British Queer Cinema

by Robin Griffiths (Editor)

Overview

British Queer Cinema draws together a diverse range of innovative new essays that explore, for the first time, the provocative history of lesbian, gay and queer representation in British cinema.

From the early years of ‘Pre-Gay’ film, through to the social upheaval of post-war ‘permissiveness’, Gay Liberation and the ‘post-AIDS’ queer generation, contributors examine the shifting and complex nature of queer identity, desire and spectatorship across a number of classical and contemporary British popular film genres and traditions.

Through case studies of key works such as The Killing of Sister George, Prick Up Your Ears and Beautiful Thing, a reappraisal of the films of Anthony Asquith, Terence Davies and Derek Jarman, to the ‘queerness’ of the heritage film, the homoerotic ‘New Wave’, or the star performances of Dirk Bogarde, Beryl Reid and Stephen Fry, this timely collection maps the relationship between contemporary queer sexuality and its socio-historical, national and critical contexts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415307789
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/09/2006
Series:	British Popular Cinema
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Robin Griffiths is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Gloucestershire. He is the author of New Queer Cinema: Beyond the Celluloid Closet (2005), and editor of Queer Cinema in Europe (2005).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: Queer Britannia – A Century of Sinema ROBIN GRIFFITHS 1 In Search of Nebulous Nancies: Looking for British Cinema’s Pre-Gay Queers ANDY MEDHURST 2 Behind the Masks: Anthony Asquith and Brian Desmond Hurst STEPHEN BOURNE 3 An Instrument with a Flaming Sword: Conservative Queerness in A Canterbury Tale ALEXANDER DOTY 4 Are There Stars Out Tonight? KEITH HOWES 5 Sad and Angry: Queers in Sixties British Cinema ROBIN GRIFFITHS 6 ‘A Comic Monster of Revue’: Beryl Reid, Sister George and the Performance of Dykery LIZZIE THYNNE 7 ‘Come and Have a Bathe!’ : Landscaping the Queer Utopia MICHAEL WILLIAMS 8 Intermingling under Controlled Conditions: The Queerness of Prick Up Your Ears KENNETH MACKINNON 9 Terence Davies and the Unheimlich Home Movie JIM ELLIS 10 ‘It’s My Nature’ : AIDS Narratives and the Moral Re-branding of Queerness in the mid-1990s GREGORY WOODS 11 Beyond the Pale: The Politics of The Crying Game ANDREW MOOR 12 More Jiggery Than Pokery: Derek Jarman’s Edward II RAYMOND ARMSTRONG 13 Taming Oscar Wilde: Queerness, Heritage and Stardom GLYN DAVIS 14 Interview with Lisa Gornick: Reflections on a ‘First Draft’ Film about Love and its Labels ANI RITCHIE 15 Beautiful Thing: British Queer Cinema, Positive Unoriginality and the Everyday ROS JENNINGS Selective Filmography Index

Editorial Reviews

'an excellent overview' - Journal of British Cinema and Television

"it opens up numerous areas worth further inquiry..." —The Gay and Lesbian Review/Worldwide

'an excellent overview' - Journal of British Cinema and Television

From the Publisher