The British Avant-garde Film, 1926-1995: An Anthology of WritingsMichael O'Pray This collection of essay celebrating British avant-garde cinema's rich history draws together writings by filmmakers, theorists, critics, and curators. These individuals have been engaged over the past 70 years with film not only as a form of art practice but also as a subversive means of representing British society itself and as a personal expression of issues of memory, sexuality, and ethnicity. Included are essays from a wide range of distinguished writers--from Virginia Woolf, Lindsay Anderson, and peter Gidal to Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen, and Malcolm Le Grice. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
THE CINEMA | 33 |
ON BORDERLINE | 45 |
THE AVANTGARDE ATTITUDE IN THE THIRTIES | 65 |
SOME ASPECTS OF THE WORK | 87 |
FILM IS | 121 |
THE TWO AVANTGARDES | 133 |
THEORY AND DEFINITION OF STRUCTURALIST | 145 |
NOTES AROUND | 171 |
FILMS OF THE THATCHER ERA | 239 |
WORKING ON TWO FRONTS | 261 |
THE POETRY OF FACT | 275 |
Common terms and phrases
abstract film aesthetic American animation artists Arts Council Arts Lab audience avant avant-garde film Blakeston Borderline Britain British avant-garde British Cinema British Film Institute Brothers Quay Bryher camera Channel Four Close Co-op commercial critical Derek Jarman documentary dominant Dwoskin Eisenstein English example exhibition experience experimental film Festival Film and Video Film Art Film as Film film culture film practice Film Society film-makers film's filmic formal garde Godard Greenaway Grice Hollywood Humphrey Jennings ideas identification ideology independent film issue Jayne Parker Jennings language Laura Mulvey Len Lye London Film-makers Macpherson magazine material materialist meaning modernism modernist montage movement narrative organised painting Peter Gidal Peter Greenaway Peter Wollen poetic political position present problem production programmes radical realism relation representation represented screen sense shot signifier Sitney's spectator Structural film Structural/Materialist film television theoretical tradition underground viewer visual Warhol women