Are UK broadcasters flouting EU law?
Which would be a first for us. I ask, because an item in the Herald Tribune notes that in a minor outbreak of liberalisation, "A one-vote margin of 324 to 323 determined that advertising breaks should be increased to every half hour. Currently, ad breaks are allowed every 45 minutes for dramas. For films, there are breaks after 45 minutes and 90 minutes, and a third after 20 more minutes. For news and children's programming, the present standard is an ad break every 30 minutes".
Erm, I have stopped watching films on the advertising funded channels because there are so many ad breaks, rendering films unwatchable in my opinion, and I will eat my hat (a black rabbit fur ushanka) if Five only breaks every 45 minutes rather than what seems to be about every 15.
Erm, I have stopped watching films on the advertising funded channels because there are so many ad breaks, rendering films unwatchable in my opinion, and I will eat my hat (a black rabbit fur ushanka) if Five only breaks every 45 minutes rather than what seems to be about every 15.
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just what new films are worth watching?
None!
I fall about laughing that a gay midget such as tom cruise is held as some kind of hero.
the only film actor who really is a man is mel gibson, even if he is a little bonkers
I can't stand Mel Gibson. I've never even seen a movie with him in it. I strongly dislike his face.
Mel Gibson is also a midget.
Satellite gets longer ad breaks that terrestrial - I thought it was 16 mins each hour. I know SAT-1 seems to break every 11 minutes or so
Not too many convincing heroes around at the moment. They've all gone and got old on us.
This can be flouted by putting in station ID or public service notices and then running a bank of ads after it as well.
There's something about Mel Gibson's face that is just unpleasant. I think he looks insane.
Why haven't you started a thread on Blair being interviewed by the Yard? We are all waiting to pile in!
On the subject of the British film industry and its subsidies. I was chatting elsewhere today as follows (On EU criteria for a British film)
xxxxxxxxxx you are a prat .Why the hell should tax payers prop up the "British Fim Industry"
You are aware that such is the awfulness of its product that film goers actively avoid it until American Audiences have approved.
Where is your silly parochial pride in the artistic deadweight of our turgid output then? Nowhere.
Let me remind you of the horror of "Brassed Off" as symbolic of all the inward looking special pleading fetid offall our "creative" class dump on us . Consider "The Matrix " as an exemplar of the muscular invention of the US based world of ideas.
We sit around wondering why the media is so religiously attached to a statist agenda , It isn't hard is it ,that's who pays them which goes most of all for the BBC which should be burnt to the ground tomorrow . This is all comes form the French and their Language need for a domestic Film Industry. Also their constant wish to subvert the EU to their own utterly selfish and entirely nationalist ends.
So there....
N - I make you right there. The Yanks focus on making money, 'we' focus on being worthy, and a watchable British film is almost oxymoronic. Exhibits A & B - Loach and Leigh. I would rather stab myself with a fork - eight times - than sit through another one of those drearfests.
Me too. I cannot remember the last time I watched a British film. They are so self-regarding, dreary and preachy. Americans, with the exception of George Clooney and Michael Moore, make films to entertain.
Ah - honourable exception for gangster films. There have been quite a few good ones.
Balls C
if something is good it will sell, doesnt need tax breaks
I may watch the lady killers tonight
Verity
Do you let rooms ? (+:
PH - erm, why? I think we are agreeing on this one.
I think the charcters in the Lady Killers would be in for a very nasty shock if they chose to hide out chez Verity.Actually that might be a pretty good film.
( Although chez phitch might be an even worse idea)
Doh, that went 'whoosh' when PH posted it. (Hangs head in shame)
Since you are all complaining about British films, let me point out that "The English Patient" is an absolute masterpiece, mainly because of the excellent script of the British script writer. And what about Stanley Kubrick and Monty Python?
Peter Hitchens,
"I fall about laughing that a gay midget such as tom cruise is held as some kind of hero."
My feelings about tom cruise are similar. He looks more like the personification of a braggart than of an hero. But are you sure that he is gay?
I don't care if he is gay
I just laugh that he lies about it and even worse is a scientologist
And yes ,I am sure
Cruise is gay. In my short time living in hollywood no ever said anything else about him apart from why was he with that ginger slag.
Still, it does seem scientology may be a cure for gayness,eh?
Perhaps PH could take it up as insurance against falling under the influence...
PHitch - That was funny, and it didn't go over my head! Cor! Some people, eh?
Colin - I wish I could claim Kubrick as one of our own, but alas he is from ther other side of the Atlantic. Although 'Full Metal Jacket' was largely filmed in Essex. True story.
Historically there have been plenty of decent British films, but over the last 20 years or so they have been rarer than hen's teeth, mainly - I consider - because the commercial imperative has not been there, but rather a desire to impress the arts commissariat.
V - As indeed it was. I failed to ride the reference train this time. Even Homer nods, let alone me...
Blimey verity
Not much gets parst you withart a dart (+:
I have decided, tonight's film is "Great Expectations" with Johnny Mills.
Hot Chocolate with a dose of Somerfields (economy) single malt and comfortable socks, no better way to go to sleep and forget the hell hole this country has become (well there is , but Im 43 and have gout)
Good night (=;
OI COLIN! -Since you are all complaining about British films, let me point out that "The English Patient" is an absolute masterpiece
Colin if you are any kind of a man you `ll come back here and defend that ridiculous remark . The English Patient was a simply appalling film. Explain to me the relevance of the Herodotus other than snob value.
Yuk ...coffee table chick book with added oestrogen , too long , bloated with unnecessary detail .
Films
1 Casablanca
2 Stage Coach
3 Angels with Dirty faces
4 Matrix
5 Aliens
6 Blazing saddles
7 Die hard
8 Henry V
9 Overboard…sorry
10 Les Enfants Du Parodie …jus kidding
Oh yes yes Great expectations love it and Rebbecca and vertigo and Point Blank and Bringing up baby...and a thousand more all better than the English Patient
Agree, Newmania. Anything is better than pretentious, grant- supported British cinema.
You left out 'Charade'. What could have been more stylish than Cary Grant in his last girl-gets-guy comedy-thriller? Audrey Hepburn, costumes by Givenchy, Paris, a witty script and Charles Coburn as one of the suspects?
What a wonderful movie, even today, and not a dime from the public purse!
In this country, I believe the rules re ad breaks changes when ITV brought its news bulletin forward from 11pm to 10.00pm (sometimes) and then 10.30pm. It was from this time that an hour-long programme would typically have 4 ad breaks rather than 3. Self-defeating really, because with modern technology it is easier to skip through the commercials (if you are watching a recording) or, more likley, decide to avoid commercial television entirely. For all the reservations about the BBC, at least you usually get to see programmes uninterrupted (although there are far too many trailers in between).
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