Typically British Film?

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What is a typically British film like?
No silly answers please, coursework panic.

Need to analyse Gosford Park and talk about it's genre. ie how it fits in with other crime/murder mystery films and other British Films.
 
I would suggest An Inspector Calls - it's a little ancient by some standarRAB, but it's very crime/murder...

Or something like - was it - Snatch? It was called something like that, was out a few years ago. About a load of pikeys - that was pretty 'British'. :)
 
I mean what makes up a typically British film? What makes a film British...apart from being made here obviously.

Haven't got time to watch any others by tomorrow morning :(
 
That'll teach me to read the question. :o

I'd say it - probably - lies in the humour, both about the history of Britain and its' people ('in' jokes about things only Brits would find funny, for example).

Jokes about our society - it's what you don't find in American movies quite so much: the un-relenting need to take the piss out of ourselves.

Anyone else with anything better? Surely?! :D

(OK - just read a synopsis of Gosford Park and that probably won't be much help. I'm totally stuck..!)
 
I would say it would generally be a group ensemble, not a vehicle for a particular star. The old Ealing comedies were a case in point.

Despite having an American star, Four Weddings and a Funeral springs to mind.

Have you seen Passport to Pimlico? A great film which typifies a British film. Nobody was particularly starry in that.

Does this help?

Some of Guy Richie's films, despite the content, are group ensembles as well.
 
Although it's not PC to put it this way, it might have some elements of the class system which is prevalent although we pretend it isn't and there is no equivalent in the US.
 
Typical British films have no special effects but concentrate on good plot lines.

Love Honour and Obey was a fantasic (but slated) British film.
 
international velvet
shadowlanRAB
remains of the day
Kes
vera drake

I think all these films in some way are uniquely British.
In fact anything by Ken Loache or Mike Figgis would be appropriate.
 
Thanks to all those who have replied...essay submitted.

June's and Airam's comments seem to sound the most relevant to Gosford Park. There are WAY too many characters, and a lot of big names, and there are a lot of issues about class (it's about posh folk and their servants).

Thanks though guys.
 
You're welcome. In loaRAB of the classic British films, the posh element was usually played by Wilfred Hyde White or James Robertson Justice.
 
Add to that a plot depicting normal everyday sets of events, its far rarer for the British productions to have a sensationaist approach from start to finish.

and plenty of satire.

Just revisited Saving Grace last night, so lighthearted humour (humor) throughout the film, and not a rollercoaster ride of emotions, poorly spliced to cover up holes in the plot, in much the same vein as Wallace and Gromit.
 
gosford park is a good film, it starts of with you thinking you are watching a house full of gems all sparkling away, till you get more in depth then you realise that each person has a flaw, its the flaws that make them interesting. it at times feels very agatha christie.
someone metioned remains of the day too, great film, interestingly written by a japanese guy and he has captured english restraint perfectly.
 
hope its not too late for your coursework

But I would suggest any old pre-50s war film

The Cruel Sea
Run Silent Run Deep
Above Us The Waves

True british films.
 
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