Contemporary British Cinema
Issues and Debates
Does Britain need a separate film industry?
How has the British film industry managed to survive?
Does Britain need a separate film industry?
This area of debate centres on the reasons for having a national cinema. This will include issues of representation. Do we need films that show ourselves to ourselves?
There is also the institutional context. The industry directly employs around 33,500 people and supports something like 95,000 jobs in total. The industry contributed around 4.3 billion pounds to the British economy in 2006. This was up 39% from 2004, so the industry is becoming more successful in economic terms.
In terms of audiences, on the whole the mass of the cinema going public might be just as happy if all their film entertainment came from Hollywood. However there is a substantial, largely cine-literate and middle-class audience, that wants to see films about Britain and on British themes.
The forms and conventions of British film are rooted in documentary and realism. We are also well known for costume dramas and comedies as well as gritty thriller. This type of cinema looks to Europe rather than Hollywood and would be lost without a native industry.
How has the British film industry managed to survive?
Issues of audience, institutions, forms and conventions and representation all impact on this debate.
Mass audiences tend to prefer Hollywood films. Certain types of realist low budget cinema are often seen as appealing to niche audiences.
The British industry is characterised by small production companies and a handful of studios (notably Pinewood) These institutions are supported by Film Tax Relief which the government introduced in 2006.
By representing Britain to the world, albeit often in stereotypical ways, the British film industry aids the tourist industry.
By concentrating on low budget genres many production companies survive from one film being completed to the next. However this is a hand to mouth existence that can easily spell disaster if one production fares badly. The industry is supported by a number of co-funded productions using the forms and conventions of spectacle and special effects which have much larger budgets.
