Introduction

 INTRODUCTION

There is a cliché about every people: the French are seen as romantic people, Americans as ambitious, Italians are proud, and British people are seen as very distinguished people, almost posh, with a humour of their own: “the british humour”.

  

Even though TV series reflect those clichés, films made by English directors often reflect a different point of view. Ken Loach’s movies are the main reference, but recently, Shane Meadows or Andrea Arnold also participated to that kind of realistic, committed movies.

This blog is meant to show different sides of British films and series ; how England is seen and shown by English people through several “points of view” divided in themes :

The ugly : Bloody Sunday - Paul Greengrass, This is England - Shane Meadows, The Queen - Stephen Frears, Vera Drake - Mike Leigh

The bad : Raining Stones - Ken Loach

The beautiful : Somers Town - Shane Meadows

The fun : The series Misfits, The Monty Python (The Flying Circus) & inevitably, Mr. Bean 

I shall also try to give precise box office details of each film or TV series in England, and in France or other countries. Generally, the audience is better in France notably for Kenneth Loach’s, often awarded in France, as for Andrea Arnold. This also shows in a general thought that in England, people are more inclined to see entertainment films, “to escape” rather than seing their lives on screen (speaking of the realistic movies).