Britain has always been at the forefront of feature film production, ever since the inception of the moving picture phenomenon in the 1890s. That's not to say that British cinema hasn't had its up and downs along the way.
British cinema's main competition has predominantly come from across the Atlantic. During the 1910s British cinema was a booming business but this growth was dampened by competition from the USA during the 1920s. This dominance from the USA was due to the control that the production companies had over the distribution and the showing of their own feature films. The result was that American cinemas weren't showing British films.
British cinema took a leaf out of the USA's book by introducing the 'Cinematography Films Act 1927'. This act meant that British cinemas had to show a certain quota of British made films. A flood of British films hit the screens following the introduction of the act, culminating in over 190 films being produced in the year of 1936.
So the act was considered a success at that time but the British cinema industry wasn't far away from another crash. This time the crash was due to over-expansion and the quotas set by the 'Cinematography Films Act 1927'. As a result American production companies made a slew of poorly-made movies, on very limited budgets, often just to fill the quotas for the screening of British films in British cinemas. This over-expansion resulted in an industry crash and British feature film production hit rock bottom during the 2nd World War.
Once the war had finished the British cinema industry bounced back and production levels went up and stabilised. The good times weren't to last for long – the 1970s see another crash in the British Cinema industry with an abysmal record low production of 24 feature films in 1981. The 1980s were generally slow in terms of British feature film production with a revival again in the 1990s.
It is important when evaluating the success of the British cinema industry to look at the quality of the feature films produced, not just the production levels. This is because some of the best British films were produced during the recession years. An example of which is 'Chariots of Fire', which is universally accepted as being one of the all time classics in film and was produced at a time when British cinema had little to offer.
British cinema's main competition has predominantly come from across the Atlantic. During the 1910s British cinema was a booming business but this growth was dampened by competition from the USA during the 1920s. This dominance from the USA was due to the control that the production companies had over the distribution and the showing of their own feature films. The result was that American cinemas weren't showing British films.
British cinema took a leaf out of the USA's book by introducing the 'Cinematography Films Act 1927'. This act meant that British cinemas had to show a certain quota of British made films. A flood of British films hit the screens following the introduction of the act, culminating in over 190 films being produced in the year of 1936.
So the act was considered a success at that time but the British cinema industry wasn't far away from another crash. This time the crash was due to over-expansion and the quotas set by the 'Cinematography Films Act 1927'. As a result American production companies made a slew of poorly-made movies, on very limited budgets, often just to fill the quotas for the screening of British films in British cinemas. This over-expansion resulted in an industry crash and British feature film production hit rock bottom during the 2nd World War.
Once the war had finished the British cinema industry bounced back and production levels went up and stabilised. The good times weren't to last for long – the 1970s see another crash in the British Cinema industry with an abysmal record low production of 24 feature films in 1981. The 1980s were generally slow in terms of British feature film production with a revival again in the 1990s.
It is important when evaluating the success of the British cinema industry to look at the quality of the feature films produced, not just the production levels. This is because some of the best British films were produced during the recession years. An example of which is 'Chariots of Fire', which is universally accepted as being one of the all time classics in film and was produced at a time when British cinema had little to offer.