[November 2019] No Such Thing As Society/British Cinema in the Thatcher Era 1983-89

Thursday, November 7 2019 | 8PM Meantime Great Britain 1983 d. Mike Leigh with Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, Marion Bailey, Phil Daniels, Pam Ferris, Alfred Molina and Tilly Vosburgh. Colour. 112 m

Thursday, November 14 2019 | 8PM My Beautiful Laundrette Great Britain 1985 d. Stephen Frears with Gordon Warnecke, Daniel Day Lewis, Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Rita Wolfe, Souad Faress and Derrick Branche. Colour. 97 m

Thursday, November 21 2019 | 8PM The Last of England Great Britain 1987 d. Derek Jarman with Tilda Swinton, Spencer Leigh, Mark Adley, Jonny Phillips, Gay Gaynor and Nigel Terry . Colour. 87 m

Thursday, November 28 2019 | The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover Great Britain 1989 d. Peter Greenaway with Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Alan Howard, Tim Roth, Ciarán Hinds, Ian Dury and Roger Ashton-Griffiths. Colour. 124 m

“…it was in film that Thatcher may have had the most impact—and, ironically, where she may have had a positive influence on the work of the people who felt most negatively toward her. Before Thatcher came to power, British cinema was in trouble, hit hard by economic pressures and producing few new notable filmmakers or stars of its own. The ’80s turned that around, producing a so-called “British Renaissance” of small-budget, darkly humourous films by interesting new directors like Stephen Frears, Mike Leigh and David Leland. And what most of these films had in common was a ferocious opposition to Thatcher….Some of these films were explicit in their anti-Thatcher stance; Frears’ My Beautiful Laundrette became a sensation for attacking Thatcher and her supporters…other movies just implied that Thatcher had transformed England into a hellish dystopia.” Jaime Weinman