Heritage film

Heritage film is a critical term to refer to a cluster or cycle of late 20th-century British films that were argued to depict the United Kingdom of the pre-World War II decades in a nostalgic fashion. ^{[1] [2]} Although this term was originally used to discuss the film genre polemically, its use has broadened out, and it is now also used more loosely to refer to period films with high-quality visual production values, including those produced in France, other European countries and beyond. ^[1]

Many – but not all – heritage films were adapted from classic literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries. ^[3] For its critics on the political Left, however, the heritage film was defined more centrally by:

• A particular aesthetic approach (the "heritage" or "museum" aesthetic), marked by scrupulous attention to period detail and the use of splendid scenes of the English landscape, which was argued to have conservative ideological effects. ^{[4] [5] [6]}
• A perceived relationship to the rise since the 1970s of the heritage industry and the discovery of heritage (stately homes, etc.) as a marketable commodity. ^[7]
• The official promotion of a politically conservative, pro–free enterprise and upper-class-biased notion of the British heritage by successive 1980s British Conservative Governments under the Premiership of Margaret Thatcher. ^{[8] [9]}

At a time of British industrial decline, stagnant economic growth, political polarisation and social unrest, heritage films were appealing to many because they projected a nostalgic image of Britain as a prosperous, powerful and socially cohesive nation. ^{[10] [11]} Many cinematic and televised films focused on the British Empire, particularly the British Raj in India. ^{[12] [13]} However, while these films glorify and romanticize the past, they also provide a critique of the oppressive restrictions of British society and the superiority, arrogance, and controlled manner of the ruling classes. ^[12] Maurice (1987) and Another Country (1984) were concerned with sexual repression and the intolerance of English society in the early 20th century, while Heat and Dust (1983) and A Passage to India (1984) criticized the ignorance of British authorities in India and the inequities of colonialism. Other critics point out that the representations, themes and perspectives presented in heritage films are varied, not homogeneous, and many of them are romance narratives, suggesting that the pleasures they offer to audiences are more diverse and less necessarily conservative than those assumed by their original critics. ^[1]

Critical debate

The heritage film has been criticised from a socialist perspective for its romanticised portrayal of the past, its emphasis on the bourgeoisie or aristocracy rather than working class, and its fascination with luxurious settings, clothing, and lifestyles. ^[14] Its critics argued that the films reduced the past to a lavish consumer experience, presenting it as spectacle rather than offering audiences historical or critical understanding. This argument was strongly coloured by the wider, politicised and polarised, debates around British film, culture and society taking place in the Thatcher era, including similar critiques of the heritage industry itself, vehement opposition to Thatcherism among many British filmmakers and other prominent cultural figures, and counter-attacks on "anti-Thatcher" films (almost always, by contrast, set in present-day Britain) by Thatcher’s supporters in the British media. ^[15]

A further important strand in the critical debate around heritage films argues – from a feminist and pro-LGBT position – that, in contrast with their conservative reputation, many of the films are strongly progressive in their gender and sexual politics. ^{[16] [4] [5]} Many of the best-loved heritage films focus on strong and complex female characters (more than many other popular film genres), and some focus directly on the personal struggles, social position, rights of women and LGBT individuals in ways that remain relevant and deeply moving to their contemporary audiences. ^[17] In short, although the heritage film became popular by providing an escape from the present – particularly in the divided social and political climate of 1980s Britain – the full picture of the films' appeal, politics, and personal value for their audiences is more complex. ^[15]

Not all British films made since 1980 and set in the historic past are heritage films. ^[18] The heritage film can be distinguished from period films that take a more self-conscious, less naturalistic, even anachronistic approach to screening narratives set in the past (the "post-heritage film"); and from those set in more recent decades (usually 1940s onwards) that focus on characters from ordinary or working class social backgrounds, biographical subjects (biopics) and/or popular culture (the "retro film" or "alternative heritage film").

Cinema

• Chariots of Fire (1981) ^[19]
• Another Country (1984) ^[19]
• A Passage to India (1985) ^[19]
• A Room with a View (1985) ^[1]
• Maurice (1987) ^[1]
• Little Dorrit (1987) ^[20]
• A Handful of Dust (1988) ^[19]
• A Summer Story (1988) ^[21]
• Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) ^[19]
• Howards End (1992) ^{[1] [19]}
• Indochine (1992)
• Shadowlands (1993)
• The Remains of the Day (1993)
• The Madness of King George (1994) ^[22]
• Sense and Sensibility (1995) ^[1]
• Emma (1996)
• Elizabeth (1998) ^[23]
• Shakespeare in Love (1998) ^[24]
• Pride & Prejudice (2005) ^{[25] [26]}
• The King's Speech (2010)

