Picture Perfect

Laraine Porter, Bryony Dixon

Description

The British cinema has drawn extensively on our national landscapes. Filmmakers have explored the entrenched myth of an idyllic rural tradition, intimately bound up with a popular definition of national heritage. Conversely, within a documentary-realist framework, they have looked at the contemporary urban aesthetic, derived partly from a Victorian tradition of social investigation.

The fifth in a series of volumes from the annual British Silent Cinema Festival held in Nottingham (and the first to be published by Exeter), this collective study offers an original treatment of the relationship between pre-1930 cinema and landscape. The Nottingham festival from which this collection derives brought together a group of leading specialists – practitioners, academics and individual researchers – who between them provide a detailed investigation into the national cinema before the sound era.

Contents: Notes on Contributors; Introduction; Alan Burton and Laraine Porter; Location, Location, Location: Landscape, Place and Travel in British Cinema Before 1930; Bryony Dixon (Curator of Silent Film at the BFI's National Film and Television Archive); On Location in Edwardian Britain: Urban and Rural Violence; Tony Fletcher (founder member of The Cinema Museum in London); The Marketing of Landscapes in Silent British Cinema; Paul Moody (lecturer in Media Studies at Uxbridge College); Narrative and Pictorialism in Post-Pioneer Hepworth Films; Simon Brown (senior lecturer in Film Studies at Kingston University); Pastoral Transformations in 1920s British Cinema; Christine Gledhill (Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Sunderland); "The Plucky Girl" and the "Pigeon to Pluck": Characters, Locations and Entertainment Forms in Rogues of London; Judith Cowan (archive researcher at the ITN archive working on the Reuters Collection); Trainers and Temptresses: The British Racing Drama; Judith McLaren (teacher of English at St Paul's School in London); The First Cameraman in Iceland: Travel Film and Travel Literature; Ivo Blom (lecturer in Film Studies at the Department of Comparative Arts Studies of the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam); The Anglo-Boer War in North London: A Micro-Study; Ian Christie (Professor of Film and Media History, Birkbeck College London); Everyone's Doing the Riviera Because It's So Much Nicer in Nice; Amy Sargeant (Senior Research Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for the Study of British Art and Architecture); The City of the Future; Patrick Keiller (films include London (1994) and Robinson in Space (1997); research fellow at the Royal College of Art in London); Co-operation and the Contestation of Public Space; Alan Burton (teacher at the University of Klagenfurt in Austria); Billy Merson's Monologue: Blighted My Life; Mick Eaton (recent TV work includes 'Shipman', a factual drama about Britain's most prolific serial murderer); Index.

Sujets

• 20th Century
• Modern
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Película fotográfica
• Modern history
• General officer
• Ireland
• History of Europe
• Cinema of the United Kingdom
• History of film
• Stephen Ireland
• Great Britain
• General
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf
• Film
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Exeter Press
• Date de parution: 02 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780859899383
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

Porter Dixon

N E W R E S E A R C HS T U D I E SF I L M B R I T I S H T E L E V I S I O N A N D I N

P I C T U R E P E R F E C T Landscape, Place and Travel in British Cinema before 1930

L A R A I N E P O RT E R A N D B RY O N Y D I X O N

T h e EXETER P R E S S

Picture Perfect

Based on the work of archivists, academics and individual researchers attending the British Silent Cinema Festival held annually at the Broadway Cinema and Media Centre in Nottingham, this collective study offers an original treatment of the relationship between pre- 1930s cinema and landscape.

Editors:Laraine Porterthe director of Broadway Cinema and Media is Centre in Nottingham, and co-ordinator of the British Silent Cinema Festival held annually in Nottingham; she has co-edited four previous volumes based on work presented at these festivals. Bryony Dixonis one of a team of curators at the BFI National Archive. Her specialism is early and silent film and she has co-programmed the British Silent Cinema Festival since its inception in 1998.

New Research in British Film and Television Studies

This series is dedicated to publishing new research on British cinema, television and related media history and analysis. Launched as an initiative of the AHRB Centre for British Film and Television Studies, which ran from 2000 to 2005, it will include collections based on the Centre’s conferences and projects. It has also assumed responsibility for publications of the annual British Silent Cinema Festival, a collaboration between Broadway Cinema and Media Centre, Nottingham, and the British Film Institute.

Series Editorial Board:

Ian Christie, Birkbeck, University of London

Frank Gray, University of Brighton Richard Maltby, Flinders University, Adelaide Laura Mulvey, Birkbeck, University of London

Steve Neale, University of Exeter

P I C T U R E P E R F E C T

Landscape, Place and Travel in British Cinema before 1930

edited byLaraine PorterandBryony Dixon

Paperback cover image: Alma Taylor inComin’ Thro’ the Rye(1923) courtesy of BFI Stills, Posters and Designs.

