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'Quality', cinema and the 'superior woman' persona: Understanding women's film criticism in post-war Britain (1945-59)

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Melanie Bell-Williams

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Abstract

Criticism was a particularly buoyant area of film culture in Britain during the post-war period, a regular feature in newspapers, periodicals, magazines, and BBC radio programmes. What has not been widely recognised is the central role that women played as critics of film at this time, and where their interests differed from those of their male peers. This article recovers the contribution made by women film critics, arguing that middle-class writers such as C. A. Lejeune and E. Arnot Robertson adopted a form of 'distanced amusement' with regard to themes of sentimentality and romance (associated with low-brow female pleasures). This strategy permitted them to engage with the broader cultures of film-watching, commenting on subjects such as female crying and character identification, and recognising cinema-going as a pleasurable activity for women, subjects which male critics did not discuss. These findings expand knowledge about film criticism in the post-war period and reconfigure received understandings of film culture to account for women's gendered contribution to the critical field. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Bell M

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Women's History Review

Year: 2010

Volume: 19

Issue: 5

Pages: 703-719

Print publication date: 01/11/2010

ISSN (print): 0961-2025

ISSN (electronic): 1747-583X

Publisher: Routledge

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2010.509150

DOI: 10.1080/09612025.2010.509150

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