Department of English

This course will be serve as a general introduction to contemporary British film. Its more specific aim will be to consider some of the ways that cinema has registered the social and cultural upheavals of the Thatcher years: not just thematically and formally but also through transformations of the very institutions of filmmaking. These institutions include both established and emergent production companies, systems of financing and publicity, and film studies programs within academic institutions. We will screen a wide range of films made between about 1975 and 1995, from low-budget documentaries like _Handsworth Songs_ to major Merchant Ivory features like _A Room With A View_, and including films by Maureen Blackwood, Kenneth Brannaugh, Stephen Frears, Peter Greenaway, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, and others. Students will write two shorter essays and one 10-page research paper, and there will be exams covering all of the films and reading assignments for the course.