the works of British film maker David Puttnam. Puttnam, who has produced movies such as "The Killing Fields," Chariots of Fire," and "The Mission," argues that movies can have a tremendous impact on society. His films have all included messages of social and ethical responsibility and is considered by many to be one of the leading figures in the industry that understands the power of cinema. The article examines Puttnam's understanding of audiovisual influence on collective attitudes.

This article critically evaluates the book "Obscenity and Film Censorship: An Abridgement of the Williams Report," by Bernard Williams. This book is describes as an abridgement of the Williams Report, that is, the report the British Committee on Obscenity and Film Censorship, under the chairmanship of Bernard Williams, made to Great Britain's secretary of state for the Home Department, originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office in November 1979. This book, reportedly, in some manner reflects the thinking of one of Britain's top philosophers on the topics of obscenity and film censorship. One of the chapters is devoted to a conceptual analysis of the notions of pornography, obscenity, and art, to see what their relations are.

This article proposes to look at a specific instance of ideological cultural analysis, recent attempts in Great Britain and the U.S. to construct a feminist film theory and critical practice. Once the social construction of reality and women is defined in terms of psychoanalytic signifying practice alone, the process of realist representation can only be ideologically complicit, for it is itself based on an imaginary unity between signifier and signified and the suppression of difference from which originates our illusory sense of the real world in the first place.

The article presents an overview of a study of African filmmaking in the 1980s based on the viewing of 36 and 67 or so feature films whch would seem to have been produced in Africa during the five years 1980-1984. The author attempted to set African films in the context of the development of Third World cinema since they are virtually unknown in Great Britain. Among the films that represent contemporary African society are "En résidence surveillée," directed by Paulin Soumanou Viey and "Pétangqui ou le Droit à la vie."

The article discusses the influence of British films on the British Society. Horace McCoy's 1935 novella "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" was a portrait of failure in the Hollywood of the Depression. Intelligent and critical opinion in the U.S. has never had any illusions about Hollywood and the studio system has only been romanticized in its own not inconsiderable propaganda. Several writers, for example, have stressed that Hollywood was never totally set in its ways, a good deal of experimentation was allowed and the slightest suggestion that popular taste had changed was enough to allow a new genre of film to emerge. The literature on Hollywood has been very fine. In part this is a reflection of the quality of the films but a more crucial point is the way in which, from the very earliest days of sound film a critical tradition emerged which was capable of using the movies as the basis for a literature and a social history. It is important for British historians to be aware of this fine tradition of American film criticism if only as a reminder of the very different place that film occupies in British culture.

Focuses on the impact of cinemas on the British society in the 1930s. Rulings of Britain's Commission on Educational and Cultural Films; Cinemagoing's importance to women, children and the unemployed; Cinemagoer's movie preferences; Effect on social history; Contribution to social consciousness.

This article focuses on the motion picture "Henry V," produced and directed by Laurence Olivier, that was expected to help raise morale of citizen of Great Britain during the days of World War II. British Premier Winston Churchill, reportedly, has asked Olivier to make a film version of the drama "Henry V," by William Shakespeare. The British have had a tradition of throwing "Henry V" once more unto the breach to rally the citizenry for war. By the 19th century the play had been transformed into a spectacle of patriotic pageantry celebrating imperial Britain and the glory of its military. According to the author, Oliver accomplished everything that Churchill asked of him and more. He argues that, first shown in 1944, the film stirred audiences with "the fewer men, the greater share of honour." The author appeals that, to appreciate Olivier's makeover, one has to read the play with care and then watch the film.

The article focuses on the "Film and Television History Workshop," held at the London College of Printing in Great Britain on December 5, 1982. The workshop's objectives are to explore the possibilities where television, film, or video could represent historical features, and to give information about the representation of history. According to the author, television was the main focus of the discussion due to the fact that it is visible, and confined. The workshop featured several contributors including Michael Ignatieff, and Marc Karlin.