Postby bizarre » Wed Nov 01, 2017 1:56 pm
As most aspects of the world and the industry are engaged in either a hardcore acceleration or a massive atavism, I've had my eye on recent casting trends and what they say about the sociopolitical, economic and industrial context they arrive in. With women this is always an interesting cultural study, as so many of the tensions facing a society and industry are represented and codified in the way actresses fit into their media systems, as sex symbols, mother figures, girls-next-door or something more human and interesting. It's an ancient strain of sexism that runs through the industrialised form of any artistic medium. While the States, Ireland, Canada, Australia and elsewhere are producing a relatively dynamic range of young talent, mainland Europe and especially the UK are going in a drastically different direction. I guess the most obvious basis for this is that with mounting social divisions and major geopolitical fault lines like Brexit and the migrant crisis further fragmenting national identities, both subconscious efforts at and propaganda towards consolidating an outdated national culture that is fraying rapidly have resulted in the rapid ascent to domestic and trans-Atlantic stardom for a group of English Roses with personas so boring you have to go all the way back to Anna Neagle and the wartime Madonnas to see a cultural-industrial narrative so specific and archetypal (even Jean Simmons was far too versatile to stay boxed in to this niche).
In Britain there is definitely a parallel generation of ingenues who may be more versatile, idiosyncratic or - debatably - talented and interesting, but probably much less marketable (Jessica Brown Findlay, Gemma Chan, Alice Englert, Georgie Henley, Carey Mulligan, Imogen Poots, Bel Powley, Florence Pugh, Andrea Riseborough, Juno Temple, Maisie Williams, Ruth Wilson et al). But I'd like your input on these trends, not just because they're interesting from a social standpoint but also because personally I find many of these Britannia portrait models to be charisma voids on-screen and was wondering which of the New British Boring this board's members forecast will display talent or have careers more interesting than being figureheads for Imperial nostalgia at a time when Britain's present is in flux and its future uncertain.
There's also a valuable discussion to be had in this area regarding British pop music, so feel free to discuss Adele and co. in the comments.
Last edited by
bizarre on Wed Nov 01, 2017 2:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.
