 Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari
Director: Sam Mendes
Year Of Release: 1999
Plot: Outwardly Lester Burnham seems to have the perfect suburban life, with a successful wife, teenage daughter and a decent job. However he’s having a mid-life crisis, and develops an infatuation with his daughter’s sexy friend, decides to quit his job and starts smoking pot. However as Lester begins to find contentment in a very different life from the uptight one he’s used to, tragedy awaits around the corner. |
As a sort of follow-up to
yesterday’s feature about the fact that non-English language films never even get off the starting blocks amongst mainstream audiences in the UK and America, today we’re going to look at why Britain may be the most successful filmmaking nation in the world, at least in terms of the talent we produce. The reason it’s worth talking about in association with American Beauty is, of course, because it was directed by a Brit, Sam Mendes, who won the Best Director Oscar for the film, which was his very first movie!
We’re used to thinking about America being the dominant moviemaking force, but while they have all the money, it doesn’t mean that Britain can’t provide more than its far share of the talent. America has a population of 307 million, roughly five times the UK’s comparatively paltry 60 million. However, every single one of the top 10 films ever at the worldwide box office have had British actors playing many of the major roles (even The Dark Knight has a Brit playing the Caped Crusader and a British director, while the likes of Titanic, Lord Of The Rings, Pirates Of The Caribbean and Harry Potter have been full of us limeys). Four of them were also filmed in the UK.
The two biggest grossing franchises in film history, Harry Potter and James Bond, are both based on British characters created by British writers. The third biggest, Star Wars, had more British actors in it than any other nationality, and the first four of the films (and some of the other two) were all filmed in the UK.
While we’re talking box office, UK film Council figures show that last year UK productions (including UK co-productions with other countries) accounted for 14.9% of the worldwide box office. That means UK productions made significantly more money at the box office worldwide than every other country combined, except for the US, which of course dominates the global box office. In Britain itself, solely American productions made up 65% of the box office in our cinemas, 30.7% were UK films or UK co-productions, and the rest of globe made up a measly 3%. Perhaps more notable is in the US, where the rest of the planet made up only 1.9% of the box office, but 16.3% came from films classed as at least partly as UK productions. Even if you strip out the films that we co-produced with American companies, Britain still roughly equals every other non-US country on the planet added together at the American box office.
If we head over to the Oscars, the numbers of Brits who’ve won are second only to Americans in all of the major categories. Of the last 20 Best Picture Oscar winners, 14 of those have included at least one nomination for a British person for that film in another category – even No Country For Old Men had a cinematographer from Torquay in Devon. There’s been a British Best Director nominee for 13 of the last 20 years, as well as for 11 of those years in the Best Actor and Actress categories, 10 years for Best Supporting Actor and 13 years for Best Supporting Actress. The BFI lists 302 Oscar wins for the UK, including at least one every single year since 1955.
Although it’s undoubtedly true America still dominates the mainstream movie world and certainly has most of the power, there’s little doubt that the UK punches massively above its weight. Although the fact all the cash is held by the US studios may mean films made for UK audiences with UK money still tend to be low budget and struggle to get made at all, in terms of talent, Britain is a true powerhouse. With directors like Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Stephen Frears, Tony Scott, Nike Newell and Paul Greengrass, and so many top-rated, world renowned actors it’s impossible to list them all, as well as impressive UK representation in most other areas of mainstream filmmaking, the UK is definitely secondly only to America on the filmmaking scale. That’s not to forget world class filmmaking facilities like Pinewood and Elstree, as well as things like the London Symphony Orchestra, which has recorded the scores for everything from Star Wars and Harry Potter to Indiana Jones and Superman.
The UK is undoubtedly a great moviemaking nation, and the world of film would be much worse off is it weren’t for UK talent (and that’s not even getting onto the fact that virtually every major US TV show now includes at least one British actor in a major role). Hell if a Brit can go over and make a US based movies called American Beauty and win the Best Director Oscar for it – and it’s only the first film he’s ever made – it just goes to show what amazing movie talent Britain produces, and that for our size, we may well produce more top class mainstream filmic talent than any other country in the world.
TIM ISAAC
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