Anthony Asquith (British Film Makers)

This is the first sustained and comprehensive critical study of Anthony Asquith. Ryall sets the director's work in the context of British cinema from the silent period to the 1960s, and examines the artistic and cultural influences within which his films can be understood.
Asquith's silent films were compared favourably to those of his eminent contemporary Alfred Hitchcock, but his career faltered during the 1930s. However, the success of Pygmalion (1938) and French Without Tears (1939), based on plays by George Bernard Shaw and Terence Rattigan, together with his significant contributions to wartime British cinema, re-established him as one of Britain's leading film makers.

Asquith's post-war career includes several pictures in collaboration with Rattigan, and the definitive adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (1951), but his versatility is demonstrated effectively in a number of modest genre films including The Woman in Question (1950), The Young Lovers (1954) and Orders to Kill (1958).

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: United Kingdom, 1 April 2011

Format: Paperback / softback, 210 pages

Age Range: 15+

Other Information: black & white illustrations

Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 1.1 centimeters (0.20 kg)

Writer: Ryall, Tom

Table of Contents

SERIES EDITORS' FOREWORD ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1. Introduction 2. The formative years 3. The 1930s 4. Wartime British cinema 5. Post-war films 1 - genre and British cinema 6. Post-war films 2 - adaptation and the theatre 7. The 'International' film 8. Asquith and the British cinema FILMOGRAPHY SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

About the Author

Tom Ryall is Emeritus Professor of Film History at Sheffield Hallam University

Reviews

Tom Ryall's illuminating book has helped to raise the curtain a little, allowing other writers in other books to peer more closely inside. David Lancaster, The University of Leeds. Film and History, Documentaries Part II. Volume 38.2