Shane and current british cinema

[aslettj]

alright guys,

I posted something earlier in the education section but after reading it back it seemed a little confusing and I didn't think it would yield the results that I wanted.

Basically I am interested to know, what impact you think Shanes films are having on the British film industry and current cinema gong habits. As you all know, our cinemas are currently flooded with high production/low quality sh*t from across the pond and I think Shane's films are a breath of fresh air especially now they are being exposed to a wider audience. Do you think that this may cause more British "social realist" films to make it into the mainstream? and if not how do you think this may be achieved in the future? Maybe a cap on the amount of American films shown in cinema's....? This works rather nicely in India where around 90% of films shown in their cinemas are homegrown.

It is interesting to note, I attended a screening of Daylight Robbery and had a chat with the director Paris Leonti after, he was saying that he see's Shane as a pioneer in that as his films have become more popular he hasn't changed his style of filmamking in terms of theme, style or production, which is in my mind why Shane is one of the only British auteur to make it into the mainstream per say!!

Would be really interested to here your thoughts on this as I am writing an article soon about this and to be honest, need all the help I can get!!

PS - the forum is great, has a really good community feel to it and I hope to take some part in future posts!!!

[jill]

Hello, welcome to the site. I don't really know anything about how mainstream cinema select their programmes, so can't help much there. I doubt very much that a 'cap' on US films would work since cinemas already face tough competition already from DVDs, satellite movie channels etc- commercial suicide maybe? Perhaps an interesting question would be whether the commercial success (relatively speaking) of TIE and Sommers Time might open up some space for other 'indie' film makers in the multi-plexes etc. Shane's recent successes having demonstrated that so-called 'mainstream' cinema audiences do want to see this kind of film?
Good luck with the article.

[aslettj]

Thanks Jill, Yeh I guess your right, these kinds of films have become such a part of our "staple cinema diet" that if they were just withdrawn it would commerically ruin the cinema, which is such a shame.

Interesting what you say about the impact of Shane's commercial success, that is what i meant by being a pioneer, hopefully cinema owners and distributors will begin to understand that these kinds of films are what we want to see....it is such a shame that films like these (indie films) are restricted to art-house cinema's and film festivals, in my view they define the british national cinema, yet when i go to a british cinema i get bombarded with these American quota quickies that convey no sense of britiain, whether it be by style or theme....sorry if i am ranting, i just get so pissed off by it!!

Hopefully things may start to change and we can soon go to the cinema and be spoilt for choice with homegrown talent.........