BRITISH CULTURE: WHAT IT GAVE THE WORLD
Great Britain is generally known as the country of reserved people with good taste, with a healthy conservatism in everything, including culture. London could claim being the classical music capital of Europe with its five symphony orchestras and high standards of performance. Britain has never been known for its great classical performances, but it has been able to attract world best performers and composers like Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of the famous German composer, Handel and Haydn. Haydn’s symphony No. 104 is actually nicknamed the London Symphony. British composers of this century, born in London and maintaining classical trends in music are, among others, Benjamin Britten and Elton John. Most classical music performers know that the invitation to perform in the famous Albert Hall or Royal festival Hall is the sign of the universal recognition. Over years, English musicians have had an enormous impact on popular music – much greater, strangely, than their influence on "serious” music. The Beatles, the famous "Liverpool Four”, appeared after famous Cliff Richard, who mainly imitated the style of Elvis Presley. Their style – turbulent and concerned not only with a catchy motive, but with a deep contents, gave rise to a long row of bands like the Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and some others. Young people from other countries often learned the English language specially to be able to understand their songs.
History Throughout its history, the United Kingdom has been a major exporter and source of musical innovation in the modern and contemporary eras, drawing its cultural basis from the history of the United Kingdom, from church music, from Western culture and from the ancient and traditional folk music and instrumentation of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. In the 20th century, influences from the music of the United States became most dominant in popular music. This led to the explosion of the British Invasion, while subsequent notable movements in British music include the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and Britpop. The United Kingdom has one of the world's largest music industries today, with many British musicians having had an impact on modern music.
Literature of Great Britain is also worth learning English specially to be able to read it. William Shakespeare’s tragedies "Hamlet”, "Othello”, "King Lear” and others, as well as his sonnets, have entered the world’s treasure-house of literature. The writers of the 19th century, Conan Doyle and Dickens have created personages whom many people believe to be real. Letters from different countries of the world still come to the address where Conan Doyle’s world-famous character, Sherlock Holmes lived. The world readership enjoys literary works by Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wild – the writers whose outstanding subtle humour and wit have never been surpassed. Biting satire by William Thackerey, sentimental, mild and romantic novels by Emily and Charlotte Bronté, humorous, sad and romantic stories by Steven Leacock, Hector Munro, Jerome K. Jerome, are only gaining popularity in the course of time and inspire film directors of different countries to make new screen versions of their books. British museums is also something on the one hand specifically English, and integrated in the world culture, on the other hand. One of the examples is Madam Tussauds’ Wax Museum. The idea has been picked up and now the production of wax figures has become the world-wide industry. So in many ways British culture has become an indispensable part of world culture as well.
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4. British Cinema
The United Kingdom has had a significant film industry for over a century. While film production reached an all-time high in 1936, the 'golden age' of British cinema is usually thought to have occurred in the 1940s, during which the directors David Lean, Michael Powell, and Carol Reed produced their most highly acclaimed work. Many British actors have achieved international fame and critical success, including Michael Caine, Sean Connery and Kate Winslet Some of the most commercially successful films of all films have been produced in the United Kingdom, including the two highest-grossing film series (Harry Potter and James Bond).
The identity of the British industry, and its relationship with Hollywood, has been the subject of debate. The history of film production in Britain has often been affected by attempts to compete with the American industry. Numerous British-born directors, including Alfred Hitchcock and Ridley Scott, and performers, such as Charlie Chaplin and Cary Grant, have achieved success primarily through their work in the United States. Many British films are international co-productions with American producers and finance, often using mixed British and American crews and casts.
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In 2011 British films grossed around $2 billion worldwide and achieved a market share of around 7% globally and 17% in the United Kingdom. The annual British Academy Film Awards hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts are the British equivalent of the Oscars
History
The first moving picture was shot in Leeds by Louis Le Prince in 1888 and the first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890.
The Lumière brothers show first came to London in 1896.
Although the earliest British films were of everyday events, the early 20th century saw the appearance of narrative shorts, mainly comedies and melodramas. The early films were often melodramatic, and there was a distinct preference for storylines which were already known to the audience - in particular adaptations of Shakespeare plays and Dickens' novels.
In 1920 the short-lived company Minerva Films was founded in London by the actor Leslie Howard (also producer and director) and his friend and story editor Adrian Brunel.
