German-speaking eÌmigreÌs in British cinema, 1927-1945

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From now on, please speak in English: German-speaking émigrés in British cinema, 1927-1945.

Relying on original research, this article maps the various stages and trajectories of film professionals from Munich, Berlin and Vienna, who came to work in and around London. Unlike previous approaches that have restricted the analysis of German and Austrian exile cinema to the years between 1933 and the end of the Second World War, it advances the assumption that early relations between the European film industries in many ways paved the way for refugees from Nazi Germany. The article is the first critical assessment of the overall legacy of German-speaking film professionals in Britain from the late 1920s through to the end of the Second World War. The chapter is based on research originally undertaken for a PhD. This research has also resulted in two other publications dealing with exiles in British cinema, “‘Kennen wir uns nicht aus Wien?’ – Émigré Filmmakers from Austria in London, 1928-1945“ in Immortal Austria? Austrians in Exile in Britain, Charmian Brinson, Richard Dove and Jennifer Taylor, eds. Yearbook of the Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies 8, Radopi: 2007, pp. 133-147 and “‘You call us ‘Germans’, you call us ‘brothers’ – but we are not your brothers!’: British Anti-Nazi Films and German-speaking Émigrés”. Destination London: German-speaking Emigrés and British Cinema, 1925-1950. Tim Bergfelder and Christian Cargnelli, eds. Oxford, Berghahn, forthcoming in 2008. As a development of this research, Hochscherf is currently working (with James Leggott) on a study of the relation between East German and British film workshops during the 1970s. He is also developing a monograph on German-speaking émigrés in British cinema

From the kitchen to 10 Downing Street: Jamie's School Dinners and the politics of reality cooking

In an average week in September 2007, viewers of British television would have had difficulty avoiding programs with some kind of cooking element. On terrestrial television there were at least a dozen weekly of daily shows of this sort, including the magazine show Saturday Kitchen (BBC1, 2006-), the celebrity cookery show Ready Steady Cook (BBC2, 1994-), competitive reality formats like Britain’s Best Dish (ITV, 2007), The Restaurant (BBC2, 2007), and Hell’s Kitchen (ITV, 2004-), documentary cooking shows such as The Wild Gourmets (Channel 4, 2007), and the most recent series by the cookery superstars Nigella Lawson, Ray Mears, and Jamie Oliver. Viewers with access to digital, cable, or satellite television were able to watch countless other examples of this broad-ranging genre of programming, including an entire channel (UKTV Food) devoted to the subject. For a nation not renowned for its culinary prowess, this seemed remarkable. Had the United Kingdom suddenly changed into a nation of gourmets au fait conversant with terms such as sauté, tapas and al dente, or was this cluster of programming more the result of format evolution? As part of a wider trend toward lifestyle programming in both daytime and prime-time television, the upsurge of cookery shows is certainly not unique to British television culture, as a quick glance at television guides across America and continental Europe would confirm. Though such programs are undoubtedly part of a global programming trend toward a diversified and demand-led broadcasting culture, however cookery shows in other countries have hardly ever become part of political discourse, as they have recently in the United Kingdom. In particular, the four-part series Jamie’s School Dinners, first broadcast on Channel 4 in 2005, and a one-off sequel shown the following year, generated considerable debate about governmental versus parental responsibility not only among academics from various disciplines but also in the UK media in general (Spence). The program charted the attempts by the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to improve the quality of food served to children in British state schools as well as to raise awareness of nutritional issues. It showed Oliver taking charge of the provision of food in two schools that were struggling to produce fresh meals on a limited budget; one in Greenwich, a suburb of London, and another “up north” in County Durham

Third Reich Cinema and Film Theory

© 2016 IAMHIST & Taylor & Francis. In the Third Reich, theoretical discourse was rarely presented out of genuine epistemological interest. It was rather linked to national objectives in the service of National Socialism. The same can be said about the realm of film: theoretical engagement with cinema (at the time often referred to as film 'dramaturgy') was situated at the crossroads of art, technology, ideology and economy. This article investigates how it was especially the duality between profit and propaganda that informed film theory and criticism during the Nazi years in Germany. In so doing, it goes beyond the role of Goebbels and his Propaganda Ministry by drawing attention to a new generation of authors who fundamentally shaped discourses on film. Our investigation in particular concentrates on the writings by Hans Traub, Gunter Groll, Bruno Rehlinger, Fritz Hippler, Peter von Werder, Leonhard Fürst, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Frank Maraun and Hans Weidemann. It was not only through monographs or articles in high-profile trade journals that they played a significant role, but also by way of their ability to occupy key positions within the German film industry. They were able to firmly position themselves between theory and practice by maintaining professional networks that warrant closer scrutiny. Our article demonstrates that their call for an 'applied theory' - that is a theoretical apparatus that could be developed into codes of practice able to help reducing the risk of film projects to fail - was inherently problematic. Theorising as an intellectual process was ultimately limited within the confines of a totalitarian state. The article shows to what extent film theory in Nazi Germany semantically reconfigured existing theoretical ideas that can be traced back to Weimar Germany and to theorists of Jewish origin such as Béla Balázs in line with the ideological and commercial imperatives of those in power.status: publishe

Introduction: British Science Fiction Beyond the TARDIS

Written by international experts from a range of disciplines, these essays examine the uniquely British contribution to science fiction film and television. Viewing British SF as a cultural phenomenon that challenges straightforward definitions of genre, nationhood, authorship and media, the editors provide a conceptual introduction placing the essays within their critical context. Essay topics include Hammer science fiction films, the various incarnations of Doctor Who, Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, and such 21st-century productions as 28 Days Later and Torchwood