Research Assignment 2

Decade

1990's Britain

Because I am doing British director Danny Boyle I have decided to focus on Britain in the 1990's as opposed to including the U.S, because they were not as relevant to the films he directed in the 1990's

Political Situation

• 1990 - Riots started in England and Wales after plans for a poll tax were announced. Margaret Thatcher supported the poll tax, and because of this she became very unpopular, and resigned from her role of Prime Minister.She was replaced by John Major, who replaced the poll tax with council tax.


• 1997 - Labour wins General Election, Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister at age 43
  


• 1997 - Britain gives Hong Kong back to China after 150 years of British rule.


• 1999 - Tony Blair wanted to switch over to 'euros', but the British were uneasy about the swap to the European Single Currency, so they decided not to do the switch

Social Situation

• 1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash. One million people lined the street for the funeral of the controversial icon.


• 1990 - Poll tax riot


• 1992 - Controversially, the Church of England allows women to be ordained as Anglican priests


• 1992 - Channel tunnel (Eurostar) opened, linking Paris and London


• 1994 - SMS txt messaging introduced

• 1995 - Brixton riot breaks out after the death of a black man in police custody. The riots weren't just about this incident of racial injustice, it was also a lot of built up feelings people had about racial injustice in the world were brought out at these riots.
  

• 1998 - Belfast Agreement signed to change the constitution and mostly make peace with the long wielding Troubles in Northern Ireland
  

Culture

Term "Cool Britannia" was coined to describe the contemporary culture of the UK in late 20th century.

Music

- The types of music that were most popular in Britain in the 90's were:

• Britpop - Largely indie music - Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Radiohead


• Boyband/Girlband music - Spice Girls, Take That, All Saints


• Dance music - Started a growth in clubbing

Film

- Around 1989 and the early 1990's the British film industry had hit one of its all time lows. In 1984/85 the Eady Levy was eliminated. It was a tax on Box Office receipts that supported UK film production. With it gone, many people focused on television work, and in the beginning of the 90's very few films had commercial success.

- Comedy films, such as Brassed Off (1996) and The Full Monty (1997) were becoming more popular

- The British Film Institute (BFI) released a list of the greatest and most influential British films of the 20th Century, and the following are ones on the list from the 1990's :

• Trainspotting (1996) (# 10)
  

• Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) (# 23)
  

• The Full Monty (1997) (# 25)
  

• The Crying Game (1992) (# 26)
  

• The Commitments (1991) (# 38)
  

• Secrets and Lies (1995) (# 40)
  

• The Madness of King George (1994) (# 42)

• Shakespeare in Love (1998) (# 49)
  

• The English Patient (1996) (# 55)
  

• Sense and Sensibility (1995) (# 62)
  

• The Remains of the Day (1993) (# 64)
  

• Elizabeth (1998) (# 71)
  

• Brassed Off (1996) (# 85)
  

• My Name is Joe (1998) (# 91)
  

• Life is Sweet (1990) (# 95)
  

• Nil By Mouth (1997) (# 97)
  

• Small Faces (1995) (# 98)

- Danny Boyle's Trainspotting is at the top of the BFI list for movies in the 90's, and even makes the top 10 of this list, so it shows that what was only his second film already had major influence in Britain.

Other Cultural Events

1993 - First prime-time lesbian kiss on TV

1993 - Soap Opera Emmerdale has a an on-screen plane crash and makes it popular again

1995 - Colin Firth plays Mr. Darcy in a TV adaption of Pride and Prejudice, and it is really popular for many weeks following, a "Darcy" obsession

1995 - In accordance with the rising popularity of dance/club music, Club Anokha is opened to promote South Asian Underground dance music1996 - Alexander McQueen is named Best British Designer of the Year, nicknamed the "Bad Boy of Fashion"

1997 - First book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, is published and is a huge success

1998 - Iconic Angel of the North sculpture by Antony Gormley in Gateshead, England

Technological Advances

• 1991 - Invention of Worldwidw Web by Tim Berners - Lee
  

• 1994 - SMS txt messaging is introduced
  

References

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/slumdog_millionaire/news/1790033/five_favourite_films_with_golden_globe-winner_danny_boyle/

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/homework/war/1990s.html

http://www.britain.tv/entertainment_britishmusic_90s.shtml

http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Cinema-Distributed-Film-Institute/dp/0851707629

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_the_United_Kingdom#British_cinema_in_the_1990s

http://www.filmsite.org/ukfilms.html

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sJFVbW5iCzIJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rave+drug+culture+united+kingdom+1990&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nz&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.co.nz

http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/icons-timeline/1990-2000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Britannia

Research Assignment One

Ladies and Gentleman - DANNY BOYLE

Born On: October 20, 1956

Born In: Radcliffe, Lancashire, England

Nationality: British

• He was born into a working-class Irish Catholic family

• He was convinced that he wanted to become a priest, but was dissuaded from going to a seminary. He instead went on to Thornleigh Salesian College in Bolton and University of Wales, Bangor.
• Boyle was largely involved in theatre, and has directed five plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He then moved on to television, producing and directing for BBC, before moving into film.

Filmography

1994: Shallow Grave

1996: Trainspotting

1997: A Life Less Ordinary

2000: The Beach

2002: 28 Days Later

2004: Millions

2007: Sunshine
2008: Slumdog Millionaire
2010: 127 Hours

His most famous works out of these are his earliest and his two latest:
Trainspotting - This was Danny Boyle's breakout film. His first film, Shallow Grave, was well recieved by the UK audience, but this really got him recognized by worldwide audiences. It was nominated for best film at the 1995 BAFTA's and holds 10th place in the British Film Institutes Top 100 British Films of all time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BFI_Top_100_British_films
127 Hours - Just released in 2010, this biographical adventure story was well-received by critics, and was nominated for 6 Academy Awards and 8 BAFTAs.
Slumdog Millionaire - This film is about a boy from the slums of India who does very well in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and arouses suspicion. It is perhaps his most famous film worldwide, and was nominated for nine 2009 Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director), of which it won 8. It was also nominated for 11 BAFTA's, and won 7, including Danny Boyle as Best Director.

The reason I picked Danny Boyle was mainly on the grounds that I loved 127 Hours. I'm not much of a movie watcher, but this movie was one of the best I had seen in a long time. After watching other films of his I found that he had a style I enjoyed. I love that the story keeps moving, and I also really like his use of colour and interesting, out of the ordinary camera shots.
I have decided to review 127 Hours, because it was highly acclaimed and I enjoyed it a lot. I also will do Slumdog Millionaire, because it is one of his most highly acclaimed movies. I am going to review Millions as my third film, because I found many of the film techniques used were similar to the other two I am am doing, and I really enjoyed it

http://www.3news.co.nz/Danny-Boyle-to-receive-BFI-honour/tabid/418/articleID/178992/Default.aspx

INTERESTING DANNY BOYLE CLIPS

Best Director Oscar Speech


127 Hours trailer



References - http://www.film.com/features/story/ranking-danny-boyles-movies/42473445

http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/danny-boyle-biography-4240.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accolades_received_by_Slumdog_Millionaire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accolades_received_by_127_Hours

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Boyle

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