Articles - 14/09/09

1st Article - The first article was about director and screen writer Richard Curtis and how his famous films became well known for being happy and optimistic with happy endings. Also his way of incorporating his view of New labour into his films made his way of making films a well known thing called 'Curtisland'. Curtis made his films in a certain way because that's how he wanted people to view Britain. Curtis's winning formula made people view Britain from the broken-home and teenage pregnancy capital of Europe to a sunny, witty, self-deprecating , charming kind of place. Curtis belived there is optimism, goodness and love in the world but it is under-represented and that's what he did with his films.
I think the way Curtis thought about his films is a positive thing. He didn't just make films because he wanted to, he made them because he wanted to change the view of Britain and British people. He did this with simple things such as having his films contain positive attitudes and optimism as well as love and happy endings, the things people crave. I think Curtis's films make people feel good and send people into a world where anything is possible because it may just end happy.

2nd article - The second article was about ways in which British cinema has represented the perspectives and expiriences of those dwelling in contemporary Britain. The aricle is also based on how British cinema has responded to the debates surrounding sexuality, class, gender and ethnicity. In then goes into more detail about those four chosen subjects the first being sexuality. The article talks about how films never showed anything to do with sexuality such as sex scenes and homosexuality whereas in Britain today you get films such as 'Billy Elliot' where they challenge the audience and dislodge any anxieties that the main character might be gay because he is a dancer and the fact that the main character in 'Bend in like Beckham' is a female football player. In the part of the article that refers to class the article talks about films mainly being revolved around middle class people when in the 1990's the representation of working class expirience reached prominence through a number of filmss which refered to issues of exclusion and unemployment films such as 'The full monty' and 'Trainspotting'. Also making a bold statement about class is the film 'Billy Elliot where in the film they refer to the miners strike in the 1980's but not saying the cause of industrial action. The artcile then talks about gender and how men mainly dominated cinema making films mainly about male expiriences. where in some films such as 'Football factory', 'Green street' and 'This is England' they show men being the sterotypical view of a man being aggressive and violent films such as 'The full monty' and 'Billy Elliot show men being creative and maybe showing their femine side. However films then started to revolve films more around just women, films such as 'Bridget Jone's diary' becoming hotly debated icon of post-feminism with Bridget enjoying the lifestyle and professional career campaigned for by feminism and in thrall to old-fashioned ideas of romanic courtship. the expression of 'dangerous female sexulaity has been a recurring theme in contemporary British cinema with women being penalised for their sexual desire or obliged to renounce it. The part on ethinicty revolves around many British films being written by white middle class people for white middle class people and many British films have been critisised, films such as 'Notting hill' for making no reference to cultural diversity and 'The full monty' being critisised for the sterotyping of its one black character through his secually-charged nickname of 'Horse'. The British fillm industry also being slammed for citing the lack of a 'black harry potter' with Ken Williams saying "why is childhood fantasy only left for middle-class white children?".
I think that films are also going to contain specific genders, classes and ethinicitys and theres also going to be someone to critise these films saying their "sterotypical" or "racist" but different films revolve around different storylines and need specific actors of a specific gender of ethnicty but as time has gone one many film-makers and writers are now taking into consideration peoples concerns and adress these concerns in their films but adressing issues such as discrimination, sterotyping or racism.