Featuring more than 6,500 articles, including over 350 new entries, this fifth edition of The Encyclopedia of British Film is an invaluable reference guide to the British film industry. It is the most authoritative volume yet, stretching from the inception of the industry to the present day, with detailed listings of the producers, directors, actors and studios behind a century or so of great British cinema. Brian McFarlane's meticulously researched guide is the definitive companion for anyone interested in the world of film. Previous editions have sold many thousands of copies, and this fifth instalment will be an essential work of reference for universities, libraries and enthusiasts of British cinema. -- .

The 'Gainsborough melodramas' were a mainstay of 1940s British cinema, and helped make the careers of such stars as Margaret Lockwood, James Mason and Stewart Granger. But what was unique about these films? And who were the directors behind them? This book presents four key filmmakers, each with his own talents and specialities. It traces their professional lives through the highs of the 1940s, when the popularity of Gainsborough films was at its peak, to the tougher decades that followed the genre's decline. Featuring expert analysis of such films as The Man in Grey (1943), Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) and The Upturned Glass (1947), alongside valuable historical context, the book constitutes the first extended examination of this group of directors. It combines critical acumen with readability, making it a valuable resource for students, lecturers and general readers alike. -- .

Fred Schepisi is one of the crucial names associated with the revival of the Australian film industry in the 1970s. The Films of Fred Schepisi traces the lead-up to his critical successes in feature filmmaking, via his earlier award-winning success as a producer in advertising commercials in the 1960s and the setting up of his own company. Unlike some directors, he derived from this experience a sure sense of the commercial aspects of filmmaking, as well as its aesthetic considerations. The volume also considers stories of his early education in a Catholic seminary, which he drew on in his semiautobiographical film, The Devil's Playground, the success of which launched him as an exciting new feature director. The volume expands on Schepisi's success story to chart his development as a director in demand in other countries, notably in the US and the UK, as well as continuing to make major films in Australia. Brian McFarlane argues that Schepisi's career is symptomatic of Australian directors who have made their presences felt on the international stage. Whereas other key directors of the Australian film revival, such as Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford, have been the subject of book-length critical studies, Schepisi's career has not to-date been so explored. McFarlane takes a critical account of Schepisi's film output-including such standouts as The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Plenty, Roxanne, Six Degrees of Separation, Mr. Baseball, and Last Orders-and he augments analysis with interviews with the director. By discussing the production histories and both critical and popular receptions, McFarlane's study shines a new light on Schepisi's work and his rise to prominence in the global film industry.

Who is Lance Comfort? The short answer is that he is the most unjustly neglected director in British film history. McFarlane's lively, thoroughly researched study aims to correct this situation. In the years between 1941 and 1965 he made some of the most entertaining films in Britain. There was the striking success of his second feature as director, Hatter's Castle (1941) and when he returned to this melodramatic vein in 1945 he made a series of highly proficient and enjoyable studies in obsession, including Bedelia (1946) with Margaret Lockwood as a murderess, and Temptation Harbour (1947) starring Robert Newton as a decent man in the grip of erotic attraction. Comfort's career has never been charted in full - that is, from the apprenticeship in the 1930s, through the melodramas of the 1940s to the often rewarding co-features of the following two decades. His is in many ways a prototypical career in British cinema: his very attractive body of work has been marginalised by critical focus on a few giant figures. But giant figures alone do not make an industry. This is a book that will appeal to all students and researchers in British cinema, as well as to anyone with an interest in British films - and why they were the way they were - in their most productive period.

From a little before ten years of age Brian McFarlane became addicted to stories told on the screen, and the mere fact that he had difficulty in getting to see the films he wanted - or any for that matter - only made them seem more alluring. But it wasn't just seeing the films that mattered: he also wanted, and quite soon needed, to be writing about them and these obsessions have been part of his life for the next sixty-odd years. Real and reel is a light-hearted and but deeply felt account of a lifetime's addiction. It is one particular writer and critic's story, but it will strike sparks among many others. Though many other interests have kept Brian McFarlane's life lively, nothing else has exerted such a long-standing grip on the author's imagination as film. Editor of the Encyclopaedia of British Cinema, co-editor of Manchester University Press's British Film Makers series, and author of over a dozen critical works on film and adaptation, Brian McFarlane's autobiographical Real and reel can also be read as a biography of the subject of Film Studies itself. -- .

