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Post by thegooddoctor on Aug 3, 2013 23:22:15 GMT
I once had a blazing row with a girlfriend which ended with me screaming "oh, everything's just a trip to novelty fucking island with you, isn't it!??!" Don't think she understood the reference  |
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Post by jill on Aug 4, 2013 0:21:34 GMT
Don't get me started on Big Night Out quotes.. especially Lister!! "A comedy basic there by Reeves... quite unpleasant I thought." When my (now grown-up) daughter was a little (toddler)into everything tearaway, deeds facilitated by a babywalker, I used to tie spring onions to the handles of the Welsh Dresser to thwart her exploring/emptying out the cupboard shaneningans. She was terrified of the stringy bits on the bulb. We nick-named her 'Les' and it's stuck ;D . This has nothing to do with anything, except it makes me smile to think about it.... ... your mum and dad f*ck you up.... The Stotts was the best-later to be topped by the sublime Slade in Residence ;D |
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Post by thegooddoctor on Aug 4, 2013 2:31:18 GMT
Pedantic note: wasn't it chives that terrified poor Les? And where's this review, Jill? Tut |
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Post by jill on Aug 4, 2013 17:03:49 GMT
Pedantic note: wasn't it chives that terrified poor Les? And where's this review, Jill? Tut You know your alliums They didn't sell chives in Food Giant, Bulwell. Hold your horses, I am still reading it ;D |
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Post by jill on Aug 6, 2013 8:41:20 GMT
My short (actually quite long) review as promised… Martin Fradley, Sarah Godfrey and Melanie Williams (eds.) (2013) Shane Meadows: Critical Essays, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. www.amazon.co.uk/Shane-Meadows-Critical-Martin-Fradley/dp/0748676392/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375803158&sr=1-1&keywords=shane+meadowsThis publication comes out of a two day Workshop dedicated to Shane’s work that was hosted by the University of East Anglia in 2010. The book also includes commissioned chapters, so not only is there now a full-length book (14 chapters, 215 pages) dedicated to Shane Meadows-hoorah- but also a thorough and comprehensive treatment. It great to see Shane getting the recognition he deserves as a distinctive, first-rate film-maker in his own right, as opposed to receiving appreciative nods here and there for his contribution to British films in, say, the genre of social realism or ‘films of the 1990s.’ There is relatively more coverage of This is England (2006), but taken as a whole, the collection covers the entire output, including early short films and features, the major films, the mockumentary Le Donk and This is England (86 and 88). The contributors clearly admire Shane’s work, even as authors engage with it in critical mode and one contribution is actually critical of aspects of Shane’s work (notably the representation of women’s agency and-prior to TIE 88-the lack of prominent female characters). To that extent they are ‘fans’, but the book is first and foremost a serious contribution to the academic literature in film studies. Authors focus on a range of themes, motifs and (recurring) preoccupations in the films; masculinities, father and son relationships, homo-social bonding, life in provincial Midlands/Northern towns in post-Thatcher Britain. These themes are familiar to fans of Shane’s work, but these discussions are in-depth, thought-provoking and engaging. What is really excellent about the collection though, is the rich, diverse readings and interpretations of specific films and the made for TV dramas, that are interrogated through the lenses of Freudian psychoanalysis, feminist, gender and sexualities theories, the politics of the (corporeal) body, identity, place and space (spatiality), politics, sociology and cultural studies. I agreed with some readings and disagreed with others, but that’s not the point-the contributors don’t claim to be uncovering the ‘truth’ in the meaning behind a particular film or the work as a whole. What was really enjoyable for me as a reader was the way individual chapters opened up different ways of seeing-things in the films that I had never really noticed or thought about before. The comprehensive treatment extends to discussions of the evocative use of music and the representation of youth culture. There’s also an informative commentary on film production (economics and policy), that flags-among other things-the importance of funding to regional bodies. This made it possible for Shane-and other independent film-makers-to succeed during the nineties and noughties (talent alone is never enough), without the benefits of money and connections that give others a shove up the greasy pole (conditions now jeopardized by cuts and changes in the