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Shane Meadows
Shane Meadows (born 26 December 1972) is an English director, screenwriter and actor, known for his work in independent film, most notably the cult film '' This Is England'' (2006) and its three sequels (2010–2015). Meadows' other films include '' Small Time'' (1996), '' Twenty Four Seven'' (1997), '' A Room for Romeo Brass'' (1999), '' Once Upon a Time in the Midlands'' (2002), '' Dead Man's Shoes'' (2004), '' Somers Town'' (2006), '' Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee'' (2009), and '' The Stone Roses: Made of Stone'' (2013). Early life Meadows was born on 26 December 1972 in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. In 1982, his father Arty, a lorry driver, discovered the body of Susan Maxwell, a child murder victim of Robert Black, and was initially a suspect in the murder case, which led to Meadows being bullied at school. Meadows moved to Nottingham when he was 20. Career Meadows enrolled on a Performing Arts course at Burton College, where he first met friend and future collaborator Padd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uttoxeter
Uttoxeter ( , ) is a market town in the East Staffordshire district in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is near to the Derbyshire county border. It is situated from Burton upon Trent, from Stafford, from Stoke-on-Trent, from Derby and north-east of Rugeley. The population was 13,089 at the 2011 Census. The town's literary connections include Samuel Johnson and Mary Howitt. History Uttoxeter's name has been spelt at least 79 ways since it appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Wotocheshede": it probably came from Anglo-Saxon ''Wuttuceshǣddre'', meaning "Wuttuc's homestead on the heath". Some historians have pointed to pre-Roman settlement here; axes from the Bronze Age discovered in the town are now on display in the Potteries Museum in Stoke-on-Trent. It is possible that Uttoxeter was the location of some form of Roman activity, due to its strategic position on the River Dove and its closeness to the large garrison forts at Rocester between 69 and 40 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paddy Considine
Patrick George Considine (born 5 September 1973) is an English actor, director, and screenwriter. He frequently collaborates with filmmaker/director Shane Meadows. He has received two British Academy Film Awards, three Evening Standard British Film Awards, British Independent Film Awards and a Silver Lion for Best Short Film at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. His first major onscreen appearance was in his first collaboration with Meadows in ''A Room for Romeo Brass'' (1999) in which he played the small-town disturbed character Morell. His first lead role as love-struck misfit Alfie in Paweł Pawlikowski’s '' Last Resort'' (2000) won him the Best Actor award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. Through the early 2000’s he had leading performances in both '' In America'' (2003) and '' My Summer of Love'' (2004), and supporting parts in '' Doctor Sleep'' (2002) and ''24 Hour Party People'' (2002). His role as Richard in Meadows' revenge film '' Dead Man's Shoes'' (2004), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Independent Film Awards
The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is an organisation that celebrates, supports and promotes British independent cinema and filmmaking talent in United Kingdom. Nominations for the annual awards ceremony are announced in early November, with the ceremony itself taking place in early December. Since 2015, BIFA has also hosted UK-wide talent development and film screening programmes with the support of Creative Skillset and the British Film Institute. History The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) were created in 1998 by Elliot Grove and Suzanne Ballantyne of the Raindance Film Festival, with the aim of celebrating merit and achievement in independently funded British filmmaking, honouring new talent and promoting British films and filmmaking to a wider public audience. BIFA founding members include Phillip Alberstat, Chris Auty, André Burgess, Sally Caplan, Pippa Cross, Christopher Fowler, Lora Fox Gamble, Steven Gaydos, Norma Heyman, Emma E. Hickox, Fred Hogge, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Hickox
Douglas Arthur Hickox (10 January 1929 – 25 July 1988) was an English film and television director. Biography Hickox was born in London, where he was educated at Emanuel School. He started in the film industry at age 17, working at Pinewood Studios as "a thirty bob a week office boy". Hickox worked extensively as an assistant director and second unit director throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. ‘’The British B Film’’ (Steve Chibnall & Brian McFarlane; BFI, 2009) credits him with working on over thirty musical shorts and a handful of jazz/pop supporting featurettes. He worked on TV shows such as ''Sunday Break'' and ''Tempo'' and became a leading director of TV commercials. In 1966 he won several awards for his advertisements at the Venice International Advertising Film Congress.Observer s TV adverts win awards A Staff Reporter. The Observer 19 June 1966: 3, He made his first major picture, '' Entertaining Mr Sloane'', in 1970 at the age of 41. He joined forces wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
This Is England
''This Is England'' is a 2006 British drama film written and directed by Shane Meadows. The story centres on young skinheads in England in 1983. The film illustrates how their subculture, which has its roots in 1960s West Indies culture, especially ska, soul, and reggae music, became influenced by the far-right, especially white nationalists and white supremacists, which led to divisions within the skinhead scene. The film's title is a direct reference to a scene where the character Combo explains his nationalist views using the phrase "this is England" during his speech. Plot In July 1983, Shaun is a troubled 12-year-old boy who lives with his widowed mother and is frequently antagonised in school and around town. On the last day of the school year, Shaun gets into a fight at school with a boy named Harvey after the latter makes an offensive joke about his father, who was killed in the Falklands War. On his way home, Shaun comes across a gang of young skinheads led by Woody, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mean Streets
