This is a practice Textual Analysis that came out of recent lessons with my current first year Film group. We did all the research and planning together in class, and wrote the first 2 paragraphs together. I then sent all students away to finish their own version of the essay, and I did the same. This is my version. Textual Analysis Film: Dr. Strangelove or: … Continue reading IBDP Textual Analysis: Dr Strangelove
Welcome to this second instalment of my list of suggestions for the AL film curriculum, compiled with a view to including films by directors of colour. My first blog post on this subject dealt directly with Sections 2 and 3 of the Component 1 exam, offering four suggestions for each one. This second instalment will, for the most part, take a more freeform approach, as … Continue reading BHM: Suggestions for a more diverse AL curriculum (part 2)
Even the most cursory glance at the A-level film specification reveals a shocking lack of diversity, which has become even more embarrassing as the Black Lives Matter movement has gathered pace in the wake of the unlawful killing of George Floyd. The (informal) word from EDUQAS is that a new list of set texts is on the way which will seek to address this lack … Continue reading BHM: Suggestions for a more diverse AL curriculum (part 1)
Over the course of nearly thirty years, Quentin Tarantino has consistently garnered both critical acclaim and box office success, and his films have become increasingly ambitious. While his various directorial curios (Four Rooms, Sin City) and writer-only forays (True Romance, From Dusk Till Dawn) all contain aspects of his distinctive style, an initial appraisal of his auteur signature needs to start with the nine films … Continue reading Tarantino – Development of an Auteur
With Pulp Fiction (1994), Quentin Tarantino continued to define his auteur style, experimenting with unconventional approaches to narrative construction. His redefinition of the crime film through non-chronology and blurring of genres also marks the film out as a prime example of many aspects of postmodernism. One of the most recognisable features of Pulp Fiction is its episodic, non-chronological narrative. Tarantino had already explored this approach in … Continue reading A-Level exam answer: Explore ways in which the auteur signature in Pulp Fiction reflects the postmodernist movement
Both Shane Meadows’ This is England and Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin centre around the difficulties associated with teenage boys approaching adulthood, however whereas This Is England revolves around Shaun as the central protagonist, …Kevin pursues an alternative perspective, using the title character as a focal point to explore the identity of his mother, Eva. Although the spectator will automatically form their … Continue reading A-Level exam answer: How useful has an ideological critical approach been in understanding key characters in This Is England and We Need To Talk About Kevin?
Please note the following is adapted from my dissertation on the television play and its role in the development of the British film industry, from 2006. ———————————- Drama has always held an important and prestigious place in television schedules, and for nearly forty years this status was exemplified by the single play. This chapter will trace the development of the single play in … Continue reading The Evolution of the Television Play and the Establishment of Channel 4
Please note the following is adapted from my dissertation on the television play and its role in the development of the British film industry, from 2006. 1. MEANTIME (1983) Meantime was the first film Mike Leigh made with the newly established Channel Four, a creative partnership which would result in a further five feature films for cinematic distribution over the next fourteen years, … Continue reading An Analysis of Leigh’s ‘Meantime’ and ‘Naked’
Please note the following is adapted from my dissertation on the television play and its role in the development of the British film industry, from 2006. 1. UP THE JUNCTION (1965) Up The Junction was Ken Loach’s fourth Wednesday Play, following A Tap on the Shoulder (the first play to be broadcast in the Wednesday Play slot, attracting 10million viewers), Wear a Very … Continue reading An Analysis of Loach’s ‘Up the Junction’ and ‘Sweet Sixteen’
Please note the following is taken from my dissertation (dated 2006) on the television play and its role in the development of the British film industry. Ken Loach and Mike Leigh represent two of Britain’s most dedicated and long-standing filmmakers. Numerous other directors of their generation, coming from similar roots in television drama, have left Britain for Hollywood – Alan Parker has had … Continue reading The Careers of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach
Film Studies with Miss Home 