Le film patrimonial / anglais

II- Le film patrimonial :

Heritage film and film adaptation. It is a category linked with british and American cinema. Heritage is a public project in the UK, but in terms of culture, it refers to cinematographic production. It means films that are based on the cultural productions: films adapt canonical literary texts. Heritage film is derived from an act which was passed in 1980: the Heritage Act. It established a certain number of rule to preserve the British identity and past. It was passed in 1990s in reaction to the Mentmore Towers (Buckinghamshire): they sold ancient piece of furniture that were part of the British culture. The main representative of heritage film are James Ivory.

1) The evolution of heritage film:

“Pride and Prejudice” 1995: BBC series Produced by Sue Birtwistle is characterized by verisimilitude, developed-plot and sub-text. This series allows to develop the plot into several parts and not to miss elements of the novel.

“Pride and Prejudice” 2005: Joe Wright: more realistic film (realism). Trend of the early 2000: mix of realism and non realistic passages. It is getting rid of the historical reconstitution, any period costume drama but only based on characters: it is the muddy hem version. These adaptations do not try to represent an idealistic past.

Linda Troost: explains the evolution of adaptation of heritage film. The Hollywood style: in the 1940s: specific types of adaptation (Robert Z. Leonard) which is more based on the plot and not on historical reconstitution. The social class discourse disappears and it replaced by stereotypical vision: the way American thought about the UK. These films were based on pre-established vision of national identity and stereotypes on UK.