Short Takes Film Studies

Tino Balio, in his book The American Film Industry, said that the Production Code meant that American films could not deal with political or social issues 'in an honest and truthful fashion'. This incisive essay tests out the legitimacy of Balio's claims, using The Lost Weekend (directed by Billy Wilder, 1945) as an example of the Hollywood 'problem film'. Rather than treating the film as being an entity with a single, unchanging meaning, it is put into its historical and social context, in particular the commercial context within which the studios were working. The commercial imperatives hardly sat well with the reality of a social problem such as alcoholism and this essay reminds us that the prime aim of the industry was to entertain: many of these 'problem films', therefore, were as honest and truthful within these confines as it was possible to be.

In the 1930s, British film producers and critics championed the idea of 'quality' pictures - thoughtful, intelligent films that would project a particular and positive view of Britain. The result was to drive a wedge between 'national' cinema (which reflected middle-class values) and 'popular' cinema (which reflected the working-class values of the majority of cinema audiences). 'Popular' became a term of abuse, particularly directed at comedies, whose roots often lay in music-hall. A very different image of Britain emerges from these comedies, as this insightful analysis of two Will Hay films - Oh Mr. Porter (1937) and Ask a Policeman (1939) reveals.

How is it possible that despite the destruction of its infrastructure during the Siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s, Bosnian cinema rapidly rose to claim many of the most prestigious awards in world cinema during the 2000s? Were Bosnian films simply 'better' than those from neighbouring post-Yugoslav countries? Perhaps not. This work proposes that the international success of Bosnian films since the turn of the millennium has been due to how they enact Western prejudices concerning the war and its consequences. Delivering films with national narratives which associate the country with primitiveness and victimhood, Western audiences have engaged in dark tourism of the Bosnian screen.