First published in 2007 by The Exeter Press Reed Hall, Streatham Drive Exeter EX4 4QR UK www.exeterpress.co.uk

© Copyright 2007 Laraine Porter, Bryony Dixon and the individual contributors

The right of Laraine Porter, Bryony Dixon and the individual contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN: Paperback ISBN:

978 1 905816 00 2 978 1 905816 01 9

Typeset in 10 pt Stone by JCS Publishing Serviceswww.jcs-publishing.co.uk

Printed in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham

Contents

List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements

Introduction Alan BurtonandLaraine Porter

Location, Location, Location: The Sixth British Silent Cinema Weekend Bryony Dixon

On Location in Edwardian Britain: Urban and Rural Violence Tony Fletcher

The Marketing of Landscapes in Silent British Cinema Paul Moody

Narrative and Pictorialism in Post-Pioneer Hepworth Films Simon Brown

Pastoral Transformations in 1920s British Cinema Christine Gledhill

‘The Plucky Girl’ and the ‘Pigeon to Pluck’: Characters, Locations and Entertainment Forms inRogues of London Judith Cowan

Trainers and Temptresses: The British Racing Drama Judith McLaren

The First Cameraman in Iceland: Travel Film and Travel Literature Ivo Blom

The Anglo-Boer War in North London: A Micro-Study Ian Christie

‘Everyone’s Doing the Riviera’ Because ‘It’s So Much Nicer in Nice’ Amy Sargeant

The City of the Future Patrick Keiller

vii ix xii

1

5

10

19

29

37

48

56

68

82

92

104

Cooperation and the Contestation of Public Space Alan Burton

Billy Merson’s Monologue: Blighted My Life Michael Eaton

Index

113

122

139

Illustrations

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14

15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24

25 26

27 28 29 30

Hitchcock’s gloriously scenicThe Manxman(1929) Bucolic loveliness in Hepworth’sTansy(1921) Haggar’sDesperate Poaching Affray(1903) Firemen to the Rescue(1903) Urban scene inIt’s Not My Parcel(1906) Edwardian Folkestone(c. 1904) A pressbook forA Girl of London(1925) Advertising forPiccadilly(1929) A pressbook forA Welsh Singer(1915) Rescued by Rover(1905) Hepworth’sComin’ Thro’ the Rye(1923) The sylvan love scene fromThe Lure of Crooning Water (1920) Alma Taylor inPipes of Pan(1923) Rural husband confronting urban wife pictorialized in Guy Newall’sTestimony(1920) Rural idyll—a scene fromRogues of London(1915) Suicide on the Embankment, fromRogues of London(1915) Arrival of the detectives,Rogues of London(1915) The promenade of the Empire inRogues of London(1915) Violet Hopson and Warwick Ward inThe Lady Owner (1923) Anton Nöggerath Postcard of Mount Hekla View of Geysir Sheep farming in Iceland Hauling the nets.Pêche à la morue en ligne de fond en Islande (Pathé Imperium Film 1911) Poster advertising a typical mixed programme An account of a patriotic wartime display at the Holloway Empire (1901) Page from Paul’s 1901 catalogue Catalogue entry for one of Paul’s elaborate patriotic offers The Riviera lifestyle inAt the Villa Rose(1920) Magazine announcement that Betty Balfour would be filming in Nice

3 7 12 14 16 16 20 21 24 29 34

39 41

44 48 50 51 53

58 69 72 73 74

76 85

85 87 88 93

94

31 32 33

34

Poster advertising the healthy life on the Riviera (early 1930s) 96 Panorama of Ealing from a Moving Tram(1901) 108 Model bakery at the Burslem District and Industrial Co-operative Society (1921) 118 Sheet music for a popular Billy Merson song (1917) 123

All pictures courtesy of BFI Stills, Posters and Designs with exception of images supplied courtesy of Paul Moody (7, 8, 9), Ivo Blom (20, 21, 22, 23, 24}, Ian Christie (25, 26, 27, 28) and Amy Sargeant (30, 31).

Notes on Contributors

Ivo Blom Ivo Blom is Lecturer in Film Studies at the Department of Comparative Arts Studies of the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Since the late 1980s he has been publishing on early cinema in journal volumes and encyclopedia. In 2003 he published the commercial edition of his dissertation (2000) asJean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trace(2003). Seehttp://home.wanadoo.nl/~il.blomfor more information.

Simon Brown Simon Brown is a Senior Lecture in Film Studies at Kingston University. He is currently completing his PhD thesis on the Hepworth Manufac- turing Company from 1899 to 1911.

Alan Burton Alan Burton was formerly Senior Lecturer in Film at De Montfort University. He has published widely on British cinema and is currently teaching at the University of Klagenfurt in Austria.

Ian Christie Ian Christie is Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck College and was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge University in 2005–6. He is co-editor ofFilm Studies and was director of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Centre for British Film and Television Studies and of the London Project strand within this, which is continuing to promote research on early cinema in London. He is currently working on a study of Robert Paul and the early British film industry.

Jude Cowan Jude Cowan is completing a PhD on film producers W.G. Barker and G.B. Samuelson and the creation of the British feature film industry at Birkbeck College. Until recently she was working for the British Universities Film and Video Council as a cataloguer on the Newsfilm Online project, and has now joined the ITN archive as researcher,