distribution of funding). I wouldn’t want to characterize ‘the average fan’, but it is fair to say that the reader who likes Shane’s films (or TV shows), but doesn’t read the academic literature will find the book challenging. However, the authors have avoided the worst excesses of academic texts-esoteric and/or dense writing that is pretty much incomprehensible to the non- specialist (every read Fredric Jameson? Don’t you just want to lamp him?). Authors provide enough by way of explanation and elaboration for the reader to make sense of the argument, even as the nuance might pass her/him by. On the other hand, for those people who teach the subject or are working on essays/dissertations (many of whom post on this thread), this book is just what they have been waiting for-a must read. It is a quality text ( ) too, which I am sure will stand the test of time as a/the core text on Shane Meadows, as and if other literature appears. It is a diverse collection and so it’s impossible to cover everything, so I’ll just comment on one particular theme that came out in more than one chapter- challenges to the notion that Shane’s work can be easily pigeonholed as ‘social realism.’ That is not to say that authors don’t see a trajectory between some of those classic films of the 1960s and Shane’s work, nor affinities between Shane Meadows and other directors like-for instance-Alan Clarke or Ken Loach. Shane has cited these influences (along with many others) and lots of Meadows fans would agree, I am sure; that’s one of the things they like about his work. So, to that extent, his films could be interpreted as British social realism updated for a new era in which British society is more diverse-no longer preoccupied with class alone, but also race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality (remember 24:7?). But the problem with pigeonholing is that it glosses over or just completely misses a lot of other stuff that is going on in the films particularly and, also, the TV work (e.g. TIE 1988). Individual chapters pull out the eclecticism in the work, the mixing of genres-social realism, for sure, but also gothic tropes and borrowings from horror (e.g. DMS, TIE, ’88) and also occasionally playing around with timelines in ways that confound the conventions of ‘realism’. The term ‘poetic realism’ was used by one author to pin down Shane’s style; infusing the lives of ‘ordinary people’ with poetry. Related, an underlying spiritual (rather than religion as such) sensibility was also noted by some. In the introduction to the book and the concluding chapter, Shane Meadows is compared to Dreyer and Bergman. I’d add Bresson to that list. As one cited film theorist observes, if Shane ‘looked more intellectual and didn’t come from Uttoxeter’, that comparison would simply pass as uncontroversial. All round, this is an excellent collection. At the moment, it’s only available in hardback and so the price is a bit steep, but Edinburgh University Press has promised a paperback version. Let’s hope it’s not too long coming |
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Post by Bill Edwards on Aug 6, 2013 19:25:55 GMT
I've bought my copy! And I sullied myself by getting it from Amazon. I need to shower... Really looking forward to reading it. A massive hole in cinema literature has been filled. But first I'll read Jill's review. Is it spoiler free though? Hey Dave. I went to get it via the Meadows Mart but it wasn't listed. I did as instructed though and clicked on the banner. Hopefully a few pence will come your way. I also got the TSR:MOS DVD from it too. So even more pence will roll your way. |
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Post by Dave on Aug 7, 2013 17:15:59 GMT
Oh.. I've stuck it on the store now.... I'm totally distracted by real world woes at the moment! Argh!
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clair
Junior Member
Posts: 21
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Post by clair on Aug 12, 2013 17:33:18 GMT
Hi all Just to let you know that my PhD thesis: Shane Meadows: Representations of Liminality, Masculinity and Class is available at eprints.uwe.ac.uk/20464/. Just Google my name (Clair Schwarz) and/or title if you can't find it through the link. Hope it's useful to some of you. Cheers Clair |
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Post by thegooddoctor on Aug 12, 2013 21:08:48 GMT
Hi all Just to let you know that my PhD thesis: Shane Meadows: Representations of Liminality, Masculinity and Class is available at eprints.uwe.ac.uk/20464/. Just Google my name (Clair Schwarz) and/or title if you can't find it through the link. Hope it's useful to some of you. Cheers Clair Cheers, Clair. Have now popped that in the main listing at the top of the thread. M. |
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Post by thegooddoctor on Mar 11, 2014 20:51:13 GMT
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