>In a series of remarks first reported by the Daily Mail (via The Guardian), Boyle expressed his belief that filmmaking isn’t England’s strong suit. While there are certainly exceptions, he thinks the nation is better suited to producing theatre and pop music.
>“It’s a terrible thing to say at the home of British film but I am not sure we are great film-makers, to be absolutely honest,” Boyle said. “As a nation, our two art forms are theatre, in a middle-class sense, and pop music, because we are extraordinary at it.”
I’d agree with that. As a nation we don’t do visuals very well. Sound, yes. Visuals not so much. Story telling we are average at. So put that all together and we’re kinda average at film making. There are things we do much, much better.
It’s not that we’re not great filmmakers. The problem is the lack of money invested in the film industry to allow filmmakers to take risks. There are very few risks taken because of money. People who back movies being made like to invest in safer projects but to say we aren’t great filmmakers is utter nonsense.
The best film from a filmmakers point of view I’ve seen this year is Men by Alex Garland. That took artisitc risks. Likewise Censor last year was very well made with good, if not perfect, storytelling. We’ve also got Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan but they’ve got to go to America to get the funding for the movies they want to make.
The days of getting money to make Shallow Grave and Trainspotting just aren’t there anymore. Producers and production companies like to play it safe with period dramas and gangster flicks because they will get them made and probably get distribution. The closest we get to mass distribution of an arty picture these days is through some of the more.obscure horror because horror usually is a safe bet to make your money back.
From a Canadian’s perspective – They say everything out of Hollywood or the US is formula based and you would be hard pressed to refute that. For originality I would have to think England. the UK, and good part of the EU wins hands down.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think we boss the TV show format in this country. Especially sitcom shows, they seem to be timeless.
Even Documentaries to an extent. Why? The Brits love to adore their national TV heroes, I guess.
Some heads were made for hair loss. His head lol is definitely a no no for hair loss.
Says the man who’s perfected the art of making “not great” films.
I think comparing it to pop music and theatre is less about our ability as filmmakers and more about just how good we are at pop music and theatre. British pop music is frankly ridiculously successful, we’ve produced an amazing amount of popular music’s most iconic acts: Beatles, Rolling Stones, Queen, Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Bee Gees, Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, The Kinks, Iron Maiden, Chas & Dave. That’s leaving out the ones who’ve had more success recently. You could compile a much bigger list. Dua Lipa and Adele spent a good part of the last few years being among the biggest acts in the world.
Compared to that our film industry is more modest but we’re hardly underdogs there. America is the biggest obviously but we also have some of the big directors there as well: Nolan, Sam Mendes, Boyle himself, and Steve McQueen. Before that the likes of Hitchcock. We are probably the 2nd biggest place for film production outside of America when it comes to films in the English language?
Hollywood is also full of British writers and actors as well which counts as filmmaking as far as I can see.
It’s just we don’t dominate film in the same way we’ve done with pop music. It’s possible for an aspiring filmmaker to grow up elsewhere in the (western) world with British films only having a passing influence on them whereas it’s harder to imagine an aspiring popular music artist not having British musicians having a major influence on them, at least in some genres.
Japanese, Italians and Americans produce the best films
Does he not realise how absolutely massive the UK film industry is and the fact that the amount of film space is massively growing the UK and even then isn’t meeting demand
10 comments
>In a series of remarks first reported by the Daily Mail (via The Guardian), Boyle expressed his belief that filmmaking isn’t England’s strong suit. While there are certainly exceptions, he thinks the nation is better suited to producing theatre and pop music.
>“It’s a terrible thing to say at the home of British film but I am not sure we are great film-makers, to be absolutely honest,” Boyle said. “As a nation, our two art forms are theatre, in a middle-class sense, and pop music, because we are extraordinary at it.”
I’d agree with that. As a nation we don’t do visuals very well. Sound, yes. Visuals not so much. Story telling we are average at. So put that all together and we’re kinda average at film making. There are things we do much, much better.
It’s not that we’re not great filmmakers. The problem is the lack of money invested in the film industry to allow filmmakers to take risks. There are very few risks taken because of money. People who back movies being made like to invest in safer projects but to say we aren’t great filmmakers is utter nonsense.
The best film from a filmmakers point of view I’ve seen this year is Men by Alex Garland. That took artisitc risks. Likewise Censor last year was very well made with good, if not perfect, storytelling. We’ve also got Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan but they’ve got to go to America to get the funding for the movies they want to make.
The days of getting money to make Shallow Grave and Trainspotting just aren’t there anymore. Producers and production companies like to play it safe with period dramas and gangster flicks because they will get them made and probably get distribution. The closest we get to mass distribution of an arty picture these days is through some of the more.obscure horror because horror usually is a safe bet to make your money back.
From a Canadian’s perspective – They say everything out of Hollywood or the US is formula based and you would be hard pressed to refute that. For originality I would have to think England. the UK, and good part of the EU wins hands down.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think we boss the TV show format in this country. Especially sitcom shows, they seem to be timeless.
Even Documentaries to an extent. Why? The Brits love to adore their national TV heroes, I guess.
Some heads were made for hair loss. His head lol is definitely a no no for hair loss.
Says the man who’s perfected the art of making “not great” films.
I think comparing it to pop music and theatre is less about our ability as filmmakers and more about just how good we are at pop music and theatre. British pop music is frankly ridiculously successful, we’ve produced an amazing amount of popular music’s most iconic acts: Beatles, Rolling Stones, Queen, Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Bee Gees, Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, The Kinks, Iron Maiden, Chas & Dave. That’s leaving out the ones who’ve had more success recently. You could compile a much bigger list. Dua Lipa and Adele spent a good part of the last few years being among the biggest acts in the world.
Compared to that our film industry is more modest but we’re hardly underdogs there. America is the biggest obviously but we also have some of the big directors there as well: Nolan, Sam Mendes, Boyle himself, and Steve McQueen. Before that the likes of Hitchcock. We are probably the 2nd biggest place for film production outside of America when it comes to films in the English language?
Hollywood is also full of British writers and actors as well which counts as filmmaking as far as I can see.
It’s just we don’t dominate film in the same way we’ve done with pop music. It’s possible for an aspiring filmmaker to grow up elsewhere in the (western) world with British films only having a passing influence on them whereas it’s harder to imagine an aspiring popular music artist not having British musicians having a major influence on them, at least in some genres.
Japanese, Italians and Americans produce the best films
Does he not realise how absolutely massive the UK film industry is and the fact that the amount of film space is massively growing the UK and even then isn’t meeting demand