Essay from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, Nottingham Trent University, course: British Cinema, language: English, abstract: The term “heritage film” is not easily recognised, even among fans of historical films and costume dramas. That is because it does not describe a genre of films as such, but rather a critical concept that is associated with “a powerful undercurrent of nostalgia for the past conveyed by historical dramas, romantic costume films and literary adaptions”. Costume dramas were neither new nor confined to the UK, as films such as “Gone with the Wind” (1939, US) and “My Fair Lady” (1964, US) prove, however it was the British film studies that defined the term “heritage film” in the early 1980s in light of the National Heritage Act. The original cycle refers to films, almost all of them adapted from literature, from the 1980s and 1990s that depict pre-Wold-War-II England in a nostalgic fashion. The basic ideas and concepts of the plot and the setting tend to be very similar. Nostalgia, the image of the upper-middle class and rural white Englishness are used to define a supposed English national identity. Because of these features, the heritage films were quickly related to Thatcherism and the very conservative Thatcherite values. In this essay, I am going to look at three films that are considered “heritage”, two of them coming from the first stages of the heritage film in the 1980s and the third one coming from the late 1990s when the heritage film had already undergone a major shift due to changes in politics and it being criticised. In comparing the three films firstly to the Thatcherite values and secondly to each other, I will look at the conservative undertones and the shift they underwent.

While film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays captured the popular imagination at the turn of the last century, independent filmmakers began to adapt the plays of Shakespeare's contemporaries. The roots of their films in European avant-garde cinema and the plays' politically subversive, sexually transgressive and violent subject matter challenge Shakespeare's cultural dominance and the conventions of mainstream cinema. In Screening Early Modern Drama, Pascale Aebischer shows how director Derek Jarman constructed an alternative, dissident approach to filming literary heritage in his 'queer' Caravaggio and Edward II, providing models for subsequent filmmakers such as Mike Figgis, Peter Greenaway, Alex Cox and Sarah Harding. Aebischer explains how the advent of digital video has led to an explosion in low-budget screen versions of early modern drama. The only comprehensive analysis of early modern drama on screen to date, this groundbreaking study also includes an extensive annotated filmography listing forty-eight surviving adaptations.

Studying Film is an all-encompassing guide to cinema and film which explores the key concepts, terms and events that have shaped film study and criticism, all of which is illustrated by reference to classic and contemporary movies from around the world, from The Great Train Robbery to Pulp Fiction via Un Chien Andalou and Cinema Paradiso. This accessible introduction to the study of film aims to stimulate students' enjoyment and understanding of a wide range of different types of film, and to give them an awareness of the nature of cinema as a medium, as an art form, and as a social and economic institution. Contemporary film is seen in context by tracing its development from 1895 to the present, exploring film production in a variety of countries in a range of styles, and placing film next to other media.

A collection of essays and reports examining key issues in conservation and management of archaeological sites. It is divided into parts that focuses on historical methods, concepts, and issues; conserving the archaeological resource; physical conservation of archaeological sites; the cultural values of archaeological sites; and site management.

This is a famous educational text by Gilbert J. Hunt presenting an account of the War of 1812 in the style of the King James Bible. It starts with President James Madison and the congressional declaration of war and then describes the Burning of Washington, the Battle of New Orleans, and the Treaty of Ghent.

This book is a study of the contemporary audiences for quality period films, and their responses to these films, with reference to the critical debate which constructs many of these films as 'heritage films'.

This concise, authoritative volume analyses critically the work of 100 British directors, from the innovators of the silent period to contemporary auteurs.