| Leonard Quart, in The Religion of the Market, says 'Thatcher's prime contribution to British film making was not the business climate she created, but the subject matter her policies and the culture she helped create provided British directors.' The state of the nation was inspiring our directors to a more prolific artistic output. The implicit and explicit contents of many of the decade's films were critiques of Thatcherite society, films such as The Ploughman's Lunch(1983), My Beautiful Laundrette, High Hopes(1988) and on a more allegorical level Brazil(1985) and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover(1989). Peter Wollen, in The Last New Wave, says 'Independent film-makers of the eighties reacted strongly against the effects of Thatcherism. They responded to the imposition of market criteria to every sector of society, to political authoritarianism, the 'two nations' project of Thatcherism''. Thatcherite politics provoked in film-makers an anger that translated artistically into some very good films. 'It can be seen', Wollen continues, 'as a British New Wave'. |
The Renaissance of the 1980s
Author:Matt Pearson 
Audiences