Upper Ground Production
  • Home
  • About
  • Links
    • Film East
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LetterBoxd
  • Home
  • About
  • Links
    • Film East
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LetterBoxd
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

7/2/2018 1 Comment

BFI Top British Films | The Film Club | February 2018

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
BFI Top British Films 
An Examination of British Culture Through Film
In 1999, the British Film Institute compiled a list of the best British films made in throughout the 20th century. The list included a range of films from Hitchcockian thrillers to breathtaking period drama; a wide variety of British auteurs from Laurence Olivier to Ken Loach and Danny Boyle; and a detailed examination of British culture through film. 

Personally, one of my favorite variety of film is the social drama. This genre provides a stark, and often brutal, look at the social ills of modern society and the impact it has on the individual, on the community, and on the country. British films have had a long history with social realism, with the kitchen sink realism movement transforming British art and culture from the late 50s. Social commentary had become the norm in film, television, theatre, and literature, paving the way for the creation and exploration of rich and tantalizing art. 

So, it's not surprising that many of the films included on the BFI's Top 100 British Films list are social realism dramas. Britain produced an array of dramas that question what it means to British in the modern age and that draws on challenges facing a nation to create something poetic and provoking. When selected the six films for this month's film club, I wanted to capture this social movement by curating a collection of films that vary in style and narration but ultimately tell the story of Britain. These films aren't fanciful costume dramas nor do they represent the archetypical "posh" Britain. Rather they are a raw, bleak, and moralizing look at the Britain that is often forgotten, hidden underneath layers of aristocracy and class.   

In addition to the four social realism films, I also included two sci-fi / dystopian films, Brazil and The Wicker Man. Despite these films not being set in our reality, they are still able to capture, through formalism and symbolism, the deteriorating nature of an oppressed Britain, proving that not all social commentaries have to come in the form of depressing Ken Loach narratives. 

The six films of the BFI Top British Films are:  
A Taste of Honey (dir. Tony Richardson)
Kes (dir. Ken Loach)
Brazil (dir. Terry Gilliam) 
The Wicker Man (dir. Robin Hardy)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (dir. Karel Reisz) 
My Name is Joe (dir. Ken Loach)
Here's how The Film Club works. Each month I curate a collection of films that demonstrate the best of filmmaking. Over the course of the month, you watch as many films on this list as you can, and, with your help, we can discuss how these films work together as a collection and how they reflect the artistry of filmmaking. At the end of the month, come back here to read my review a film in this month's collection. If you want to take part in this month's film club, leave a comment Tweet me, Tumblr me, or Email me discussing your thoughts on this collection! ​​
Past Film Clubs

The complete BFI Top 100 British Films List
1 Comment
best paper writing services link
29/7/2019 22:37:19

I am not really a huge sucker of films. Even the most popular movies that were shown might not be familiar to me because that is how distant I am with films. But if there is already a list of BFI Top British Films, that means that these films have passed the international standards and not only British can appreciate its beauty, but the rest of the world as well. The only movies that I have watched that can be considered as my favorite are the ship-related movies like Titanic and Poseidon.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Click the images below to read each article

    Features

    Feasting on Females: Consuming the Female Body in Mimi Cave’s Fresh
    Marmalade and Masculinity: Combating Toxic Masculinity with Paddington Bear
    The Delicious World of Miyazaki: Subverting Western Food Standards in Studio Ghibli
    Ugly, Delicious and Political: Politicising Cultural Dishes
    Representing Oslovian Women, starring ‘The Worst Person in the World’
    Culinary Temptations: Italian Cuisine in Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Desire Trilogy’
    David Bowie is... The Englishman Who Fell to Earth
    Kris Marshall | Love, Actually
    ‘Choose a name; something simple’: Names and Identities in ‘Money Heist’
    The Sad Eyes of Punk: Subverting the Rock Star in Anton Corbijn's Control
    The Ghost of David Bowie: Capturing Bowie's Cultural Legacy in Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine
    Re-assimilating the Other: Zombies, Mental Illness and Homosexuality in BBC Three’s In the Flesh
    Global Strangers: Existing Between Borders Film Collection
    Animation Artistry in Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers
    Riz Ahmed’s Goodbye to Britain: Confronting Identity and Self in ‘The Long Goodbye’
    Young Film Programmers and the Pandemic
    The Hugh Grant Archetype: Stereotyping British Identity
    “America’s Sweetheart”: White Female Privilege In ‘Gone Girl’
    Why a David Bowie biopic will always be doomed to fail
    Film Oddity: David Bowie and the Screen
    "Did you feel emotional the first time you drove in Sacramento?" Driving with Emotion in Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird
    A [Not-so-Distant] Dystopian Future... The Dystopian Landscape of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner
    Politics, Class and the British Home: British Class Represented in High-Rise and Brazil
    The New New Wave of British Cinema: Joanna Hogg and the Middle-Class Social Realist Film
    “I’m Irish.” – Paul Mescal Vs The British Empire
    "Karen, are you crazy?" The Women of Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas
    Crafting Insanity: Experiencing madness in Sherlock: The Lying Detective
    The Modern Greek Tragedy: Examining Yorgos Lanthimos's The Killing of a Sacred Deer through Aristotle's Poetics
    "But Wales is Britain. And Britain is Wales." Exploring British national identity in Netflix's The Crown
    David Bowie is the Englishman from Mars: An Examination of Englishness through Stardom
    Supporting the Black Lives Matters movement through cinematic education
    “Maybe That’s Normal”: The Normality of Mental Illness in Normal People
    Dance, Woman, Dance: Revisiting Jim Henson's Labyrinth
    How Social Realism Contributes to the Fetishisation of Britain’s Working Class
    Slut! The Sexual Liberation of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Women
    Time, Illness And Melancholia
    Patrick Melrose And The Trauma Of The Aristocracy
    Is A Most Popular Film Category Good For The Oscars?

    Reviews

    Toronto International Film Festival '22 | Reviews
    BFI London Film Festival 2021 | Reviews
    BFI Flare Festival 2021 | Reviews
    Norwich Film Festival 2020 | Reviews
    Raindance Film Festival 2020 | Reviews
    London Film Festival 2020 | Reviews
    Lie Low | Review
    Review: Macbeth At The Norwich Theatre Royal
    Review: La Traviata At The Norwich Theatre Royal
    A Feminist Day Out At The BFI | Woman With A Movie Camera Summit 2018

    Interviews

    Red Carpet Interviews 
    Toronto International Film Festival 2022
    Interview with Bassam Tarqi
    ​London Film Festival 2020
    Picture
    Interview with Jonathan Blagrove
    Norwich Film Festival 2020
    Interview with Jamie Weston
    Norwich Film Festival 2020
    Picture
    Interview with Stuart Laws
    Grave New World Premiere 2021

    Film East Chats Podcast on BBC Radio Norfolk

    This is a small section of episodes from the Film East podcast. Click here to listen to all episodes. 

      Contact Me! 

    Submit
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.