Waving the Flag

What does it mean to talk about a 'national' cinema? To what extent can British cinema, dominated for so many years by Hollywood, be considered a national cinema? Waving the Flag investigates these questions from a historical point of view, and challenges the received wisdoms of British cinema history in many ways. Andrew Higson investigates theories of national cinema, and surveys the development of the British film industry and film culture. Three case studies combine histories of production and reception with textual analysis of key films from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s such as Sing As We Go, Comin Thro the Rye, and This Happy Breed. Drawing some revealing conclusions about the extent to which the many rich traditions of British film-making share the same distinctive stylistic and ideological characteristics, what emerges is a sometimes surprising picture of a specifically national cinema. Combining detailed analyses of film texts with studies of industrial and cultural contexts, including critical reception, Waving the Flag is an impressive and wide-ranging survey of the concept of national cinema as it has developed in Britain. 'by far the best book about British film yet published', Choice 'a thoughtful, stimulating, and well-researched book.' , Sunday Telegraph 'this painstaking piece of scholarship, which manages to home in on the most minute narrative and stylistic details of the films under scrutiny and to excoriate notions of what "Britishness" is all about.', TLS 'a valuable addition to British film writing...which adds considerably to our understanding of British cinema history', Screen 'the book is packed with detailed analysis, dense arguments, and an impressive breadth of cultural reference', Media, Culture, and Society 'an exciting new book...valuable to all those concerned with how the cultural analysis of film relates to the economic context.' Film Quarterly