http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-10761225
The latest round of Con-Dem cuts is hardly surprising. The Tories and Arts and Media are terms that don't seem to go together. The worst aspect of this is we may now find ourselves in a similar situation to the 1980s. "The British Are Coming" proclaimed the press after the Oscar success of Chariots of Fire. This was not to be in the following years, and one can only wonder what output us Brits could have produced in the decade of excess. Instead the 'classic' films were few and far between. The seminal works in the 80s included My Beautiful Launderette and Withnail and I. Yet films such as these were only made with the assistance of Channel 4 and Handmade Films. The Thatcher Government was also notoriously unsupportive of the industry.
The latest round of Con-Dem cuts is hardly surprising. The Tories and Arts and Media are terms that don't seem to go together. The worst aspect of this is we may now find ourselves in a similar situation to the 1980s. "The British Are Coming" proclaimed the press after the Oscar success of Chariots of Fire. This was not to be in the following years, and one can only wonder what output us Brits could have produced in the decade of excess. Instead the 'classic' films were few and far between. The seminal works in the 80s included My Beautiful Launderette and Withnail and I. Yet films such as these were only made with the assistance of Channel 4 and Handmade Films. The Thatcher Government was also notoriously unsupportive of the industry.
It is also worth noting that Labour set this council up in the 90s. It is also worth noting, despite the failure of Labour in every other area of society, that some of the most creative and successful British films emerged in this period, as well as the success of distributors such as Polygram, who even made inroads in the American market having worked with the Coen Brothers, (the Big Lebowski) Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects) and invested in talent like Danny Boyle for example. Polygram's and UK Film Council chairman Tim Bevan called the announcement a "bad decision". No truer words were said.
No comments:
Post a Comment