Fred Schepisi is one of the crucial names associated with the revival of the Australian film industry in the 1970s. The Films of Fred Schepisi traces the lead-up to his critical successes in feature filmmaking, via his earlier award-winning success as a producer in advertising commercials in the 1960s and the setting up of his own company. Unlike some directors, he derived from this experience a sure sense of the commercial aspects of filmmaking, as well as its aesthetic considerations. The volume also considers stories of his early education in a Catholic seminary, which he drew on in his semiautobiographical film, The Devil's Playground, the success of which launched him as an exciting new feature director. The volume expands on Schepisi's success story to chart his development as a director in demand in other countries, notably in the US and the UK, as well as continuing to make major films in Australia. Brian McFarlane argues that Schepisi's career is symptomatic of Australian directors who have made their presences felt on the international stage. Whereas other key directors of the Australian film revival, such as Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford, have been the subject of book-length critical studies, Schepisi's career has not to-date been so explored. McFarlane takes a critical account of Schepisi's film output-including such standouts as The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Plenty, Roxanne, Six Degrees of Separation, Mr. Baseball, and Last Orders-and he augments analysis with interviews with the director. By discussing the production histories and both critical and popular receptions, McFarlane's study shines a new light on Schepisi's work and his rise to prominence in the global film industry.

The institutions and products of the Australian film industry have been extensively surveyed, yet few analyses consider the sources of the film revival that took place in the 1970s and 1980s. This book represents a body of thinking about Australian cinema that asks where the origins of films lie. The book begins by tracing the indebtedness of Australian cinema to the classical narrative style of Hollywood film-making, with its firm grasp of melodrama. It continues by comparing the problems faced by the 'high' British cinema of the 1940s and 1950s with those faced by Australia in the 1970s and 1980s in the attempts by both countries to establish national film industries. New Australian Cinema will increase the scope of the discussion about the revival of Australian cinema and help us to make cultural sense of the films themselves.

A fresh, concise, but wide-ranging introduction and overview to British and Irish cinema, this volume contains 24 essays, each on a separate seminal film from the region. Films ranging from 1928 to 2002 are featured from directors such as John Boorman, Nicolas Roeg, Sally Potter and Jack Clayton. As well as discussions of genre and influences, "The Cinema of Britain and Ireland" includes in-depth studies of films such as "Room at the Top" (1958), "The Italian Job" (1969), "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976), "Distant Voices, Still Lives" (1988), "Orlando" (1992), and "Sweet Sixteen" (2002).

This is a book for all those who have been absorbed and moved by Brief Encounter in the seventy or so years since its first appearance. It explores the central relationship of the film, where two people who fall unexpectedly in love come to realise that there is more to life than self-gratification. Mores have undoubtedly changed, for better or worse, but that essential moral choice has never lost its power. While acknowledging this, the book goes further in an effort to account for the way the film has passed into the wider culture. People born decades after its first appearance are now adept at picking up references to it, whether a black-and-white scene in a much later film or a passing joke about a bald man in a barber's shop. -- .

A fresh, concise, but wide-ranging introduction and overview to British and Irish cinema, this volume contains 24 essays, each on a separate seminal film from the region. Films ranging from 1928 to 2002 are featured from directors such as John Boorman, Nicolas Roeg, Sally Potter and Jack Clayton. As well as discussions of genre and influences, "The Cinema of Britain and Ireland" includes in-depth studies of films such as "Room at the Top" (1958), "The Italian Job" (1969), "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976), "Distant Voices, Still Lives" (1988), "Orlando" (1992), and "Sweet Sixteen" (2002).

Novel to Film is the first systematic theoretical account of the process by which the great (and not so great) works of literature are transformed into the good, bad (sometimes ugly) but always distinctive medium of cinema. Drawing upon recent relevant literary and film theory the book provides a careful analysis of the theory and practice of this metamorphosis. The Scarlet Letter, Random Harvest, Great Expectations, Daisy Miller, and Cape Fear provide case studies which represent a range of fiction and cinematic practice.

"This is the first book to provide a thorough examination of the British 'B' movie, from the war years to the 1960s. The authors draw on archival research, contemporary trade papers and interviews with key 'B' filmmakers to map the 'B' movie phenomenon both as artefact and as industry product, and as a reflection on their times"--Provided by publisher.

A close study of the relationship between text and film versions of Great Expectations. Literature and film studies students will find plenty of material to support their courses and essay writing on how the film versions provide different readings of the original text. Focussing on David Lean's film of Great Expectations, the book discusses: the literary text in its historical context, key themes and dominant readings of the text, how the text is adapted for screen and how adaptations have changed our reading of the original text. There are numerous excerpts from the literary text, screenplays and shooting scripts, with suggestions for comparison. The book also features quotations from authors, screenwriters, directors, critics and others linked with the chosen film and text.

This book, the first of two volumes, will provide a major new history of the British B film, tracing the development of the low-budget supporting feature from the 1927 Films Act (which introduced a quota system for the distribution and exhibition of indigenous product) to the age of television, when B film producers channelled their energies into making TV programmes. Along the way, the authors will address leading producers and studios, B film stars, distributors, the genres and themes that tended to dominate B film production (comedy, horror, crime and fantasy). "Quota Quickies" will include a case study of the B films of Michael Powell. The authors' argument is that the B film was hugely important in British cinema history in offering an opportunity for British actors and technicians to develop their careers, and that the films themselves provided an outlet for the exploration of peculiarly British cultural concerns in an industry traditionally dominated by Hollywood output. They also contend that some of the films stand up well to contemporary viewing and are deserving of critical re-evaluation.