In a film business increasingly transnational in its production arrangements and global in its scope, what space is there for culturally English filmmaking? In this groundbreaking book, Andrew Higson demonstrates how a variety of Englishnesses have appeared on screen since 1990, and surveys the genres and production modes that have captured those representations. He looks at the industrial circumstances of the film business in the UK, government film policy and the emergence of the UK Film Council. He examines several contemporary 'English' dramas that embody the transnationalism of contemporary cinema, from 'Notting Hill' to 'The Constant Gardener'. He surveys the array of contemporary fiction that has been re-worked for the big screen, and the pervasive - and successful - Jane Austen adaptation business. Finally, he considers the period's diverse films about the English past, including big-budget, Hollywood-led action-adventure films about medieval heroes, intimate costume dramas of the modern past, such as 'Pride and Prejudice', and films about the very recent past, such as 'This is England'.

Overshadowed in the popular imagination by the figure of Oliver Cromwell, historians are increasingly coming to recognize the importance of Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, in shaping the momentous events of mid-seventeenth-century Britain. As both a military and political figure he played a central role in first defeating Charles I and then later supporting the restoration of his son in 1660. England’s Fortress shines new light on this significant yet surprisingly understudied figure through a selection of essays addressing a wide range of topics, from military history to poetry. Divided into two sections, the volume reflects key aspects of Fairfax’s life and career which are, nevertheless, as interconnecting as they are discrete: Fairfax the soldier and statesman, and Fairfax the husband, horseman and scholar. This fresh account of Fairfax’s reputations and legacy questions assumptions about neatly demarcated seventeenth-century chronological, geographic and cultural boundaries. What emerges is a man who subverts as much as he reinforces assumed characteristics of martial invincibility, political disengagement and literary dilettantism.

With its mix of family drama, sex and violence, Britain's Tudor dynasty (1485-1603) has long excited the interest of filmmakers and moviegoers. Since the birth of movie-making technology, the lives and times of kings Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Edward VI and queens Mary I, Jane Grey and Elizabeth I have remained popular cinematic themes. From 1895's The Execution of Mary Stuart to 2011's Anonymous, this comprehensive filmography chronicles every known movie about the Tudor era, including feature films; made-for-television films, mini-series, and series; documentaries; animated films; and shorts. From royal biographies to period pieces to modern movies with flashbacks or time travel, this work reveals how these films both convey the attitudes of Tudor times and reflect the era in which they were made.

Before 9/11, films addressing torture outside of the horror/slasher genre depicted the practice in a variety of forms. In most cases, torture was cast as the act of a desperate and depraved individual, and the viewer was more likely to identify with the victim rather than the torturer. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, scenes of brutality and torture in mainstream comedies, dramatic narratives, and action films appear for little other reason than to titillate and delight. In these films, torture is devoid of any redeeming qualities, represented as an exercise in brutal senselessness carried out by authoritarian regimes and institutions. This volume follows the shift in the representation of torture over the past decade, specifically in documentary, action, and political films. It traces and compares the development of this trend in films from the United States, Europe, China, Latin America, South Africa, and the Middle East. Featuring essays by sociologists, psychologists, historians, journalists, and specialists in film and cultural studies, the collection approaches the representation of torture in film and television from multiple angles and disciplines, connecting its aesthetics and practices to the dynamic of state terror and political domination.

Investigates the ways in which new technologies and theories of photography, phonography, moving images, and digital media engage with a diverse set of texts by British Romantic writers. Romantic Mediations investigates the connections among British Romantic writers, their texts, and the history of major forms of technical media from the turn of the nineteenth century to the present. Opening up the vital new subfield of Romantic media studies through interventions in both media archaeology and contemporary media theory, Andrew Burkett addresses the ways that unconventional techniques and theories of storage and processing media engage with classic texts by William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and others. Ordered chronologically and structured by four crucial though often overlooked case studies that delve into Romanticism’s role in the histories of incipient technical media systems, the book focuses on different examples of the ways that imaginative literature and art of the period become taken up and transformed by—while simultaneously shaping considerably—new media environments and platforms of photography, phonography, moving images, and digital media. “Romantic Mediations brings contemporary media theory to major Romantic texts and their reception. Few if any scholars working in Romanticism and media have taken up the generational difference between Friedrich Kittler’s media theory and the more contemporary media archaeology of Jussi Parikka. Moreover, too often have media theories of Romanticism been restricted to digital media and screen technology. Andrew Burkett creates a new path for Romantic period scholarship by showing the potential of media archaeology for Romantic texts and their long afterlife.” — Ron Broglio, author of Technologies of the Picturesque: British Art, Poetry, and Instruments 1750–1830

The image of Coventry in flames was one of the most haunting of the Second World War. Yet the excitement and optimism of the 1950s and 1960s were succeeded by a quarter century of urban blight and economic slump. The collapse of manufacturing industry - machine tools, aeroplanes, cars - left a proud community adrift and demoralised. Today a revitalised twenty-first century city, Coventry has embraced the new millennium and evolved from bleak post-industrial desert to vibrant cultural oasis, in the process rediscovering a sense of purpose and a vision for the future. "The City of Coventry" tells the story of an experiment in social democracy carried out by a Labour-controlled council which envisaged the bomb shattered city as a model of urban regeneration and imaginative planning. Post-war reconstruction could be a striking success, as in the pedestrian-friendly Precinct and the bold new cathedral, or a notable failure as in the ever more intrusive ring roads and grim high-rise flats. In offering a fresh perspective on the city, this innovative volume of essays rediscovers Coventry as an inspiration for poets and painters such as Philip Larkin and Terry Frost, musicians as varied as Benjamin Britten and The Specials, and film-makers such as Humphrey Jennings, whose "Heart of Britain" was shot in the immediate aftermath of the Blitz. Adrian Smith skilfully mixes memoir, family history and meticulous scholarship to paint a complete and incisive portrait of Coventry. Drawing on new research into topics as diverse as the place of Surrealism in West Midlands culture and the shadowy presence of rugby league in a union bastion, Smith brings a unique insight into the recent history of his native city. Attractively presented, highly readable and with broad appeal, "The City of Coventry" is a lively re-examination of an iconic city of the twentieth century illuminating the profound changes that engulfed industrial England during and after the Second World War.

Why should anyone care about the medium of communication today, especially when talking about media law? In today’s digital society, many emphasise convergence and seek new regulatory approaches. In Medium Law, however, the ‘medium theory’ insights of Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan and the Toronto School of Communication are drawn upon as part of an argument that differences between media, and technological definitions, continue to play a crucial role in the regulation of the media. Indeed, Mac Síthigh argues that the idea of converged, cross-platform, medium-neutral media regulation is unattainable in practice and potentially undesirable in substance. This is demonstrated through the exploration of the regulation of a variety of platforms such as films, games, video-on-demand and premium rate telephone services. Regulatory areas discussed include content regulation, copyright, tax relief for producers and developers, new online services, conflicts between regulatory systems, and freedom of expression. This timely and topical volume will appeal to postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in fields such as Law, Policy, Regulation, Media Studies, Communications History, and Cultural Studies.

This third edition of the UK's best-selling filmmaker's bible, builds upon the most successful features of the previous books. Including illustrations, diagrams, and box-outs, this book comes with a DVD, packed with further interviews with filmmakers, as well as theatrical trailers.