The Cinema of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph

巴兹尔·迪尔登和迈克尔·雷尔夫的电影

• 批准号: AH/F014929/1
• 负责人: Tim O'Sullivan
• 金额: $ 3.92万
• 依托单位: De Montfort University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FF014929%2F1
• 关键词: Cinema; Basil; Dearden; Michael; Relph

Basil Dearden and Michael Relph constituted one of the most significant filmmaking teams in British cinema in the post-war period. From 1943, when they first worked together on The Bells Go Down, to 1970 which saw the release of The Man Who Haunted Himself, they were responsible for over thirty films. They were the most prolific director-producer team at Ealing Studios and the series of social problem films they produced from the late 1940s up to the 1960s, which addressed themes of race (eg Sapphire 1959), sexuality (eg Victim 1961), crime and delinquency (eg The Blue Lamp 1950, Violent Playground 1958) are recognised as key British films of the period and are widely screened and taught on British cinema courses. While these films have received a degree of recognition in the recent upsurge in British cinema and film studies, the wider oeuvre of Dearden and Relph remains largely unconsidered and neglected. So, for instance, there has been little attempt to situate their work on the social problem films in relation to their broader interests in masculine adjustments to post-war social and cultural change, articulated for example in such films as Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948), The Square Ring (1953) or The League of Gentlemen (1960).The simplistic perception of Dearden and Relph as makers of social problem films has failed to do justice to the diversity of their work and to the full range of themes which characterised their output. It has also resulted in a failure to distinguish significant differences across their films. Thus, there has been a tendency to accept uncritically films like The Captive Heart (1946) or A Place to Go (1963) as social problem films, when they are best understood as belonging to an altogether different tradition.By contrast, this study will address the cinema of Dearden and Relph in terms of four substantial generic and contextual categories: The Comedy films and their comic traditions; the formative period of the war years at Ealing Studios; the extensive body of films that address post-war adjustment; and the international films of the 1960s. Social problem films are central to the third category, and are here labelled 'dramas of social adjustment' and distinguished from 'dramas of masculine adjustment' and dramas addressing 'ethical dilemmas'. As a result the study will bring a more nuanced and historically sensitive approach to the cinema of Dearden and Relph, carefully delineating between different dramatic approaches to the central theme of post-war adjustment, of which the 'social problem film' comprised only a part, and was restricted to only five, albeit influential films. In addition, the study will provide a novel focus on the consistent presence of comedy in the cinema of Dearden and Relph, new insights into the importance for both filmmakers of the wartime period at Ealing Studios, and to the greatly neglected international years of the 1960s; characteristics and trends that have not been substantially addressed in existing scholarship. It will also examine and bring to light their working methods and the accomplished work of Michael Relph as an art director.The study will offer a historical and critical reassessment of the cinema of Dearden and Relph and their contribution to British film culture. It will draw on a rich base of empirical evidence contained in newspapers, relevant trade press, journals, memoirs and other surviving archives and documents. Of particular significance are previously unconsidered documents archived at the British Film Institute as part of the Michael Balcon collection. These include production files from some of Dearden and Relph's Ealing films and related correspondence. The project will also benefit from unique access to personal archive resources made available by relatives of Dearden and Relph and from interviews with Lord Attenborough, Bryan Forbes and Douglas Slocombe, who worked closely with them during their career.

Basil Dearden和Michael Relph组成了战后英国电影中最重要的电影制作团队之一。从1943年，当他们第一次合作的钟声走下，到1970年看到的人谁困扰自己的释放，他们负责超过30部电影。他们是伊灵工作室最多产的导演和制片人团队，他们从20世纪40年代末到60年代制作了一系列社会问题电影，这些电影涉及种族主题（如蓝宝石1959），性（例如受害者1961），犯罪和违法行为（如1950年的蓝灯，1958年的暴力游乐场）被认为是这一时期的关键英国电影，并在英国电影课程中广泛放映和教授。虽然这些电影在最近英国电影和电影研究的热潮中获得了一定程度的认可，但Dearden和Relph的更广泛的作品仍然在很大程度上被忽视和忽视。因此，例如，很少有人试图将他们在社会问题电影方面的工作与他们对战后社会和文化变革的男性调整的更广泛兴趣联系起来，例如在《死亡情人》（1948年）等电影中，The Square Ring（1953），The League of Gentlemen（1960）简单地把迪尔登和雷尔夫看作是社会问题电影的制作者，这未能公正地对待他们作品的多样性和他们作品的全部范围。以其产出为特征的主题。这也导致他们无法区分电影中的重大差异。因此，当人们认为《被俘虏的心》（1946）和《去的地方》（1963）属于一个完全不同的传统时，就有一种不加批判地把它们当作社会问题电影来接受的倾向。伊林电影公司的战争年代的形成期;大量的电影，解决战后调整;和20世纪60年代的国际电影。社会问题电影是第三类的核心，在这里被称为“社会调整戏剧”，并与“男性调整戏剧”和解决“道德困境”的戏剧区分开来。因此，这项研究将带来一个更细致入微的和历史敏感的方法，迪尔登和Relph的电影，仔细划定不同的戏剧方法之间的战后调整，其中的“社会问题电影”的中心主题只包括一部分，并被限制在只有五个，虽然有影响力的电影。此外，这项研究将提供一个新的重点喜剧在迪尔登和Relph的电影院的一贯存在，新的见解的重要性，为两个电影制片人的战争时期在伊林工作室，并大大忽视了国际年的20世纪60年代;特点和趋势，并没有在现有的奖学金大幅解决。它还将研究并揭示他们的工作方法和迈克尔·雷尔夫作为艺术总监的成就。这项研究将对迪尔登和雷尔夫的电影及其对英国电影文化的贡献进行历史和批判性的重新评估。它将利用报纸、相关行业报刊、期刊、回忆录和其他现存档案和文件中所载的丰富经验证据。特别重要的是以前未被考虑的文件存档在英国电影学院的一部分，迈克尔巴尔康收集。其中包括Dearden和Relph的一些Ealing电影和相关信件的制作文件。该项目还将受益于迪尔登和雷尔夫亲属提供的个人档案资源的独特访问权，以及对阿滕伯勒勋爵、布莱恩福布斯和道格拉斯斯洛科姆的采访，他们在职业生涯中与他们密切合作。