Living with Hollywood: British film policy and the definition of ‘nationality’

Focusing upon how a ‘national’ film has been historically defined in Britain, this article traces the history of legal definitions of a ‘British’ film and identifies some of the issues around nationality that these have raised. The article begins with a discussion of the introduction of quotas for ‘British’ films in the 1920s and the adoption of the Eady levy as a means of providing production finance to ‘British’ films in the post-war period. It then goes on to examine the introduction, in response to EU regulations governing the film industry, of a ‘Cultural Test’ for ‘British film’ in 2007 and to consider the way in which eligibility for tax reliefs has depended upon a film qualifying as ‘British’. In assessing whether the Cultural Test may be regarded as constituting a ‘break’ in British film policy in terms of a shift from economic to cultural objectives, the article not only indicates the manner in which cultural and economic objectives have been brought into alignment but also identifies how the definition of the ‘national’ for the purposes of tax relief has been designed to encourage ‘transnational’ Hollywood production within the UK. In doing so, the article also indicates how ‘national’ discourses and practices have continued to inform and structure the economic and cultural dynamics of contemporary ‘British’ cinema as well as engaging with, rather than necessarily standing in opposition to, ‘transnational’ and globalising trends.     

The Pre-Roman Iron Age in Britain and Ireland (ca. 800 B.C. to A.D. 100): An overview

Those communities that lived in Britain and Ireland ca. 800 B.C. to A.D. 100 represent particularly well-researched examples of the complex agrarian, nonurban, societies with high population densities that characterize the Pre-Roman Iron Age across temperate Europe. This paper provides a critical introduction to the extensive recent literature on the Pre-Roman Iron Age in Britain and Ireland. Evidence from the large number of salvage excavations and surveys, the application of a wide range of analytical techniques, and important changes in interpretative frameworks are transforming understandings of this period. After reviewing these developments, a chronological account of the period is outlined which attempts to integrate these new results. This suggests that current interpretations of social processes across Iron Age Europe in terms of state formation, urbanization, and core-periphery relations with Mediterranean civilization need revision.     

The un‐reconstructed republic

Al Grassby, The Australian Republic (Leichhardt, NSW: Pluto Press, 1993) pp.315 $24.95 ISBN 0 04013 894 0.

Alan Atkinson, The Muddle‐Headed Republic (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1993) pp.145 $16.95 ISBN 0 19553 638 X.

George Winterton (ed.), We, the People: Australian Republican Government (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1994) pp.209 $19.95 ISBN 1 86373 640 9.

David Headon, James Warden and Bill Gammage (eds), Crown or Country: The Traditions of Australian Republicanism (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1994) pp.197 $24.95 ISBN 1 86373 599 2.

Geoffrey de Q. Walker, Suri Ratnapala and Wolfgang Kasper, Restoring the True Republic (St Leonards, NSW: The Centre for Independent Studies, 1993) pp.74 $n.p. ISSN 0726 3635.