Female Stars of British Cinema

Abstract

Film stars are often seen as a predominantly Hollywood creation but this book explores how British cinema developed its own culture of stardom, and how its female stars have been prized by audiences worldwide. Female Stars of British Cinema uses case studies of seven female stars whose careers span the 1940s to the present day – Jean Kent, Diana Dors, Rita Tushingham, Glenda Jackson, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Lloyd, and Judi Dench – to explore how British star femininities have developed over time, and how the image of the British female star has responded to broader social and cultural changes. These ‘women in question’ offer a way into the complexities of British cinema’s culture of stardom which has sometimes espoused glamour and sometimes rejected it, and is entangled with issues of regional, national and ethnic identity, as well as class, sexuality and age. Exploring and investigating the variety of British star femininities over the last seventy-five years, this book also interrogates the omissions and absences from that same cinematic firmament.

Why becoming a national treasure matters: Elite celebrity status and inequality in the United Kingdom

“…For the remainder of this paper our focus will be on Dame Judi Dench who, according to the British Film Institute, most gracefully embodies the term 'national treasure'. The existing studies of Dench do not consider her metamorphosis into a national treasure and how she has reacted to this status designation (Funnell, 2015;McDonald, 2005;M. Williams, 2017).…”

“…Proliferating rave reviews, profiles and interviews were accompanied by the publication of the first full biography of 'the first lady of British film and theatre' (see Miller, 1998). The focus now, however, was on how this 'Grand Dame' was redefining the idea of what it meant to be an older, very stylish A-list Hollywood star (M. Williams, 2017). It is in this period that she also opened-up to the media about her personal life with husband, fellow actor, Michael Williams and their daughter, Finty, also an actor.…”