Waving the Flag

What does it mean to talk about a 'national' cinema? To what extent can British cinema, dominated for so many years by Hollywood, be considered a national cinema? Waving the Flag investigates these questions from a historical point of view, and challenges the received wisdoms of British cinema history in many ways. Drawing some revealing conclusions about the extent to which the many rich traditions of British film-making share the same distinctive stylistic and ideological characteristics, what emerges is a sometimes surprising picture of a specifically national cinema. Andrew Higson investigates theories of national cinema, and surveys the development of the British film industry and film culture. Three case studies combine histories of production and reception with textual analysis of key films from the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. Focusing on Cecil Hepworth's Comin' Thro' The Rye, the first of these looks at the evolution of an art cinema in the early 1920s. Two films of 1934, Sing As We Go and Evergreen, are then contrasted as the products of two quite distinct industrial strategies for coping with the overwhelming presence of Hollywood. Finally, Andrew Higson re-examines the status of the documentary idea in British national cinema and its influence on two Second World War films, Millions Like Us and This Happy Breed. Combining detailed analyses of film texts with studies of industrial and cultural contexts, including critical reception, Waving the Flag is an impressive and wide-ranging survey of the concept of national cinema.

Andrew Higson is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of East Anglia