References

1. Kuhn, Annette; Westwell, Guy (2012). "Heritage film". A Dictionary of Film Studies. OUP Oxford. p.  203. ISBN   978-0199587261 . Retrieved 3 November 2023.
2. Voigts-Virchow 2004, pp. 9-34.
3. Higson 2003, p. 92.
4. Dyer 1995, pp. 204-205.
5. Monk 2011a, p. 2.
6. Voigts-Virchow 2004, pp. 125-134.
7. Higson 1993, p. 95.
8. Powrie 2000, pp. 324–325.
9. Monk 2002, p. 177.
10. Higson 2003, p. 12.
11. Wollen 1991, p. 181.
12. Monk 2002, pp. 144-162.
13. Singh, Vijaya (January 2008). "The Colonial Discourse of the British Heritage Films of the 1980s". Creative Forum. 21 (1–2).
14. Vidal 2012, p. 86.
15. Luckett 2000, pp. 96-97.
16. Monk, Claire (1995). "The British 'heritage film' and its critics". Critical Survey . 7 (2): 116–124. JSTOR   41555905 . Retrieved 2 November 2023.
17. Williams 2005, pp. 92-101.
18. Higson 1993, p. 93.
19. Monk 2002, p. 179.
20. Higson 1993, pp. 96-97.
21. Larson, Stephen (27 March 2018). "A Summer Story Blu-ray Review". blu-ray.com. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
22. Dave 1997, p. 122.
23. Luckett 2000, pp. 90-91.
24. Weselinski, Andrzej (2019). "British Heritage Films in the 1980s and 1990s" (PDF). Zeszyty Naukowe Uczelni Vistula. 65 (2): 5–15. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
25. Dole, Carol M. (2007). "Jane Austen and Mud: Pride & Prejudice (2005), British Realism, and the Heritage Film". Persuasions On-Line. 27 (2). Jane Austen Society of North America. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
26. Chambers, Kerry (30 May 2020). "Heritage Cinema: A Genre Analysis Comparing Jane Eyre (2011) and Pride & Prejudice (2005)". Lounging on my Lily Pad. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 10 January 2024.

Bibliography

• Dave, Paul (July 1997). "The Bourgeois Paradigm and Heritage Cinema" (PDF). New Left Review (224). Retrieved 14 November 2023.
• Dyer, Richard (1995). "Heritage Cinema in Europe". In Vincendeau, Ginette (ed.). Encyclopedia of European Cinema. Cassell. ISBN   978-0304341641.
• Higson, Andrew (2003). English Heritage, English Cinema: Costume Drama Since 1980. ISBN   978-0199259021.
• Higson, Andrew (1993). "Re-Presenting the National Past: Nostalgia and Pastiche in the Heritage Film". In Friedman, Lester (ed.). Fires Were Started: British Cinema and Thatcherism. UCL Press. ISBN   978-1857280722.
• Monk, Claire (2002). "The British Heritage-Film Debate Revisited". In Monk, Claire; Sargeant, Amy (eds.). British Historical Cinema: The History, Heritage and Costume Film. Psychology Press. ISBN   978-0415238106.
• Monk, Claire (2011a). "The Heritage Film Debate: From Textual Critique to Audience". Heritage Film Audiences: Period Film and Contemporary Audiences in the UK. pp. 10–24. doi:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638246.003.0001. ISBN   9780748638246.
• Luckett, Moya (2000). "Image and Nation in 1990s British Cinema". In Murphy, Robert (ed.). British Cinema in the 90s. British Film Institute. ISBN   978-0851707624.
• Powrie, Phil (2000). "On the Threshold between Past and Present: Alternative Heritage". In Ashby, Justine; Higson, Andrew (eds.). British Cinema, Past and Present. Routledge. ISBN   978-0415220613.
• Vidal, Belén (2012). Heritage Film: Nation, Genre and Representation. London and New York: Wallflower Press. ISBN   978-0-231-16203-6.
• Voigts-Virchow, Eckart, ed. (2004). Janespotting and Beyond: British Heritage Retrovisions Since the Mid-1990s. Gunter Narr Verlag. ISBN   978-3823360964.
• Williams, Michael (2005). "Room with a Gay View? Sexuality, Spectatorship, and A Room With a View". In Furby, Jacqueline; Randell, Karen (eds.). Screen Methods: Comparative Readings in Film Studies. Wallflower Press. ISBN   978-1904764342.
• Wollen, Tana (1991). "Over Our Shoulders: Nostalgic Screen Fictions for the 1980s". In Corner, John; Harvey, Sylvia (eds.). Enterprise and Heritage: Crosscurrents of National Culture. Psychology Press. ISBN   978-0415047029.

Further reading

• Vincendeau, Ginette, ed. (2001). "Rooms Without a View". Film/Literature/Heritage. British Film Institute. ISBN   978-0851708416.
  • Cairns, Craig. Rooms Without a View. pp.  3-6.
  • Monk, Claire. Sexuality and Heritage. pp.  6-11.
• Eley, Geoff (3 May 2019). "History, Heritage and the National Past in British Cinema of the 1980s and 1990s". In Hill, John (ed.). A Companion to British and Irish Cinema. doi:10.1002/9781118482889. ISBN   9781118477519 . Retrieved 3 November 2023.
• Gibson, Pamela Church (2002). "From Dancing Queen to Plaster Virgin: Elizabeth and the End of English Heritage?". Journal of Popular British Cinema. 5: 133–142. ISSN   1461-104X.
• Hewison, Robert (1987). The Heritage Industry: Britain in a Climate of Decline. Methuen London. ISBN   978-0413161109.
• Higson, Andrew (2011). Film England: Culturally English Filmmaking Since the 1990s. New York and London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN   978-1-84885-454-3.
• Kilpi, Harri (22 February 2002). British Historical Film: Its History and Generic Classification (Speech). Renvall Institute, Helsinki University.
• Krämer, Lucia (2005). "Oscar Wilde as an Object of the English Heritage Industry". Irish Studies Review. 13 (3): 359–367. doi:10.1080/09670880500172015. S2CID   143954074.
• Monk, Claire (2011b). "Heritage Film Audiences 2.0: Period Film Audiences and Online Fan Cultures". Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies. 8 (2): 431–477.
• Pidduck, Julianne (2004). Contemporary Costume Film: Space, Place and the Past. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN   978-1844570249.
• Wortel, Elise (2011). "From History to Haecceity: Spatial Reframings of the Past in Post-heritage Cinema". Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media. doi:10.33178/alpha.2.05. hdl: 10468/689 .
• Wright, Patrick (1985). On Living in an Old Country: The National Past in Contemporary Britain. University of Michigan. ISBN   978-0860911272.