Even if you lived in London you could be forgiven for thinking British cinema has only ever fallen into two camps: gorgeously stiff- upper-lipped period pieces starring the ubiquitous Colin Firth; or grim, gangsterish romps, usually through London’s East End. Rather than talk about more established work, I decided to take a look at newer talent slightly off the track, hidden gems that deserve a wider international audience.
But first some history: made under Britain’s 1980s age of austerity and the British film fund, the 80-90’s yielded stellar work by luminaries including Mike Leigh– Naked, Life is Sweet, Secrets and Lies; Ken Loach– Kes, My Name is Joe, Bread & Roses and Peter Greenaway– The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover, The Pillow Book. Now received as Classic cinema, pushing the boundaries of overseas opinion about the UK and showing off the craft and dedication of some of the best crews in Europe, these films cemented the UK’s reputation for quality arthouse cinema with a socio-political edge. But the flipside to this was a perceived boys club of established directors with strong voices delighted to move beyond television, yet still with a fairly homogenous worldview and BBC background.
Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Peter Greenaway
Independent filmmakers railed at the seemingly sewn up scene of a BFI (British Film Institute) approved stable of male, usually London based talent, and the institution laboured under criticisms of elitism and making films that no-one wanted to see. Jump to 1998 and a fresh faced Labour government complete with shiny new aspirations for a UK recognising the commercial opportunities afforded by its creative community, a focus on decentralising funding sources and generally trying to give everyone a shot. So the UK Film Council was born, and along with it small, regional film funds right across the UK…albeit after a hiatus of 18 months in which nothing got made.
What came out of the regions in the UK right alongside some terrible investments, predictable piggy backing on low and high budget films pushed through by overzealous bureaucrats, also included fresh, energetic filmmaking. Driven by the opportunities of small amounts of public funding spread thin, committed producers and naïve first time directors, and an explosion in digital technology, entry was opened up for newcomers with stories to tell.
Eran Creevy director of Shifty
Great new writing, and small matched funding allowing private and EU finance into poorer areas of Britain, enabled producers to bring unusual but viable projects to a wider table. In the Capital, the city’s regional agency for film partnered with BBC Films to create Microwave – a microbudget programme offering £100,000 cash & in-kind feature budgets, supported by real industry connections and distribution via BBC channels. The slate is actively growing and has completed films as diverse as Eran Creevy’s Shifty (2009), a day in the life of a Muslim crack dealer, to Kolton Lee’s Freestyle (2010), a shamelessly unabashed urban teen romance set in the world of London’s freestyle basketball scene – both of which found healthy audiences outside of a standard BFI/arthouse crowd.
Up North, Film 4 and Screen Yorkshire partnered with Warp Films to create micro studio Warp X, following Warp’s success with a slate that includes Chris Waitt’s A Complete History of My Sexual Failures (2008) and Paul King’s Bunny & The Bull (2009). Further north Digital Departures supported Terence Davies’ Of Time and the City (2008), Davies’ lovesong to Liverpoool, selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, which went on to win New York Critics Award in 2009, as well as topping various best of year lists at home and abroad.
Middle regions gamely stepped up to rival London, attracting innovative scripts and wooing filmmakers out beyond the M25. Brothers of the Head (2006) and Control (2007) found themselves drawn out to the Midlands along with Michael Winterbottom’s Cock & Bull Story (2006) and more recently The Trip (2011) again in the North, benefiting from both regional support, a TV deal and light crews literally keeping the show on the road.
Although the regional funds were criticised at home for their impossibly low budget levels, there’s a body of films that can be argued just would not have been made under a completely centralised capital city pot of money. At its best state intervention results in experimentation and the support of distinctive new work; at its worst you get market failure funding for sub-standard propositions, greenlit by inexperienced civic employees. But the key thing, surely is that as long as there is such support, audiences can continue to enjoy distinct, affecting, illuminating and ground-breaking alternatives to a US studio system with a stranglehold on distribution.
In the UK, things are changing again, with severe arts cuts and re-merging of regions and UK Film Council to the BFI – so it remains to be seen if and how the groundwork laid for fresh voices and fleet of micro projects will survive. Either way, it’s interesting times, and a recent surge in documentary fare and growing cinema audiences, couple with political unrest I’ll keep my eyes firmly on the old country to see what comes next.
Top picks from the UK in the past 7 years
Yes- Sally Potter, 2004
Potter’s timely film about love and deceit, but above all love, shot digitally in 2004 and undeservedly overlooked.
Dead Man’s Shoes- Shane Meadows, 2004
Meadow’s breakout film with Warp Films, catapulting him and Paddy Considine into the public eye.
Brothers of the Head- Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe, 2005
Feature outing from the filmmakers behind doco Lost in La Mancha, bringing the film within a film to fiction in collaboration with veteran Tony Grisoni, presenting the facts about made up punk band and conjoined twins.
Red Road- Andrea Arnold, 2006
Arnold’s Palme D’Or winning debut about voyeurism, modern loneliness and revenge, set in Glasgow, Scotland
Control- Anton Cjorbin, 2007
Stunning recreation of the life and death of Ian Curtis, front man of Joy Division, shot in black and white and with an epic soundtrack.
Bronson- Nicolas Winding Refn, 2008
Fictional telling of an underbelly legend in the UK- the violent, insane and charismatic Bronson, alter ego to criminal Michael Peters.
Of Time & The City- Terence Davies, 2008
Davies’ archival masterpiece on the North.
Archipelago- Joanna Hogg, 2010
Searingly good expose of the darker side of middle class England – so close to the bone it’s painful to watch.
The Arbor- Clio Barnard, 2010
Barnard’s unique debut, played SFF 2011 – can only be described as ‘experimental documentary’ exploring the life of playwright Andrea Dunbar.
Submarine- Richard Ayoade, 2011
Actor/Comedian Ayoade’s foray into directing shows him sure-handed in this quirky and touching coming-of-age story, focused on a Welsh misfit.
