Cinema of Wales
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The cinema of Wales comprises the art of film and creative movies made in Wales or by Welsh filmmakers either locally or abroad. Welsh cinema began in the late-19th century, led by Welsh-based director William Haggar. Wales continued to produce film of varying quality throughout the 20th century, in both the Welsh and English languages, though indigenous production was curtailed through a lack of infrastructure and finance, which prevented the growth of the industry nationally. Despite this, Wales has been represented in all fields of the film making process, producing actors and directors of note.
History
Origins and early history
The first Wales based film-maker of enduring stature was William Haggar, who made over 30 fiction films between 1901 and 1908.[2] Haggar's work received a worldwide audience mainly through the Gaumont and Urban companies.[3] Haggar's most notable film was Desperate Poaching Affray (1903) which is recognised for its violence, iconoclasm and progressive editing. The film, along with Frank Mottorshaw's A Daring Daylight Burglary and Edwin Stanton Porter's The Great Train Robbery, has in the early Twenty-first century, been credited with influencing the chase subgenre of American films.[4]
Other extant pre–Great War films to be shot in Wales were made by film-makers from outside the country. These included the British Biograph Company's film Conway Castle (1898) and Charles Urban Company's Wales, England: Land of Castles and Waterfalls (1907).
During the first few decades of Welsh cinema Wales was at the height of an industrial revolution, but there is little sense of the industrial landscape or life captured in the early silent movies taken within the country. Visiting companies, such as Edison and British and Colonial tended to favour filming in rural Wales.[3]
1914 to 1980
Much of the cinema of Wales in the later 1910s and 1920s has been lost. In 1920 nine films were shot in Wales, all now lost.[3] One of the most notable and celebrated of the films from this period is A Welsh Singer (1915), adapted from a work by Welsh writer Allen Raine, which starred Florence Turner.[3] Henry Edwards who directed A Welsh Singer, also created the 1930 film Aylwin, from the novel by Theodore Watts-Dunton, drawing into the world of gypsies and a mythical, mystical Wales.[5] The 1930s saw the first Welsh language film, Y Chwarelwr directed by Ifan ab Owen Edwards in 1935. The decade also saw two important agitprop documentaries, Today We Live (1937) set among the unemployed miners of the village of Pentre in the Rhondda Valleys, and Donald Alexander's Eastern Valley (1937). The outbreak of World War II saw the backdrop of a mining valley in Wales being used as the setting for a war propaganda film, The Silent Village (1943). Designed as a tribute to the mining community of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, which had suffered from Nazi atrocities, The Silent Village transpose the events to a Wales; and was also used to draw analogies with the oppression of the Welsh language.[5]
The coming of the
The 1950s and 1960s saw the output of two of the country's best documentary makers.
The period directly following the end of the Second World War saw political and social commentary disappear from Welsh cinema. The first few decades after the war saw few notable Welsh films; stand out exceptions included Tiger Bay (1959) and Only Two Can Play (1962).[3] The main problems facing Welsh cinema during this period were a lack of a film production infrastructure, Welsh producers and finance. The fact that Wales was unable to produce films from within its own borders resulted in the stereotyping and common preconceptions of Welsh life formed by 'outside' film-makers.[9] One of the few beacons of light for the industry came in the late 1970s with the output of left wing producer and director Karl Francis; whose controversial portrayal of contemporary life in the south Wales valleys was typified by his 1976 film Above us the Earth.[9] Welsh language films were few, notably the films produced in the 1970s by the Bwrdd Ffilmiau Cymraeg (Welsh Film Board).
Before the advent of a dedicated channel,
1980 to 1999
1982 saw the launch of
The early 1990s began with the release of Welsh language film
The later 1990s saw three English language films that found a home in mainstream British cinema. The first of the three was Marc Evans'
2000 to present
2000 saw the release of Paul Morrison's Solomon & Gaenor, the second film to be nominated for the foreign language Academy Award.
Films of note in the early twenty-first century set in Wales include comedies House! (2000) and Very Annie Mary (2000), and horror films The Dark (2005) and Evil Aliens (2006). In 2009 a biopic of the early relationship between Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and his wife Caitlin Macnamara was released entitled The Edge of Love.
