A weekend-or-so ago, as is my usual weekend tradition, I brought home a selection of DVDs to see what would agree with my family. Turns out we watched three films that were British in origin and that seemed like a good topic for this weeks blog.
Finding British Films in the catalog is... well... pretty hopeless. Seems like they aren't "foreign film" enough to qualify for their own subject heading, so there's not many that are listed by subject heading that I could find except for "England Drama" which lists 70 or so TV series and movies from England.
So if you are asked about British Movies, a better bet might be looking at a site like britfilms.com, britflicks.com, screenonline (which has a nice list of British films by genre), and don't forget our friends at Wikipedia who have compliled a list of British films. For more of an industry perspective, there's the BAFTA site (British Academy of Film & Television Arts) or the BFI (British Film Institute).
What did we watch? "This is England" (12-year-old Shawn is befriended by a group of skinheads in 1980's England), "Driving Lessons" (starring Julie Waters and Rupert Grint, who does actually has a role besides Ron Weasley - confused Christian teenager Ben gets a summer job working for a retired actress and goes on a unique, life-changing road trip), and "Happy-Go-Lucky" (story of a school teacher who maintains her upbeat attitude while dealing with school bullies, angry tango teachers, and a psychotic driving instructor).
Seen any good British Cinema? (No TV please, we'll handle that one another time!)
6 comments:
I recently watched "Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont". It's a sweet film about an elderly woman adjusting to being a widow and the friendship that develops between her and a young man who becomes her substitute grandson. This film will tug at your heartstrings.
There are some really good British films out there, and I find myself looking for more! Several that we have watched and liked at our house: Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, Billy Elliott, and Ladies in Lavendar. We saw and liked Driving Lessons as well!
And thank you for posting those sites, Andrew!
I guess I am a fan of the British caper films from Guy Ritchie. One of my all time favorites is Snatch, even though Brad Pitt IS in it, it is a very good British movie. Another favorite is a movie called Mean Machine. It is the soccer version of the football movie The Longest Yard starring Burt Reynolds. Mean Machine stars one of my favorite British actors Vinnie Jones. Look him up on the internet, he has made some American movies also, but he gained fame for being one of the toughest and meanest English Footballers of all time.
A couple of my favorites are "Waking Ned Devine" and "Calendar Girls". Great comedies with tender moments. Also, I did try a subject search in the catalog using: "Foreign Films Great Britain" and came up with quite a few results. So that option can be used. Thanks for this topic Andrew!
Susan C.
I forgot one we just watched: "Kinky Boots" - Son takes over the struggling family shoe company and to in order survive decides to cater to a, ummm... specialty market.
Hi All! I am in the process of compiling lists of British (and Irish) DVDs in ALD that run the gamut from stand-alone movies to TV series running many seasons. I am including everything I can get my hands on, so it will be a bit into the future before they are complete. Hopefully I can put it somewhere for easy access to Librarians for RA! Patrons are always asking for the series, I know, so hopefully this will help!
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