Studying British Cinema: 1990s

Aimed explicitly at those coming to British cinema for the first time - either as student or teacher - and assuming little in the way of prior knowledge, the Studying British Cinema series considers key texts from the decade under discussion and accessibly places them in their artistic and historical contexts.

The 1990s was a decade of contradictions for British cinema. On the one hand the exhibition and production sectors in the British film industry made something of a recovery from the dark days of the early 1980s, when cinema attendances and film production had slumped to an all-time low. On the other hand, the recovery owed much to foreign investment, as fleapit cinemas were replaced with multiplexes; or, particularly in the case of American investment, where money was spent on big budget productions which kept British studios, technicians, directors and actors in work - but with little of the profits remaining in the UK.

Studying British Cinema: The 1990s painstakingly examines the ultimately fragile revival in British film fortunes by taking a detailed analysis of 20 films made during the decade. It places those and other films against the backdrop of cultural, technological and political change in 1990s Britain, an era which would become characterised as 'Cool Britannia', deliberately invoking comparisons with the 1960s.

Key films discussed include:

The Crying Game

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Sense and Sensibility

Billy Elliot

Notting Hill

East is East

The Full Monty

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Trainspotting

Chicken Run