British cinema experienced many financial difficulties during the 1980’s because American producers significantly decreased investments into films made in Great Britain (partly due to the revised British tax policy). Another factor that influenced this crisis was the growing video market and thus box office revenues fell from record amounts such as 214,9 million pounds in 1969 to barely a third of that amount in early 1980’s. In these circumstances, British films were rarely profitable in the domestic market, and the American market (that is key for commercial success) was almost closed as a response to the British tax policy change. Investments of British TV companies ensured that the production remained “alive” as well as for a certain independence from commercial requirements. Nevertheless, production of films fell to for Great Britain very modest forty titles per year. Even so, renowned directors, of whom there were many in British cinema, continued to direct interesting films and there also appeared a whole series of new intriguing filmmakers. Thus this period is often referred to as the New British, even though the only common factor for all these filmmakers was that they differed from their predecessors. Their common differences were no less and many of them continued their careers or at least often worked in Hollywood since it needed more originality in its film production.

A typical example of the aforementioned is the debut film by Tony Scot (1944 – 2012) – the original horror film The Hunger (1983), co-produced by the American MGM. Ridley Scott’s younger brother, attracted the attention of Hollywood primarily thanks to his visually attractive style of directing commercials, which was also evident in this feature films. In spite of the stars in leading roles - Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon – the film did not have much success with the critics at the occasion of its premiere and managed to become a cult film only after some time passed. Thus for a while Tony Scott returned to directing commercials and music videos. However, he was soon offered to direct an attractive project in Hollywood - Top Gun. In 1986, this film was a huge success with great ratings and played the key role in making Tom Cruise into a film star. Nevertheless, most critics were not so thrilled with this film, but it enabled Tony Scott to continue working in the USA. He had several other commercial successes as a director and producer.

The most significant author to emerge within the British cinema of the 1980’s was the Irish director Neil Jordan (1950). He relied heavily on the British literary and film tradition, which is evident in the fact that he studied Irish history and English literature Dublin. In 1982, he started to work on film when John Boorman hired him as a creative consultant on his film Excalibur in America-British co-production and filmed in Ireland. Afterwards, Boorman was the executive producer Jordan’s debut feature film Angel (1982) in Irish-British co-production, characterized by a shift from reality and extraordinary visual attractiveness, which announced some of the main traits of the director’s unique style. These were confirmed in his next film The Company Of The Wolves (1984), based on short stories by Angela Carter, which is an unusual interpretation of the fairy tale about Little Red Riding Hood in the form of a horror story in which wolves are replaced by werewolves. Almost the entire film is taking place in the protagonist’s dreams – a girl growing up who does not listen to her granny’s instructions to follow the path through the forest (representing the symbol of preserving virginity) but instead strays into the woods where her physiological and emotional changes are effectively shaped into visually attractive symbols by the director Jordan. In one of the best British films of the 1980’s Mona Lisa (1986), Jordan masterfully executed effective film solutions for portraying deep and often hidden motives that shape the protagonists and determine their actions. Afterwards, he was invited to Hollywood, and with a substantial budget and popular actors he directed several films that were less valuable than his previous ones and also did not have much financial success - High Spirits (1988) and We're No Angels (1989), which could have destroyed any other director’s career. However, Jordan was not interested in commercial success and he returned to his authentic author style with the masterpiece The Crying Game (1992). It was also very successful at the box offices and thus he got another chance at making it in Hollywood. Even though Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) disturbed many Hollywood traditions – his vampires were not pure evil, had homosexual tendencies and the erotic scenes were such that the film received an R rating (only for adults) – the film was a huge hit. But Jordan was not interested in that kind of success, and his next two films were about typical Irish issues and won several international film awards - Michael Collins (1996) won the Golden Lion in Venice and The Butcher Boy (1997) the Silver Bear for best director in Berlin. He finished his most successful decade, the 1990’s, with another great film The End of the Affair (1999). Nevertheless more than commercial success he was more interested in his peculiar film world and he never returned to big projects and preferred to be freer and direct films in Ireland such as Breakfast on Pluto (2005) and Ondine (2009).

If we look at the new British films of the 1980’s as a whole, its most important and socially most provocative representative is the second film by the esteemed TV director Stephen Frears (1941) My Beautiful Launderette, based on the screenplay by Hanif Kureishi (1954) and starring a great crew of at the time unknown actors such as Daniel Day-Lewis. It was this role that launched Lewis toward his future stardom. It is a film that questions the issues of multiculturalism and racial differences in post-colonial Great Britain, which is evident early on in the movie when the future owner of the launderette Omar and his friends encounter a group of racist who attack Pakistanis. He cordially greets their leader Johnny (Day – Lewis) as a dear friend, and as it later becomes obvious his lover who leaves his gang and joins Omar in his unconventional and very successful venture with the launderette. This film examines racial relations from a peculiar recourse as well as social customs of two completely different worlds – Pakistani immigrants and native white Brits: However, the film displays more sympathy towards the outsiders – surprisingly, in this case those are the white Brits – besides Johnny, there is Omar’s rich uncle’s British lover. The originality of this film put an emphasis on Frears and Day-Lewis, as well as Kureishi (whose father was from a rich Pakistani immigrant family and his mother was British), who became one of the leading authors of the young generation of British writers. Perhaps even more than New British Film, these writers managed to disturb the widely accepted social and literary norms. Frears continued with another even more provocative film Prick Up Your Ears (1986) and another and his last collaboration with Hanif Kureishi Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987). Nevertheless, these films did not achieve the success of My Beautiful Laundrette, and their viewership was not very high, but Frears managed to display his directing skills in his hit produced in Hollywood (with a British co-producer) Dangerous Liaisons (1988). Afterwards he directed many films that differed in their quality; in some he looked for fresh stylistic innovation or displayed social criticism and in some truly dazzled with attractive and spectacular directing style thus leaving a permanent mark not just in British but also American film history.

Among the authors who made a name for themselves during the 1980’s and had even stronger ties to Hollywood is Mike Figgis (1948). He directed his debut film Stormy Monday (1988) at the end of the decade when the ties between British and American cinema managed to overcome their conflicts that stemmed from administrative and tax-related reasons. Therefore Americans co-produced Stormy Monday and the main actors were American actors Tommy Lee Jones and Melanie Griffith as well as the popular British musician Sting and young actor Sean Bean, who later continued to have a respectable acting career. Stormy Monday is a British author crime drama that focuses on an American investor, praised by the city officials, who turns out to be a gangster who just wants to turn his investments into means for realizing his criminal activities. Even though this could have been interpreted as an association to the entrance of Hollywood producers to British cinema, what they saw in Figgis was a director who could work also with American actors and in an outstanding way. Thus they immediately hired him to direct the film Internal Affairs (1990), in order to revive Richarde Gere’s career. He confirmed his abilities and helped Nicolas Cage win an Oscar with his drama Leaving Las Vegas (1995). Figgis directed most of his films in the US but he was constantly torn between loving and hating Hollywood, and besides working on films there where he had to conform to certain requirements, in parallel he created completely different films in which he experimented with his artistic expression. For example in Timecode (2000) he divided the screen in four parts and showed four interrelated stories that were filmed with digital camera in parallel.

These four films from the program of British films from the 1980’s show how many valuable films that have a very peculiar approach to portraying society and its mentality, have been created within the British cinema, even though it was occasionally under the influence of the financially more powerful American cinema. Moreover they confirmed how hard it may be to hold on to great authors within the frameworks of national production. (Tomislav Kurelec)