Heritage Film: Nation, Genre, and Representation

by Belén Vidal

Overview

This volume provides a comprehensive introduction to the critical debates around the heritage film, from its controversial status in British cinema of the 1980s to its expansion into a versatile international genre in the 1990s and 2000s. This study explores the heritage film in light of questions of national identity in film and television, industry and funding, and history, gender and representation. Using a wide range of examples and including an in-depth analysis of three case studies – Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), Joyeux Noël (2005) and The Queen (2006) – this book presents the heritage film as a thriving phenomenon at the centre of contemporary European cinema.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231162036
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	05/29/2012
Series:	Short Cuts
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Belén Vidal is Lecturer in Film Studies at King's College London. She is the co-editor of Cinema at the Periphery (2010) and the author of Figuring the Past: Period Film and the Mannerist Aesthetic (2012).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Placing the Heritage Film
1. The British Heritage Film: Nation and Representation
2. Production Cycles and Cultural Significance: A European Heritage Film?
3. Narrative Aesthetics and Gendered Histories: Renewing the Heritage Film
Afterword: Tradition and Change
Filmography
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

The elusive and amorphous nature of the heritage film is adeptly brought into focus by this lucid discussion of the debates surrounding one of the most contested concepts in film and television studies.... An invaluable introduction for students of national identity in film and television period drama.

Pam Cook

This series is tailor-made for modular approach to film studies.... An indispensable tool for both lecturers and students.

Paul Willemen

...an excellent survey of the existing academic literature on the subject...

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