The Empire on Big Screen and Small

London Eyes: British Cinema and Urban Space

Christopher Lindner, Northern Illinois Univ.

clindner@niu.edu

This paper draws on Michel de Certeau’s thinking on the erotics of high-rise voyeurism to consider the representation of empty urban space in contemporary British cinema. Focusing on London, the discussion explores how recent films such as Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002) employ panoramic views of deserted cityscapes that reinforce an iconic image of the city in which the emptiness – despite its deeply uncanny properties – nonetheless plays to the aesthetic and commercial needs of London’s tourist and city-branding industries. To develop this line of thought, the paper begins by placing the motif of the deserted city in the broader context of contemporary cinema culture, specifically addressing how 28 Days Later consciously blurs the distinctions between high and low culture in order to extend in innovative ways the vision of the empty city found in lavish Hollywood productions such as Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky (2001). Seeking to show how such re-imaginings of the city have been an enduring cultural fantasy since the rise of capitalist urbanization, the paper concludes by focusing on the resonances between Danny Boyle’s cinematic cityscape and two very different yet interconnected urban scenes: the first is William Wordsworth’s London poem ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ published in 1807, and the second is the revolving spectacle of the London Eye.

The High Culture Brand: British Television and U. S. Cable

Barbara Selznick, Univ. of Arizona

selznick@email.arizona.edu

This paper will examine the way that cable channels in the U.S. have, in the past ten to fifteen years, used British television programming to “brand” their networks. In this period of increased competition and niche marketing, U.S. cable stations such as A&E and Bravo have relied on British television programming to distinguish their networks from others. These networks have promoted themselves as offering “high culture” or “quality” television. The connection between British media and “high culture” entertainment certainly has historical precedent in film and broadcast television (mainly through PBS). This paper, however, will combine our existing understanding of the cultural connotations of British media with industrial analysis to explore the concrete and practical ramifications of the distinction afforded to British television. Focusing on A&E as a case study this paper will examine how the network incorporated British programming (ranging from the Pride and Prejudice miniseries to the Cracker mystery series) into its schedule and then promoted this programming to position its brand and attract a particular target audience.