Contemporary British Cinema - Gender

• Focuses on the representation of sexuality, class, gender and ethnicity in contemporary British cinema.
• E.g. equalisation fo the age consent, outlawing of workplace discrimination on grounds of sexuality and the legal recognition of same-sex civil partnerships
• Homosexual representation remains a peripheral aspect of British film culture
• Few films are made with the sole purpose of exploring one particular aspect of cultural identity and some of the most interesting films of modern British cinema, from 'My Beautiful Landrette (1985)', to 'A Way of Life', have been those situated on the interstices of identity politics

Women

• Questions of feminine agency have frequently been raised across films of differing genres and historical settings
• Literary and period drams e.g. Elizabeth and Charlotte Gray have celebrated the role played by women in history, and the contributions of female artists and writers have also been celebrated in biopics like Hilary and Jackie, Iris and Miss Potter
• Issues pertaining to the female body, such as infertility and abortion, have been contemplated, to differing ends e.g. Mad Cows (1999), Fanny and Elvis (1999)
• Rising no of female directors and writers contributing to British film culture and varied scope on their work, has been one of most welcome developments of the era
• Recurring scenarios of the male centrered films and genres have occasionally been answered by 'female' equivalents
• Stories of self-empowerment in School for Seduction, Calender Girls and Rabbit Fever whilst Women Talking Dirty (1999), Beautiful Creatures (2000) offer a glossily feminist spin on the 'buddy' movie, the gangster film and the caper movie
• In stories about close friendships such as 'Career Girls, Me Without You (2001) and Anita and Me - are sometimes homoerotic undercurrents, but the problematic relationships in these films are also a way to explore tensions and jealousies relating to age, gender, ethnic and intellectual difference
• As with many male films, there is concern with 'performance' - the question of 'how to do' feminity but with an emphasis on the role of voice, either in written or oral form, rather than the body
• Although Little Voice accomodates the singing talents of its main star, Jane Horrocks, the film is ambivalent about her withdrawn young character's impersonations of female singers
• Little Voice makes for an interesting comparison with Lynne Ramsay's Movern Callar, another story of a detached, unreadable young woman who appropriates the 'voice' of others
• In realist melodrama Stella Does Tricks (1996) - a teenage victims of abuse and prosititution is last seen recounting her story to others, and therefore seizing contrl of her narrative for the first time
• British cinema's best known intervention within contemporary gender politics in recent years has probably been the films based on 'Bridget Jones' novels - the Bridget Jones character became a hotly debated icon of post feminism
• The character articulated an aspect of contemporary experience that had rarely been addressed and would go on to be a keynote work of 'chick-lit' fiction
• Through their depiction of a women experiencing both the freedom and loneliness of the 'singleton' existence, the books and films reflected the growing social trend for single occupancy households
• Also been a loose cycle of films exploring behavioural responses to trauma and abuse e.g. Stella Does Tricks, the War Zone, Hold Back the Night, Kidulthood and London to Brighton - dwelt upon exploitation and sexual abuse of teenagers and young people
• Engaging with the interior lives of damaged young women, 'Under the Skin, Morvern Callar and Red Road provocative connections between emotional trauma - the death of loved ones and sexual desire
• They express the intesnsity of their central character's grief but also to render unclear their motivation and the extent of their passivity
• Part revenge thriller, part commentary upon serveillance culture, Red Road is a genetically intricate film about Jackie, an introverted minimally-expressive council CCTV operator who sees on screen the man who killed her husband and son in a car accident - the film finds a metaphor in the decoding of CCTV images for the viewer's own inability to read Jackie's persuit of CLyde, which cultimates in a graphic sex scene, was recognised as one of the film's strenths but also caused some disquiet.
• Albeit rarely to such a controversial effect, the expression of containment of 'dangerous' female sexuality has been a recurring theme in contemporary British cinema, cropping up in films of differing genres and historical settings.