Film production and development
Despite an improvement in film production in Wales, finance is still an issue, with very few films being created without external funding. House of America took its funding from six different sources while multinationals funded both Twin Town (
Ffilm Cymru Wales is the development agency for Welsh film. It provides funding and training to emerging and established Welsh filmmakers, as well as hosting events that showcase Welsh films.[14]
Animation
Prior to the formation of S4C in 1982, there was very little work produced in the field of
The opportunities afforded by S4C's animation unit encouraged an influx of talented British artists into Wales.[17] The best known of this group of animators was Joanna Quinn, who gained an Oscar nomination in 1998 for Famous Fred, and produced one of the segments of The Canterbury Tales, which was Oscar nominated the year after.
Welsh film directors
Wales has produced film directors of quality throughout its history, though those that have found success have more often needed to leave Wales to gain recognition. Although based in Wales neither Cheetham or Haggar were Welsh born, similar for Sidney Northcote who in 1912 produced a number of short films shot on location in Wales and Cornwall, based on Welsh and Cornish myths and tales, including The Pedlar of Penmaenmawr, The Witch of the Welsh Mountains and The Belle of Bettwys-y-Coed.[18]
Welsh-born directors who have gained international recognition include
Later Welsh directors, such as Sara Sugarman and Marc Evans made films set in Wales. Welsh director Gareth Evans lived from 2009 to 2015 in Indonesia, where he made such action movies as The Raid.
Welsh movie actors
Wales has a long tradition of producing film-actors who have made an impact on the world stage. During the silent period Welsh actors of note included
The 1940s saw
The most significant period for Welsh actors came during the 1950s and 1960s. A new wave of realism entered British acting, and at the forefront came Welsh actors Richard Burton, Stanley Baker and Rachel Roberts. The period also saw Welsh character actors such as Hugh Griffith, who won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in the 1959 version of Ben Hur.
Another famous Welsh actor is Timothy Dalton who portrayed famous secret agent James Bond twice at the end of the eighties.
The most distinctive Welsh actor of the 1990s through to the 2000s was Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins has appeared in film since the 1960s, starring in Hollywood costume dramas such as The Lion in Winter. Starring in films as diverse as Richard Attenborough's Magic and David Lynch's The Elephant Man, Hopkins became a Hollywood star after his Academy Award-winning performance as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1992). Hopkins continued to impress throughout the 1990s with critically acclaimed performances in Shadowlands and Remains of the Day.
The 1990s produced an abrasive group of Welsh actors, including Rhys Ifans and Matthew Rhys. The 1990s also saw the success of Catherine Zeta-Jones, who became one of Hollywood's highest paid stars, appearing alongside Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins in The Mask of Zorro and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Chicago. The 2000s are most notable for the emergence of Ioan Gruffudd, who took the lead role in the 2006 historical drama Amazing Grace, and Michael Sheen who appeared as Tony Blair in Peter Morgan's Blair Trilogy and played David Frost in Frost/Nixon.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c "52 Welsh film facts 1-10". BBC Wales. 5 March 2010. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
- ^ Davies (2008) p. 281
- ^ a b c d e f g h Davies (2008) p. 282
- ^ Davies (2008) p. 211
- ^ a b c d e "Welsh people and culture in film". BBC Wales. 27 October 2009. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
- ^ "52 Welsh film facts". BBC Wales. 5 March 2010. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
- ^ Davies (2008) p. 380
- ^ Davies (2008) p. 633
- ^ a b c d e f g Davies (2008) p. 283
- ^ Thomas, Simon (24 April 2001). "House of Commons debate: Digital Television". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 11 July 2012.
- ^ Evans, J.R.P. (1991). "The role of Adult education in preserving the identity of an ethnic minority: the Welsh case". European Association for the Education of Adults. eaea.org. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
- ^ Clark, Rhodri (31 October 2007). "Could George Bush follow Shane as the new 'Cymru cowboyo'?". Western Mail. thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
- ISBN 9780521469456. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
- ^ "About us". Ffilm Cymru. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
- ^ "Cymru Awards". BAFTA. August 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
- ^ "Rhys Ifans rejuvenates Jerry the Tyke". BBC. 9 September 2002. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
- ^ Davies (2008) p. 284
- ^ Berry (1996) p. 453
- ^ Berry (1996) p. 376
- ^ Berry (1996) p. 400
- ^ Berry (1996) pp. 404-407
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6.
- Berry, David (1996). Wales and Cinema, The First Hundred Years. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1370-1.