Print

---

Room 265, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

A Study Day jointly organised by the Screen Studies Group of the School of Advanced Study, University of London and the AHRB Centre for Studies in British Film and Television

Speakers:
Richard Brown
Ian Christie
David Curtis
Christine Gledhill
Malcolm Le Grice
David Mellor
Claire Monk
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith
John Sedgwick

A decade after David Bordwell identified the 'basic story' of film history, with its attendant aesthetic assumptions, does this still hold sway in Britain? Has the history of cinema taken account of other historians' debates? Has it had any impact on their work? Can film history be regarded as a legitimate field of historical inquiry, or is it merely a branch of criticism? Could it be part of art history, or of 'comp. cin.'? Where does national cinema history stand today?


I. The history of *what*, exactly?

Film texts, genres, periods, aesthetic positions, makers, audiences, industries? Perspectives on what objects and processes film history can or should study - from Richard Brown (co-author, _A Victorian Enterprise: the British Biograph Company_); Christine Gledhill (_Reframing British Cinema, 1918-1928_; co-ed, _Reinventing Film Studies_, etc.); John Sedgwick (_Popular Film-Going in 1930s Britain_)


II. Where do we put the avant-garde (and where do we find it)?

Fringe or foundation? Avant-garde film occupies different places in different national traditions, with Britain as chronically ambivalent about film as about its other art-forms when these are compared with other cultures. Is avant-garde film best kept apart from histories of the commercial medium, or does it need to be integrated? Discussion by David Curtis (_Experimental Film_; programmer); Malcolm LeGrice (_Abstract Film and Beyond_, leading film artist); and David Mellor (_A Paradise Lost: Neo-Romanticism in Britain 1935-55_).


III. Britain in the world; the world in Britain

Do national cinema histories still make sense? Did they ever? How should British film history reflect European affiliations as well as American indebtedness? How does film history relate to national history: can we read the latter in the former, and vice-versa? Discussion by Claire Monk (co-editor, _British Historical Cinema_); Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (_Oxford History of World Cinema_).


The format of the day will consist of three panels, in each of which three speakers will outline their position on the production and uses of history of film/cinema for about 15-20 mins, followed by discussion in a round-table format. This review of current attitudes towards film history in Britain, its methods and aims, is intended to contribute to shaping both the 'London' strand of the AHRB Centre programme and a proposed new history of British cinema.


Fee: 10ukp Standard. 5ukp Concessions (Students/Unemployed)

Places are limited, and registrations will be based on a first-come first-served basis.

Enquiries and Advanced Bookings:
Dean's Office, School of Advanced Study
Tel: 020 7862 8659; Fax: 020 7862 8657;
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.sas.ac.uk