Author: Julian Petley
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748630937
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
How does film and video censorship operate in Britain? Why does it exist? And is it too strict? Starting in 1979, the birth of the domestic video industry - and the first year of the Thatcher government - this critical study explains how the censorship of films both in cinemas and on video and DVD has developed in Britain. As well as presenting a detailed analysis of the workings of the British Board of Film Classification, Petley casts his gaze well beyond the BBFC to analyse the forces which the Board has to take into account when classifying and censoring. These range from laws such as the Video Recordings Act and Obscene Publications Act, and how these are enforced by the police and Crown Prosecution Service and interpreted by the courts, to government policy on matters such as pornography. In discussing a climate heavily coloured by 30 years of lurid 'video nasty' stories propagated by a press which is at once censorious and sensationalist and which has played a key role in bringing about and legitimating one of the strictest systems of film and video/DVD censorship in Europe, this book is notable for the breadth of its contextual analysis, its critical stance and its suggestions for reform of the present system.
Author: Julian Petley
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780748625390
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
Interviews with central figures.
Author: Kate Egan
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719072338
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 286
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Book Description
Trash or Treasure is a wide-ranging historical study of the British circulation of the video nasties - a term that was originally coined to ban a group of horror videos in Britain in the 1980s but which continues to have cultural resonance in Britain up to the present day. The book is divided into three sections, which represent the key periods of existence of the nasties category: The formation of the term in the 1980s; the fan culture that formed around the nasties subsequent to their banning under the video recordings act; and the DVD and theatrical re-release of some of the nasty titles from 1990 onwards. Through an exploration of a range of relevant historical materials (from film reviews to fan websites, to video advertising materials), the book examines how this unusual, historically-specific genre category was formulated in a particular context, and then used (for different reasons) by moral campaigners, distributors, critics, and fans. By examining the discourses that inform the circulation of a group of banned films (including the growth of DVD, the Internet, and the academic rehabilitation of horror films), the book argues that censorship is not just about rules and regulations, but also about the material, cultural, and commercial consequences of a censorship act of law. It will be of great interest to lecturers and students of film, popular culture, and the media, as well as enthusiasts of horror films and those interested in film censorship debates.
Author: James C. Robertson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781138997707
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
The secrecy in which the British Board of Film Censors enveloped itself until 1948 resulted in a glaring vacuum in British cinematic history. Originally published in 1985, this book filled this important gap, drawing on the detailed registers of films passed, cut and banned since 1913. The book opens by tracing the events which led up to the creation of the BBFC and goes on to cover the Board s theoretical censorship principles concerning such matters as crime, religion and sex and to discuss how these principles were applied in practice to silent films. The advent of the talkies in the late 1920s caused a minor revolution in the Board s work during the 1930s and 1940s, when the cinema rose to the peak of its popularity. This era of the Board s history is examined in detail, with extensive use of the Board s surviving records and a whole chapter devoted to the special circumstances of the Second World War. The final chapter delves into the Board s work up to 1950, and investigates the connection between film censorship in Britain and the USA. Also discussing the political and social background, this is an essential history of film censorship in Britain in general and the BBFC in particular."
Author: Peter Hutchings
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526151170
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 367
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Book Description
Peter Hutchings’s Hammer and beyond remains a landmark work in British film criticism. This new, illustrated edition brings the book back into print for the first time in two decades. Featuring Hutchings’s socially charged analyses of genre classics from Dead of Night (1945) and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) to The Sorcerers (1967) and beyond, it also includes several of Hutchings’s later essays on British horror, as well as a new critical introduction penned by film historian Johnny Walker and an afterword by Russ Hunter. Hammer and beyond deserves a spot on the bookshelf of anyone with a serious interest in the development of Britain’s contribution to the horror genre.
Author: Stevie Simkin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350306487
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 194
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Book Description
Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs ignited fierce debate among censors, critics and audiences on both sides of the Atlantic on its release in 1971. When Amy (Susan George) returns to her home village with her American peacenik husband David (Dustin Hoffman), the residents of this tight-knit Cornish community slowly turn on them. The sexual tension and latent violence finally erupt in an explosion of violence that includes a rape scene that has remained controversial to this day. The film was heavily cut for theatrical release in the US, and the pressinspired furore in the UK led to several local councils cutting or banning it outright. Later, caught in the wake of the 'video nasties' panic of the 1980s, Straw Dogs was refused a home-video certificate in the UK for nearly twenty years. Stevie Simkin's study sheds light on the film's treatment by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and tracks its subsequent tortuous journey towards home-video release, buffeted by various shifts in the BBFC's policy on representations of sexual violence. But, equally importantly, Simkin provides a highly original accountof themaking of the film, drawing on extensive research in Peckinpah's archive, including analysis of draft scripts, notes, memos and contemporary press items, as well as insights from a number of Peckinpah's associates, and key figures at the BBFC. 'A swift, compelling read. Thorough and scholarly without the faintest whiff of academic stuffiness, Stevie Simkin's study of Straw Dogs summons up the turmoil of the 1960s and 70s and illuminates the highly charged subject of sexual violence on film.' Stephen Farber, Film Critic, The Hollywood Reporter Stevie Simkin is Reader in Drama and Film at the University of Winchester, UK. He is the author of, among other works, Revenge Tragedy: A New Casebook (2001), Early Modern Tragedy and the Cinema of Violence (2005), and, also in the Controversies series, a volume on Basic Instinct (forthcoming, 2013).
Author: Kevin Rockett
Publisher: Four Courts Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 552
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Book Description
This book maps the history of Irish film censorship from its origins in the 1910s, through to the all-encompassing Censorship of Films Act 1923, the more liberal implementation of screening policies from the late 1960s onwards, and present-day concerns about media proliferation and distribution. Its main focus is on the 1920-70 period, when Irish film censors banned 3,000 films and cut an additional 10,000. The role of political censorship and its effect on television and cinema is examined, as are the more contemporary issues of video classification and debates around the internet and child pornography. Through the examination of over 18,000 of the censors decisions, Kevin Rockett provides an invaluable insight into the cultural geography of Ireland. - Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2005
Author: Lindsey Decker
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 1786836998
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
This book takes British horror films of the 2000s as a case study to theorise transnational genre hybridity, which combines genres from different national cinemas.
Author: Ron Riekki
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476636044
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 221
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Book Description
One of the top-grossing independent films of all time, The Evil Dead (1981) sparked a worldwide cult following, resulting in sequels, remakes, musicals, comic books, conventions, video games and a television series. Examining the legacy of one of the all-time great horror films, this collection of new essays covers the franchise from a range of perspectives. Topics include The Evil Dead as punk rock cinema, the Deadites' (demon-possessed undead) place in the American zombie tradition, the powers and limitations of Deadites, evil as affect, and the films' satire of neoliberal individualism.
Author: Bernard Williams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316432467
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
When it first appeared in 1979, the Williams Report on Obscenity and Film Censorship provoked strong reactions. The practical issues and political principles examined are of continuing interest and remain a crucial point of reference for discussions on obscenity and censorship. Presented in a fresh series livery for the twenty-first century, and with a specially commissioned preface written by Onora O'Neill, illuminating its continuing importance and relevance to philosophical enquiry, this abridged edition of Bernard Williams's Report presents all the main findings and arguments of the full report, central to which is the application of Mill's 'harm principle' and the conclusion that restrictions are out of place where no harm can be reasonably thought to be done.
