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; 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1940年代和1950年代，摘要批评是英国特别浮动的地区。在战争期间，英国电影的成功导致了专业期刊的发展，例如企鹅电影评论，视觉和声音，电影批评和审查也成为主流出版物（例如Good Housekeeping和BBC广播节目）的既定著作。尚未得到广泛认可的是女性目前扮演批评家和审稿人的核心角色。该项目调查了两位重要的电影评论家弗雷达·布鲁斯·洛克哈特（Freda Bruce Lockhart）和凯瑟琳·德拉·罗氏（Catherine de la Roche）所做的贡献，他们以不同的方式呼吁电影与“女人问题”互动，即战后时期女性的愿望和焦虑。它询问这些妇女产生的批评是什么样的批评，它是否与男性同时代人的批评，以及他们如何使用电影审查来参与有关改变女性社会角色的辩论。通过考虑这些问题，该项目将使对妇女对电影批评的贡献以及战后时期的女性观众的想象和解决。战后电影批评的现有叙述并未质疑这些问题，后者认为男性和女性批评家对相同的主题和主题感兴趣。此外，尽管广播是一种流行的媒介，但仍在跨越阶级分裂的事实，而女性批评者在其中找到了常规房屋，但仍在强调出版的印刷材料。检查不同的媒体将使该项目能够绘制电影批评的更全面和包容性的地图。构建妇女电影历史通常依赖于非常规且广泛分散的资源，因为妇女的路线和途径经常多样化。除了更容易获得的印刷材料（例如杂志和电影期刊）外，Caversham的BBC书面档案还提供了与“在电影院”（Radio 4 Radio 4的“ Woman Hour''的电影插槽”相关的丰富材料来源。除了广播脚本外，还包括备忘录，个人通信和许多脚本，用于从“现代女主角”到“女人和电影”等主题的未委托项目。咨询这些被忽视的材料在研究弗雷达·布鲁斯·洛克哈特（Freda Bruce Lockhart）和凯瑟琳·德拉·罗氏（Catherine de La Roche）在广播行业中的批评家中如何运作，他们认为女性受众感兴趣的主题以及他们的观点与广播制片人的观点有所不同，这是在研究弗雷达·布鲁斯·洛克哈特（Freda Bruce Lockhart）和凯瑟琳·德拉·罗氏（Catherine de La Roche）如何运作方面的硕果卓越。此外，印刷媒体中的批评表明，如何使用有关编辑的讨论来构建有关女性平等的辩论，以及如何编写有关女性观众被认为会带给阅读电影的技能和兴趣而写的有关女性室内装饰的文章。这将为我们对我们对电影的批评以及女性在此领域中所扮演的角色做出重要贡献。它将强调有关女性社会角色的辩论如何经常参与使用新颖和意外的方法，并使我们能够看到一些在1940年代和1950年代了解和解决电影女性观众的一些重要方法。