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Gainsborough Melodramas
The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures between 1943 and 1947 which conformed to a melodramatic style.Brooke, Michael. (2014)Gainsborough Melodrama Screenonline British Film Institute. Retrieved 21 March 2020. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films which had similar themes that were usually developed by the same film crew and frequently recurring actors who played similar characters in each. They were mostly based on popular books by female novelists and they encompassed costume dramas, such as ''The Man in Grey'' (1943) and ''The Wicked Lady'' (1945), and modern-dress dramas, such as ''Love Story'' (1944) and ''They Were Sisters'' (1945). The popularity of the films with audiences peaked mid-1940s when cinema audiences consisted primarily of women. The influence of the films led to other British producers releasing similarly themed works, such as ''The Seventh Veil'' (1945), ''P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gainsborough Pictures
Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, north London. Gainsborough Studios was active between 1924 and 1951. The company was initially based at Islington Studios, which were built as a power station for the Northern City Line, Great Northern & City Railway and later converted to studios. Other films were made at Lime Grove Studios, Lime Grove and Pinewood Studios. The former Islington studio was converted to flats in 2004 and a London Borough of Hackney historical plaque is attached to the building. The studio is best remembered for the Gainsborough melodramas it produced in the 1940s. Gainsborough Pictures is now owned by Gregory Motton. History Gainsborough was founded in 1924 by Michael Balcon and, from 1927, was a sister company to the Gaumont British, with Balcon as Director of Production for both studios. Whilst Gaumont-British, based at Lime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Reluctant Widow (film)
''The Reluctant Widow'' is a 1950 British historical drama film directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Jean Kent, Guy Rolfe, Paul Dupuis and Lana Morris. It is based on the 1946 novel '' The Reluctant Widow'' by Georgette Heyer, with the screenplay written by Gordon Wellesley and others. The screenplay concerns a governess who marries a British aristocrat, and inherits his country house when he dies. The ongoing Napoleonic Wars see her become embroiled with a spy ring. It was shot at Denham Studios. The film's art direction was by Carmen Dillon while the costumes were designed by Beatrice Dawson. Cast Critical reception Bosley Crowther wrote in ''The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...'', "except for the rather fine surroundings and some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Millions Like Us
''Millions Like Us'' is a 1943 British propaganda film, showing life in a wartime aircraft factory in documentary detail. It starred Patricia Roc, Gordon Jackson, Anne Crawford, Eric Portman and Megs Jenkins. It was co-written and co-directed by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder. According to the British Film Institute database, this film is the first in an "unofficial trilogy", along with '' Two Thousand Women'' (1944) and '' Waterloo Road'' (1945). Plot The opening credits show huge crowds of workers going into factories. The narrator begins the film with nostalgic views of crowded beaches and remembering what it was like to eat an orange (unavailable in the war). Celia Crowson and her family go on holiday to the south coast of England in the summer of 1939, staying in the guest house they visit every year. Soon afterwards, the Second World War breaks out and Celia's father joins what was to become the Home Guard. Her more confident sister Phyllis joins the Auxiliary Territo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidney Gilliat
Sidney Gilliat (15 February 1908 – 31 May 1994) was an English film director, producer and writer. He was the son of George Gilliat, editor of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1928 to 1933. Sidney was born in the district of Edgeley in Stockport, Cheshire. In the 1930s he worked as a scriptwriter, most notably with Frank Launder on '' The Lady Vanishes'' (1938) for Alfred Hitchcock, and '' Night Train to Munich'' (1940), directed by Carol Reed. He and Launder made their directorial debut co-directing the home front drama ''Millions Like Us'' (1943). From 1945 he also worked as a producer, starting with '' The Rake's Progress'', which he also wrote and directed. He and Launder made over 40 films together, founding their own production company Individual Pictures. While Launder concentrated on directing their comedies, most famously the four St Trinian's School films, Gilliat showed a preference for comedy-thrillers and dramas, including '' Green for Danger'' (1946), '' Lond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Launder
Frank Launder (28 January 1906 – 23 February 1997) was a British writer, film director and producer, who made more than 40 films, many of them in collaboration with Sidney Gilliat. Early life and career He was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England and worked briefly as a clerk before becoming an actor and then a playwright. He began working as a screenwriter on British films in the 1930s, contributing the original story for the classic Will Hay comedy ''Oh, Mr Porter!'' (1937). Sidney Gilliat Launder first collaborated with Gilliat in 1936 on the film '' Seven Sinners''. After writing a number of screenplays with Gilliat, including ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938) for Alfred Hitchcock, and ''Night Train to Munich'' for Carol Reed; the two men wrote and directed the wartime drama '' Millions Like Us'' (1943). After founding their own production company Individual Pictures, they produced a number of memorable dramas and thrillers including ''I See a Dark Stranger'' (1945) and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a story contains a subplot, or is a narrative made up of several stories, then each subplot may have its own protagonist. The protagonist is the character whose fate is most closely followed by the reader or audience, and who is opposed by the antagonist. The antagonist provides obstacles and complications and creates conflicts that test the protagonist, revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist's character, and having the protagonist develop as a result. Etymology The term ''protagonist'' comes , combined of (, 'first') and (, 'actor, competitor'), which stems from (, 'contest') via (, 'I contend for a prize'). Ancient Greece The earliest known examples of a protagonist are found in Ancient Greece. At first, dramatic p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classic horror characters such as Baron Victor Frankenstein, Count Dracula, and the Mummy, which Hammer reintroduced to audiences by filming them in vivid colour for the first time. