Wheeler Winston Dixon, editor
"Excellent scholarship and range of topic areas that is
extraordinary: this book is a revelation. Many of the
contributions break new ground: others revisit the known
with fresh perspectives. An important, fascinating book -
it will redefine the study of British cinema." - Brian
Henderson, State University of New York at Buffalo
Re-Viewing British Cinema, 1900-1992 is a collection of
essays on British cinema history and practice. It offers
both the casual reader and the film scholar a different view
of British filmmaking during the past century. Arranged in
chronological order, the book explores those areas of
British cinema that have not been fully examined in other
works and also offers fresh interpretations of a number of
classic films. From the work of Frederic Villiers, the
pioneering British newsreel cameraman who at the turn of the
century brought home images of battlefield carnage, to
essays on the British "B" film and the long-forgotten
"Independent Frame" method of film production, to new
readings of classics such as The Red Shoes, Passport to
Pimlico, and Peeping Tom, the authors offer a look behind
the scenes of the British film industry and engage the
reader in some of the most compelling interpretational and
historical issues of recent film history and critical
theory. In addition, the volume contains a number of interviews
with such key directors as Stephen Frears, Terence Davies,
Wendy Toye, and Lindsay Anderson and also pays particular
attention to the work of early twentieth-century British
feminist filmmakers whose films have often been ignored by
conventional film theory and history. It also offers new
material on the British "film noir," the English horror
film, and the pioneering gay director Brian Desmond Hurst.
Taken as a whole, this book presents an entirely new series
of viewpoints on British film practice, theory, and
reception and affords a fresh and vibrant view of the
British film medium.
Published by The State University of New York Press.
Wheeler Winston Dixon is Chairperson of the Film Studies
Program at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. His other books include
The Early Film Criticism of François Truffaut.
288 pages July 1994
paperback ISBN 0-7914-1862-6
hardcover ISBN 0-7914-1861-8