''Mean Streets'' is a 1973 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese and co-written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin. The film stars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. It was released by Warner Bros. on October 2, 1973. De Niro won the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as "Johnny Boy" Civello. In 1997, ''Mean Streets'' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot Charlie Cappa, a young Italian-American in the Little Italy neighborhood of New York City, is hampered by his feeling of responsibility toward his reckless younger friend John "Johnny Boy" Civello, a small-time gambler and ne'er-do-well who refuses to work and owes money to many loan sharks. Charlie is also having a secret affair with Johnny's cousin Teresa, who has epilepsy and is ostracized because of her condition— ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Clarke
Alan John Clarke (28 October 1935 – 24 July 1990) was an English television and film director, producer and writer. Life and career Clarke was born in Wallasey, Wirral, England. Most of Clarke's output was for television rather than cinema, including work for the famous play strands ''The Wednesday Play'' and ''Play for Today''. His subject matter tended towards social realism, with deprived or oppressed communities as a frequent setting. As Dave Rolinson's book details, between 1962 and 1966 Clarke directed several plays at The Questors Theatre in Ealing, London. Between 1967 and 1969 he directed various ITV productions including plays by Alun Owen (''Shelter'', ''George's Room'', ''Stella'', ''Thief'', ''Gareth''), Edna O'Brien (''Which of These Two Ladies Is He Married To?'' and ''Nothing's Ever Over'') and Roy Minton (''The Gentleman Caller'', '' Goodnight Albert'', '' Stand By Your Screen''). He also worked on the series '' The Informer'', ''The Gold Robbers'' and ''A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique. He began his career as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s, before transitioning to making televised plays and films for BBC Television in the 1970s and '80s. Leigh is known for his lengthy rehearsal and improvisation techniques with actors to build characters and narrative for his films. His purpose is to capture reality and present "emotional, subjective, intuitive, instinctive, vulnerable films." His films and stage plays, according to critic Michael Coveney, "comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period." Leigh's most notable works include the black comedy-drama ''Naked'' (1993), for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kitchen Sink Realism
Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama) is a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose protagonists usually could be described as "angry young men" who were disillusioned with modern society. It used a style of social realism which depicted the domestic situations of working-class Britons, living in cramped rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimy pubs, to explore controversial social and political issues ranging from abortion to homelessness. The harsh, realistic style contrasted sharply with the escapism of the previous generation's so-called "well-made plays". The films, plays and novels employing this style are often set in poorer industrial areas in the North of England, and use the accents and slang heard in those regions. The film '' It Always Rains on Sunday'' (1947) is a precursor of the genre and the John Osborne play ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Midlands
The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. They are split into the West Midlands and East Midlands. The region's biggest city, Birmingham often considered the social, cultural, financial and commercial centre of the Midlands, is the second-largest city and metropolitan area in the United Kingdom. Symbolism A saltire (diagonal cross) may have been used as a symbol of Mercia as early as the reign of Offa. By the 13th century, the saltire had become the attributed arms of the Kingdom of Mercia. The arms are blazoned ''Azure, a saltire Or'', meaning a gold (or yellow) saltire on a blue field. The saltire is used as both a flag and a coat of arms. As a flag, it is flown from Tamworth Castle, the ancient seat of the Mercian Kings, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Leisure Society
The Leisure Society are an English rock band formed by Nick Hemming and Christian Hardy of Burton upon Trent. History Hemming was formerly of early 1990s indie band She Talks to Angels, which included actor Paddy Considine, and film director Shane Meadows. Hemming wrote and performed music for the films '' A Room for Romeo Brass'' and '' Dead Man's Shoes''. He was also a member of The Telescopes. In 2006 Hemming moved to London to work with multi-instrumentalist and producer Christian Hardy; the pair have subsequently built a live band drawn from members of Brighton's Willkommen Collective and further afield, notably Mike Siddell who previously played violin with Hope of the States and The Miserable Rich and currently performs with Lightspeed Champion and Troubles. Other members of the band played with The Miserable Rich and currently play with Sons of Noel and Adrian and more. The Leisure Society have been recipients of critical acclaim, being dubbed the English answer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Telescopes
The Telescopes are an English noise, space rock, dream pop and psychedelic band, formed in 1987 by Stephen Lawrie, David Fitzgerald and Joanna Doran that drew influence from artists such as Suicide, The Velvet Underground, Trite and The 13th Floor Elevators. They have a total of eleven released albums including their debut, ''Taste'', released in 1989. History Their debut release was a split flexi disc with Loop on the Cheree label in 1988, which was given away with the ''Sowing Seeds'' fanzine. There followed their debut single, "Kick the Wall", and "7th# Disaster" also on Cheree Records. They moved to the American What Goes On Records and released their debut album ''Taste'' and "The Perfect Needle" single which is perhaps their most famous song. A live album appeared on Fierce Records and following What Goes On’s bankruptcy they signed to Creation Records. In contrast to ''Tastes noise-rock, a more laid back sound followed, described by journalist Alexis Petridis a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
