Today in class, we looked at the ways in which women are represented in British cinema over time. In Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 films 'Vertigo', he places his female characters with a very desirable aspect. (See Male Gaze Theory)
In contemporary british cinema, films construct, reinforce or challange notions of identity. We were looking at the 'burden of representation' (p59-66, fire book) and the conflict between successful commercial films and cultural UK films. We watched the railers for 'Notting Hill' (1999), 'Bend it like Beckham' (2002) which were commercially successful films but also challenged the representation of women through a humorous look on stereotypes.
We also considered the representation of women in comtemporary british films such as 'Fast Girls' (2012),'The Kings Speech' (2010), 'The Angels Share' (2012), 'Its A Wonderful Afterlife' (2010) and 'Made in Dagenham' (2010).
We were also considering the dilemmas that film makers have between making films that are comercially sucessful and might attract an american audience (which the brings in a very large amount of wonga), and then social realist films by directors such as Ken Loack and Mike Leigh which are critically acclaimed but give a much bleaker representation of society in general which are not as attractive to a wide spread, international audience and therefore might not make as much revenue.
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