The Gown Student Newspaper at Queen's University Belfast

FEATURES: 2011 in film

2011 can be considered a good year in film, if you take a view that makes a few glaring omissions. While Hollywood stumbles on with its incessant remakes, reboots, re-imaginings, sequels, prequels, threequels and adaptations vibrant and vital filmmaking continues to come from other avenues.

BY MATTHEW MCKERNAN

While the extremely successful Harry Potter franchise ended in July and November saw the beginning of the end of The Twilight Saga, Hollywood looks like it might be losing its key tent pole films. Though a brief scan of the film’s due for a 2012 release makes it clear that the blockbuster format has not yet been exhausted.

Yet there was some indication of blockbuster fatigue in the UK box office. Palme D’Or winner The Tree of Life managed to hold a place in the Top 10 for three weeks, despite competition from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Being a rather difficult art film and certainly a hard sell, despite the presence of Brad Pitt, the film’s success at the box office was telling.

Similarly, The Guard did good business, retaining a place in the UK box office for five weeks despite only being released in Northern Ireland. A hit domestically, the film also travelled well with good reviews across the UK and the US. A good sign for a domestic Irish cinema and proof that there is an international market for homegrown cinema.

2011 saw yet another comeback for Woody Allen with Midnight in Paris. Neither the critics nor the box office takings have been kind to Woody Allen recently, despite his work being of a fairly consistent quality since the Seventies. Midnight in Paris has proven to be a success with the critics and became Woody Allen’s high-grossing film so far.

It was an interesting year in censorship. Following on from last year’s Last House on the Left remake, this year saw the release of yet another remake of a Video Nasty. This time it was I Spit On Your Grave. For those who don’t know, the Video Nasties were a collection of 60 horror and thriller films banned seemingly at random by the BBFC due to pressure from an outraged tabloid press. While the original I Spit On Your Grave was banned outright, the remake was passed with cuts made, while the similar Straw Dogs remake was passed uncut. On top of this, the notorious Cannibal Holocaust was given a wide DVD re-release with many of the cut sequences reinstated. It seemed as if censorship guidelines had slipped until the arrival of The Human Centipede II: Full Sequence, which was banned outright by the BBFC. It was eventually released cut by two and a half minutes. This banning was a controversial reminder that films still can go too far.

Sadly, 2011 also saw the deaths of many significant people from the older generations of cinema. Amongst them were Elizabeth Taylor, Edward Hardwicke, Ken Russell, Sidney Lumet, Anna Massey, Peter Falk, John Neville, Michael Gough, Jane Russell, Maria Schneider, John Barry, Susannah York, Peter Yates and Pete Postlewaith.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 7:02 pm and is filed under Arts + Ents, Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.