Female film critics and film criticism in 1950s Britain.

20世纪50年代英国的女性影评人和电影批评。

• 批准号: AH/G00725X/1
• 负责人: Melanie Bell
• 金额: $ 2.75万
• 依托单位: Newcastle University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FG00725X%2F1
• 关键词: Female; film; critics; criticism; 1950s

SummaryFilm criticism was a particularly buoyant area in Britain during the 1940s and 1950s. The success of British films during the war led to the development of specialist journals such as Penguin Film Review and Sight and Sound, and film criticism and reviewing also became an established feature of mainstream publications such as Good Housekeeping, and BBC radio programmes. What has not been widely recognised is the central role that women played as critics and reviewers of film at this time. This project investigates the contributions made by two important film critics, Freda Bruce Lockhart and Catherine de la Roche, both of whom, in different ways, called for film to engage with 'the woman question', that is, the aspirations and anxieties of women in the post-war period. It asks what kind of criticism these women produced, whether it differed from that of their male contemporaries, and how they used film reviewing to enter into debates about changing social roles for women. By considering these questions, the project will enable a fuller understanding of women's contribution to film criticism and how female audiences for film were imagined and addressed during the post-war period. These questions have not been interrogated by existing accounts of post-war film criticism, which has assumed that male and female critics were interested in the same themes and subjects. In addition there has been an emphasis on published print materials, despite the fact that radio was a popular medium that crossed class divides, and within which female critics found a regular home. Examining different media will allow this project to draw a more comprehensive and inclusive map of film criticism.Constructing women's film history often relies on unconventional and widely-dispersed sources because women's routes into, and paths through, the film industry were often diverse. Alongside the more readily available print materials such as magazines and film journals, the BBC Written Archives at Caversham have provided a rich source of material relating to 'At the Cinema', the film slot for Radio 4's 'Woman Hour.' Alongside broadcast scripts, complete with annotations, are memos, personal correspondence and a number of scripts for un-commissioned projects on subjects ranging from 'The Modern Heroine' to 'Woman and Cinema.' Consulting these neglected materials has proven particularly fruitful in examining how Freda Bruce Lockhart and Catherine de la Roche operated as critics within the radio industry, the subjects they believed were of interest to female audiences, and where their opinions differed from those of radio producers. In addition, criticism in print media suggests how discussions about editing were used to frame debates about female equality, and how articles on set design and interior decoration were written in recognition of the skills and interests that female audiences were thought to bring to reading film.This project will make a significant contribution to our understanding of film criticism and the role played by women in this field. It will highlight how debates about women's social roles were often engaged with using novel and unexpected methods, and will allow us to see some of the important ways in which female audiences for film were understood and addressed across the 1940s and 1950s.

在20世纪40年代和50年代，电影评论在英国是一个特别活跃的领域。英国电影在战争期间的成功导致了专业期刊的发展，如企鹅电影评论和视觉与声音，电影评论和评论也成为主流出版物，如好管家和BBC广播节目的一个既定特征。当时，女性作为影评人和影评人所发挥的核心作用尚未得到广泛认可。这个项目调查了两位重要的影评人，弗雷达·布鲁斯·洛克哈特和凯瑟琳·德拉·罗奇所做的贡献，他们都以不同的方式呼吁电影参与“女性问题”，即战后时期女性的愿望和焦虑。它询问了这些女性产生了什么样的评论，是否与同时代的男性有所不同，以及她们如何利用电影评论进入关于改变女性社会角色的辩论。通过考虑这些问题，该项目将能够更全面地了解妇女对电影批评的贡献，以及战后时期如何想象和处理电影的女性观众。这些问题并没有被现存的战后电影评论所询问，这些评论假设男性和女性评论家对相同的主题和主题感兴趣。此外，尽管广播是一种跨越阶级鸿沟的流行媒介，而且女性评论家在其中找到了固定的归宿，但仍强调出版的印刷材料。考察不同的媒体将使这个项目绘制出一个更全面和包容的电影评论地图。构建女性电影史往往依赖于非常规和广泛分散的来源，因为女性进入和通过电影行业的途径往往是多种多样的。除了更容易获得的印刷材料，如杂志和电影期刊，位于卡弗舍姆的BBC书面档案提供了丰富的与“在电影院”有关的材料来源，这是第四电台“女性时间”的电影时段。除了带有注释的广播剧本外，还有备忘录、私人信件和一些未委托项目的剧本，主题从《现代女英雄》到《女人与电影》。参考这些被忽视的材料，在研究弗雷达·布鲁斯·洛克哈特和凯瑟琳·德·拉·罗奇是如何在广播行业中担任评论家的，她们认为女性听众感兴趣的主题，以及她们的意见与广播制作人的意见不同的地方，被证明是特别有益的。此外，印刷媒体上的批评表明，关于剪辑的讨论如何被用来框定关于女性平等的辩论，以及关于场景设计和室内装饰的文章如何被用来承认女性观众在阅读电影时所带来的技能和兴趣。这个项目将对我们理解电影评论和女性在这个领域所扮演的角色做出重大贡献。它将强调关于女性社会角色的辩论如何经常使用新颖和意想不到的方法，并将使我们看到在20世纪40年代和50年代，女性电影观众被理解和处理的一些重要方式。