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies, as well as, in later years, television series. During its most successful years, Hammer dominated the horror film market, enjoying worldwide distribution and considerable financial success. This success was, in part, due to its distribution partnerships with American companies United Artists, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, American International Pictures and Seven Arts Productions as well as fellow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ealing Comedies
The Ealing comedies is an informal name for a series of comedy films produced by the London-based Ealing Studios during a ten-year period from 1947 to 1957. Often considered to reflect Britain's post-war spirit, the most celebrated films in the sequence include ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1949), '' Whisky Galore!'' (1949), ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' (1951), '' The Man in the White Suit'' (1951) and '' The Ladykillers'' (1955). ''Hue and Cry'' (1947) is generally considered to be the earliest of the cycle, and '' Barnacle Bill'' (1957) the last, although some sources list '' Davy'' (1958) as the final Ealing comedy. History Relatively few comedy films were made at Ealing Studios until several years after World War II. The 1939 film ''Cheer Boys Cheer'', featuring the rivalry between two brewing companies, one big and modernist, the other small and traditional, has been characterised as a prototype of later films. One of the few other films that can be seen as a direct precursor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Synonymous
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all synonyms of one another: they are ''synonymous''. The standard test for synonymy is substitution: one form can be replaced by another in a sentence without changing its meaning. Words are considered synonymous in only one particular sense: for example, ''long'' and ''extended'' in the context ''long time'' or ''extended time'' are synonymous, but ''long'' cannot be used in the phrase ''extended family''. Synonyms with exactly the same meaning share a seme or denotational sememe, whereas those with inexactly similar meanings share a broader denotational or connotational sememe and thus overlap within a semantic field. The former are sometimes called cognitive synonyms and the latter, near-synonyms, plesionyms or poecilonyms. Lexicog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other forms of art or entertainment, whether written or spoken, audio or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria, yet genres can be aesthetic, rhetorical, communicative, or functional. Genres form by conventions that change over time as cultures invent new genres and discontinue the use of old ones. Often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. Stand-alone texts, works, or pieces of communication may have individual styles, but genres are amalgams of these texts based on agreed-upon or socially inferred conventions. Some genres may have rigid, strictly adhered-to guidelines, while others may show great flexibility. Genre began as an absolute classification system for ancient Greek literature, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since. It is the oldest continuously working studio facility for film production in the world, and the current stages were opened for the use of sound in 1931. It is best known for a series of classic films produced in the post-WWII years, including '' Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1949), '' Passport to Pimlico'' (1949), ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' (1951), and '' The Ladykillers'' (1955). The BBC owned and filmed at the Studios for forty years from 1955 until 1995. Since 2000, Ealing Studios has resumed releasing films under its own name, including the revived '' St Trinian's'' franchise. In more recent times, films shot here include ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' (2002) and ''Shaun of the Dead'' (2004), as well as '' The Theory of Ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Escapism
Escapism is mental diversion from unpleasant or boring aspects of daily life, typically through activities involving imagination or entertainment. Escapism may be used to occupy one's self away from persistent feelings of depression or general sadness. Perceptions Entire industries have sprung up to foster a growing tendency of people to remove themselves from the rigors of daily life – especially into the digital world. Many activities that are normal parts of a healthy existence (e.g., eating, sleeping, exercise, sexual activity) can also become avenues of escapism when taken to extremes or out of proper context; and as a result the word "escapism" often carries a negative connotation, suggesting that escapists are unhappy, with an inability or unwillingness to connect meaningfully with the world and to take necessary action. Indeed, the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defined escapism as "The tendency to seek, or the practice of seeking, distraction from what normally has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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