Welcome
These are my published works on film. I like to question orthodoxies. I also feel that too much theoretical writing on film is unreadable. What do you think?
Movie Greats: A Critical Study of Classic Cinema
Why are some films regarded as classics, worthy of entry into the canon of film history? Which sorts of films make the cut and why? Movie Greats questions how cinema is ranked and, in doing so, uncovers a history of critical conflict, with different aesthetic positions battling for dominance.The films examined range across the history of cinema: Each chapter opens with a brief summary of the film's plot and discusses its historical context, the key individuals who made the film, and initial and subsequent popular and critical responses. Students studying the history of film, canon formation or film aesthetics will find this book provocative and absorbing.
Berg Publishers, 2008, 240pp
ISBN 9781845206536 (paperback), 9781845206529 (hardback), 9781847884619 (e-book)
Buy it here (paperback, hardback and e-book editions)
The British Working Class in Postwar Film
Using a sociological model,The British Working Class in Postwar Film looks at how working-class people are portrayed in British feature films from the decade after World War II. Original statistical data is used to assess the popularity of the films with audiences. With an interdisciplinary approach and the avoidance of jargon, this book seeks to broaden the approach to film studies. Readers are introduced to the skills of other disciplines, while sociologists and historians are encouraged to consider the value of film evidence in their own fields.
Manchester University Press, 2003, 230pp
ISBN 9780719062582 (paperback). Hardback edition out of print
Film and Morality
Employing a thematic approach and drawing disciplines ranging from neurobiology to philosophy, Film and Morality examines how morality is presented in films and how films serve as a source of moral values. While the role of censorship in upholding moral standards has been considered comprehensively, the presence of moral dilemmas in films has not attracted the same level of interest. Film-makers may address moral concerns explicitly, but moral dilemmas can serve as plot devices, creating dramatic tension by providing pivotal moments when characters are called upon to make life-changing decisions. Drawing on a range of well-known and neglected films mainly from Britain and America, this book provides numerous examples of how film-makers make use of morality and how audiences are invited to explore moral issues by following characters who live with the consequences of their choices.
Film and Morality introduces philosophical debates on such topics as free will, conscience and the place of moral codes in everyday life, showing their relevance to film. The book also presents a distinctively different approach to how films might be analysed.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012 230pp
hardback ISBN 978144384198, £44.99
The Cinema of Britain and Ireland
'The Rocking Horse Winner' in The Cinema of Britain and Ireland (ed. Brian McFarlane)
Wallflower Press, London, 2005.
ISBN 9781904764380 (paperback) 9781904764397 (hardback)
Forgotten British Film: Value and the Ephemeral in Postwar Cinema
Some films are remembered long after they are released; others are soon forgotten, but do they deserve oblivion? Are factors other than quality involved? Forgotten British Cinema: Value and the Ephemeral in postwar Cinema exhumes some of the films released in Britain over the last seventy years from Daybreak (1948) to 16 Years of Alcohol (2003) and considers the reasons for their neglect. As well as exploring the contributions of those involved in making the films, this book examines such issues as marketing and the response of critics and audiences.
Films are grouped loosely into categories such as “B” films and television films. Some works were little seen when they were first released and have stayed that way; others were popular in their day, but have slipped into obscurity. In some cases social change has overtaken them, making the attitudes or subjects they depict appear dated. Even being released as a DVD does not guarantee that a title will be rehabilitated. And how significant is the American market?
This book should appeal to lovers of British film as well as to film studies students and everybody curious about the vagaries of success and failure in the arts.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017, 245pp
ISBN 9781443848725 (hardback)
Film and the Historian: The British Experience
Films are not just for audiences: historians of the twentieth century have much to learn from them. A film exposes the attitudes and unconsidered trifles that people took for granted and which were not considered worth recording elsewhere. A series of essays survey British cinema from the final days of the Second World War to the early 1970s, revealing aspects of societal change across a range of fields including housing, crime, psychiatry and the law. These provide a basis for cross-cultural comparisons, while many topics deserving of further research are highlighted, The films discussed range from the well-known Odd Man Out to the forgotten It's Hard to be Good.
Historians will want to sample the increasing range of films from the 1940s and 1950s that have become available available as a primary source. Enthusiasts of British film and film studies students can explore the highways and byways of postwar British cinema from a new angle.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019, 262pp
ISBN 9781527532694
An extract is available here
Essays in Offscreen
Comfort and Joy: the anatomy of melancholy
Vol. 9 (7) July 2005. A reappraisal or Bill Forsyth's neglected film.
GNER 19th Leeds International Film Festival
Vol. 9 (10) October 2005. A report on the 19th Leeds International Film Festival
Vol. 10 (3) March 2006. A report on the 12th Bradford Film Festival.
20th Leeds International Film Festival
Vol. 10 (11) November 2006. A report on the 20th Leeds International Film Festival
13th Bradford International Film Festival
Vol. 11 (4) April 2006. A report on 13th Bradford International Film Festival
14th Bradford International Film Festival
Vol. 12 (3) March 2008. A report of the 14th Bradford International Film Festival
Vol. 12 (12) December 2008. A report on the 22nd Leeds International Film Festival and the 2008 English Riviera Comedy Film Festival
23rd Leeds International Film Festival
Vol. 13 (10) October 2009. A report on the 23rd Leeds International Film Festival.
16th Bradford International Film Festival
Vol. 14 (8) August 2010. A report on the 16th Bradford International Film Festival
17th Bradford International Film Festival
Vol 15 (3) March 2011. A report on the 17th Bradford Film International Festival
Vol. 16 (5) May 2012. A report on the 18th Bradford International Film Festival
19th Bradford International Film Festival
Vol. 17 (8) August 2013. A report on the 19th Bradford International Film Festival
The Pleasures of the Genre: the Falcon films
Vol 17 (5) May 2013
After Dogme 95: the British experience
Vol 18 (1) January 2014
30th Leeds International Film Festival, 2016
Vol. 21 (9) September 2017. A report on the 30th Leeds International Flm Festival.
Article in Film International
Vol. 4 (6) 2006.
Capturing the moment: realism in British cinema of the late 1940s
Book Review in Scope
Issue 6, October 2006
Powell and Pressburger: A Cinema of Magic Spaces by Andrew Moor & Coward on Film: The Cinema of Noel Coward by Barry Day