This Is England. And Englishness.

This, after all, was a time when National Front-supporting skinheads would march through our town centre on Saturday afternoons, and the news, circulated through the Asian community, would prompt our parents to ensure we did not venture into town. Memories of those fear-filled afternoons came rushing back to me as I watched This Is England, an astonishingly powerful and compelling new film from Shane Meadows. The 1980s were about more than Rubik's cubes, ZX Spectrums and the New Romantics, and by recalling the dark side of the decade, Meadows rescues it from the lazy compressions of nostalgia.

Updated.

Its associations with racism have meant that skinhead culture has inspired less cinematic affection than other English youth cultures. This Is England is, among other things, an attempt to rehabilitate the skinhead movement by reminding us of its links with ska and reggae, and to capture a moment when there was nothing oxymoronic about being a black skinhead.

Also in the Guardian: "This Is England left me with a sense that perhaps my mother had sneakily been selling film options on my early 1980s diaries, because sitting through it was akin to watching a rerun of my youth in the forlorn resort of Margate," writes Iain Aitch.

And Danny Leigh: "Most of us have our theories as to why Meadows's accounts of suburbs and small towns have such novelty value in the ersatz world of British movies. Personally, I put it down to the class filter that dominates the industry."

All this and the film doesn't even open until April 27. Meanwhile, the Guardian also takes notes of another sort of Englishness, namely, that "Mr Bean's rubbery face and pratfalls may be unfunny here, but they obviously have some kind of recognition in Iran." And "if you ask a non-Brit to describe Mr Bean, these are the words they deliver back: hapless, awkward, self-conscious, childlike, disaster-prone ... and British." Patrick Barkham wonders how that's happened.

And then there's this shocking news: "Britain is a nation of 'film bluffs' with many people lying about the films they have seen and their favorite titles in a bid to appear more intellectual, according to a new survey." The Evening Standard reports.

Updates: "London today is so absurdly cinematic, in its outrageous contrasts of wealth and scale, that its almost criminal that no-one is doing anything with it." Another excellent entry from Owen Hatherley.

"Is Terence Davies the greatest living director that no one talks about?" Blogging for Reverse Shot, robbiefreeling argues, basically, yes.

Posted by dwhudson at April 13, 2007 6:27 AM