Directors in British and Irish cinema 

Date
2006
Authors
Murphy, R. P.
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ISSN
DOI
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Publisher
London: British Film Institute Publishing
Peer reviewed
Abstract
Description
Directors in British and Irish Cinema is an assessment of the careers and achievements of over a thousand directors, most of whom have received little scholarly attention. It draws upon the expertise of over sixty contributors. Each of the 1028 entries has been provided with a comprehensive filmography (which for some of the silent film directors includes over a hundred films). Comprehensive coverage have made it a standard reference work. Collaboration with the BFI-based website Screenonline allowed over two hundred entries to be accessed through the internet. Murphy’s essay on Robert Hamer is of the same order as his substantial biographical entries on Alexander Korda, Carol Reed, David Lean, Alexander Mackendrick, Frank Launder, Harry Watt, and Karel Reisz for the Dictionary of National Biography. The bulk of his own writing, however (over 56,000 words), is on new British directors, few of whom have been critically assessed before, despite the very substantial financial funds now invested in British film production. His entries on Asif Kapadia, Shona Auerbach, Emily Young, Mark Evans, Amma Asante, Jonathan Glazer, Chris Smith, Paul Spurrier, Marc Munden, Richard Jobson, David Mackenzie, Kirsten Sheridan, Simon Rumley, Penny Woolcock and Edgar Wright reveal a generation of talented young film-makers around which a viable British cinema might be expected to grow. Here, as elsewhere in other under-researched areas, Directors in British and Irish Cinema attempts to draw new maps of British cinema.
Keywords
RAE 2008, UoA 66 Communication, Cultural and Media Studies
Citation
Murphy, R.P. (2006) Directors in British and Irish cinema. London: British Film Institute Publishing.
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