Although stardom and celebrity have sometimes been seen as antithetical to traditional British notions of restraint and modesty, female stars have nenetheless always been an important attraction for audiences of British cinema, offering specifically British takes on ideas of glamour, acting prowess and femininity. This book will explore in detail the history of British female stardom from the 1940's to the present day through an examination of careers and star personae, from Anna Neagle, who enjoyed record-breaking popularity in the immediate post-war years, to key contemporary figures such as Keira Knightley and Helen Mirren. This is a major new study of stardom in British cinema and the first to focus on female stars.

This text explores some of the key debates about British cinema and film theory, and examines the curious mix of rebellion and conformity which marked British cinema in the post-war era.

In the 21st century, films about the lives and experiences of girls and young women have become increasingly visible. Yet, British cinema's engagement with contemporary girlhood has - unlike its Hollywood counterpart - been largely ignored until now. Sarah Hill's Young Women, Girls and Postfeminism in Contemporary British Film provides the first book-length study of how young femininity has been constructed, both in films like the St. Trinians franchise and by critically acclaimed directors like Andrea Arnold, Carol Morley and Lone Scherfig. Hill offers new ways to understand how postfeminism informs British cinema and how it is adapted to fit its specific geographical context. By interrogating UK cinema through this lens, Hill paints a diverse and distinctive portrait of modern femininity and consolidates the important academic links between film, feminist media and girlhood studies.

"Challenging assumptions around Sixties stardom, the book focuses on creative collaboration and the contribution of production personnel beyond the director, and discusses how cultural change is reflected in both film style and cinematic themes."--Publisher description.

British Cinema: Past and Present responds to the commercial and critical success of British film in the 1990s. Providing a historical perspective to the contemporary resurgence of British cinema, this unique anthology brings together leading international scholars to investigate the rich diversity of British film production, from the early sound period of the 1930s to the present day. The contributors address: * British Cinema Studies and the concept of national cinema * the distribution and reception of British films in the US and Europe * key genres, movements and cycles of British cinema in the 1940s, 50s and 60s * questions of authorship and agency, with case studies of individual studios, stars, producers and directors * trends in British cinema, from propaganda films of the Second World War to the New Wave and the 'Swinging London' films of the Sixties * the representation of marginalised communities in films such as Trainspotting and The Full Monty * the evolution of social realism from Saturday Night, Sunday Morning to Nil By Mouth * changing approaches to Northern Ireland and the Troubles in films like The Long Good Friday and Alan Clarke's Elephant * contemporary 'art' and 'quality' cinema, from heritage drama to the work of Peter Greenaway, Derek Jarman, Terence Davies and Patrick Keiller.

British film stars—even the most famous ones, such as James Mason, Sean Connery, and Julie Andrews—are a neglected subject in film history. This interesting collection looks at the whole of British stardom from circa 1910 onwards, and the many types of British stars who gained worldwide fame through national and international cinema.

Foregrounds the diversity of periodicals, fiction and other printed matter targeted at women in the postwar periodForegrounds the diversity and the significance of print cultures for women in the postwar period across periodicals, fiction and other printed matterExamines changes and continuities as women's magazines have moved into digital formatsHighlights the important cultural and political contexts of women's periodicals including the Women's Liberation Movement and SocialismExplores the significance of women as publishers, printers and editorsWomen's Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1940s-2000s draws attention to the wide range of postwar print cultures for women. The collection spans domestic, cultural and feminist magazines and extends to ephemera, novels and other printed matter as well as digital magazine formats. The range of essays indicates both the history of publishing for women and the diversity of readers and audiences over the mid-late twentieth century and the early twenty-first century in Britain. The collection reflects in detail the important ways in magazines and printed matter contributed to, challenged, or informed British women's culture. A range of approaches, including interview, textual analysis and industry commentary are employed in order to demonstrate the variety of ways in which the impact of postwar print media may be understood.

Examines womens constructions of selfhood through film and literature in interwar BritainOff to the Pictures: Cinemagoing, Womens Writing and Movie Culture in Interwar Britain offers a rich new exploration of interwar womens fictions and their complex intersections with cinema. Interrogating a range of writings, from newspapers and magazines to middlebrow and modernist fictions, the book takes the reader through the diverse print and storytelling media that women constructed around interwar film-going, arguing that literary forms came to constitute an intermedial gendered cinema culture at this time.Using detailed case studies, this innovative book draws upon new archival research, industrial analysis and close textual readings to consider cinemas place in the fictions and critical writings of major literary figures such as Winifred Holtby, Stella Gibbons, Elizabeth Bowen, Jean Rhys, Elinor Glyn, C. A. Lejeune and Iris Barry. Through the lens of feminist film historiography, Off to the Pictures presents a bold new view of interwar cinema culture, read through the creative reflections of the women who experienced it.

The eclectic nature of British cinema is explored in this examination of genres from the Ealing comedies to heritage films. Viewed against the social, financial and political background, this is an indespensible evaluation of British cinema.

"Reframing Vivien Leigh takes a fresh new look at one of the twentieth century's most iconic stars. Focussing on Vivien Leigh as a distinctly archival subject, the book draws upon original oral history work with curators, archivists and fan collectives and extensive research within a network of official and unofficial archives around the world to produce alternative stories about her place within film history. The study examines an intriguing variety of historical correspondence, costume, scripts, photography, props and memorabilia in order to reframe the dominant narratives that have surrounded her life and career. Whilst Leigh's glamour, collaborations with Laurence Olivier and mental health form important coordinates for any study of the star, the book foregrounds a range of alternative contexts which foreground her creative agency, examining her off-screen labor in areas such as theatrical training, adaptation, war work, producing, protesting and interactions with her fan base"--