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Michael Winterbottom is the most prolific and the most audacious of British filmmakers in the last twenty years. His television career began in the cutting-rooms at Thames Television, and his first directing experience was on the Thames TV documentaries,
treating subjects of contemporary significance; and there are a road movie, a musical, a science-fiction thriller, a sex drama, and films in the humanist/realist mode. Mere generic diversity would not, of itself, be a matter for critical applause. However, arguably, no other British director, certainly not in recent times, has shown accomplishment over such a genre range. Contemporaries such as Ken Loach, Mike Leigh and Shane
In television scholarship, sound and image have been attended to in different ways, but image has historically dominated. The chapters gathered here attend to both: they weigh the impact and significance of specific choices of sound and image, explore their interactions, and assess their roles in establishing meaning and style. The contributors address a wide range of technical and stylistic elements relating to the television image. They consider production design choices, the spatial organisation of the television frame and how camera movements position and reposition parts of the visible world. They explore mise-en-scène, landscapes and backgrounds, settings and scenery, and costumes and props. They attend to details of actors’ performances, as well as lighting design and patterns of colour and scale. As regards sound, each chapter distinguishes different components on a soundtrack, delineating diegetic from non-diegetic sound, and evaluating the roles of elements such as music, dialogue, voice-over, bodily sounds, performed and non-performed sounds. Attending to sound design, contributors address motifs, repetition and rhythm in both music and non-musical sound. Consideration is also given to the significance of quietness, the absence of sounds, and silence. Programmes studied comprise The Twilight Zone, Inspector Morse, Children of the Stones, Dancing on the Edge, Road, Twin Peaks: The Return, Bodyguard, The Walking Dead and Mad Men. Sound and image are evaluated across these examples from a wide range of television forms, formats and genres, which includes series, serial and one-off dramas, children’s programmes, science fiction, thrillers and detective shows.
, the question becomes what to do about the missing bodies and those killed by coincidence just because they were in the street. Are they martyrs? Are these vanished bodies with no proper burial, nor proper prayers and ritual ablutions according to Islamic traditions, still considered as martyrs, wonders Rabii‘? In that sense, ‘Utaarid could be classified as a dystopian science-fiction thriller.13 It is a projection of the future Cairo in 2025, twelve years after the 2013 Rabe‘a al-‘Adaweyya massacre, in which the city witnessed the widespread use of thugs to beat up
breaks within and at the start and end of each episode. The significance of this commercial context is that The Twilight Zone was designed to attract and retain audiences, especially across commercial breaks, by offering engagement with dramatic situations, surprising storyline events and visual or aural effects. The fact that ‘The Invaders’ has no dialogue and an entirely linear story structure was a strategy to hook and then hold viewers. The episode's writer, Matheson, also wrote the source texts and screenplays for the science fiction thriller films The
, Janet Peoples. 47 As with The Fisher King , Gilliam was impressed with the quality of the writing, and the way the dense, highly intelligent and constantly shifting story did not fit any particular genre or mould, blending science fiction, thriller, mystery and romance together into a provocative whole. Perhaps as a result of this ambiguity, Universal’s budget of $29 million provided less money
Fox showed some interest, but only if Gilliam directed their premier project, the science fiction thriller Enemy Mine . 22 Gilliam declined the offer, which piqued the studio’s interest in the project he rejected it for, his own Brazil . But it was The Meaning of Life ’s success in Cannes that created a buzz Gilliam and Milchan used to coax Fox and Universal executives attending the festival into
Featuring more than 6,500 articles, including over 350 new entries, this fifth edition of The Encyclopedia of British Film is an invaluable reference guide to the British film industry. It is the most authoritative volume yet, stretching from the inception of the industry to the present day, with detailed listings of the producers, directors, actors and studios behind a century or so of great British cinema.
Brian McFarlane's meticulously researched guide is the definitive companion for anyone interested in the world of film. Previous editions have sold many thousands of copies, and this fifth instalment will be an essential work of reference for universities, libraries and enthusiasts of British cinema.