By the mid-twenties the British film industry was losing out to heavy competition from the United States, which was helped by its much larger home market - in 1914 25% of films shown in the UK were British, but by 1926 this had fallen to 5%. The biggest star of the silent era, English comedian Charlie Chaplin, was Hollywood based. The Cinematograph Films Act 1927 was passed in order to boost local production, requiring that cinemas show a certain percentage of British films. The act was technically a success, with audiences for British films becoming larger than the quota required. But it had the effect of creating a market for poor quality, low cost films, made in order to satisfy the quota. The 'quota quickies', as they became known, are often blamed by historians for holding back the development of the industry. However, later important British film-makers learnt their craft making such films, including Michael Powell.
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The early sound period
Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929) is often regarded as the first British sound feature.
Many of the British films of the 1930s were produced by London Films, founded by the Hungarian emigre Alexander Korda. The success of The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), made at British and Dominion in Elstree, persuaded United Artists to invest in Korda's Denham Film Studios, which opened in May 1936.
World War II
By now Humphrey Jennings had begun his distinguished series of documentaries to shape the popular image of the nation at war. Among the best known of these films are In Which We Serve (1942), We Dive at Dawn (1943), Millions Like Us (1943) and The Way Ahead (1944)
Post-war cinema
For the moment, the industry hit new heights of creativity in the immediate post-war years. Among the most significant films produced during this period were David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) and his Dickens adaptations Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), Carol Reed's thrillers Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949), and Powell and Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948), the most commercially successful film of its year in the United States. Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (also 1948)
During the 1950s, the British industry began to concentrate on popular comedies and World War II dramas aimed more squarely at the domestic audience. The war films were often based on true stories and made in a similar low-key style to their wartime predecessors.
Social realism 
The British New Wave film makers attempted to produce social realist films (see also 'kitchen sink realism') attempted in commercial feature films released between around 1959 and 1963 to convey narratives about a wider spectrum of people in Britain than the country's earlier films had done.
The 1960s
The James Bond series was the first to gross over a billion dollars, and is still the highest-grossing after adjusting for inflation.As the 1960s progressed, American studios returned to financially supporting British films. American directors were regularly working in London throughout the decade, but several became permanent residents in the UK.
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To 1990
In 1980 only 31 British films were made, a 50% decline from the previous year and the lowest number since 1914, and production fell again in 1981 to 24 films. The industry suffered further blows from falling cinema attendances, which reached a record low in 1984, and the elimination of the Eady levy, a tax concession, in the same year. The concession had made it possible for an overseas based film company to write off a large amount of its production costs by filming in the UK — this was what attracted a succession of big-budget American productions to British studios in the 1970s. These factors led to significant changes in the industry, with the profitability of British films.
To 2000
Compared to the 1980s, investment in film production rose dramatically. In 1989, annual investment was a £104 million. By 1996, this figure had soared to £741 million. Nevertheless, the dependence on finance from television broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4 meant that budgets were often low and indigenous production was very fragmented: the film industry mostly relied on Hollywood inward investment.
Tax incentives allowed American producers to increasingly invest in UK-based film production throughout the 1990s, including films such as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) and The Mummy (1999). Miramax also distributed Neil Jordan's acclaimed thriller The Crying Game (1992), which was generally ignored on its initial release in the UK, but was a considerable success in the United States
Among the more successful British films were the Merchant Ivory productions Howards End (1992) and The Remains of the Day (1993), Richard Attenborough's Shadowlands (1993), and Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare adaptations.
After a six year hiatus for legal reasons the James Bond films returned to production with the 17th Bond film, GoldenEye. With their traditional home Pinewood Studios fully booked, a new studio was created for the film in a former Rolls-Royce aero-engine factory at Leavesden in Hertfordshire.
To 2010
The first decade of the 21st century was a relatively successful one for the British film industry. Many British films found a wide international audience due to funding from BBC Films, Film 4 and the UK Film Council, and some independent production companies, such as Working Title, secured financing and distribution deals with major American studios. Working Title scored three major international successes, all starring Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, with the romantic comedies Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), which grossed $254 million worldwide; the sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, which earned $228 million; and Richard Curtis's directorial debut Love Actually (2003), which grossed $239 million. Most successful of all, Phyllida Lloyd's Mamma Mia! (2008) which grossed $601 million.
The new decade saw a major new film series in the US-backed but British-made Harry Potter films, beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 2001. David Heyman's company Heyday Films has produced seven sequels, with the final title released in two parts – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 in 2010 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 in 2011. All were filmed at Leavesden Studios in England.
The start of the 21st century saw Asian British cinema assert itself at the box office, starting with East is East (1999) and continuing with Bend It Like Beckham (2002). Other notable British Asian films from this period include My Son the Fanatic (1997), Ae Fond Kiss... (2004), Mischief Night (2006), Yasmin (2004) and Four Lions (2010). Some argue it has brought more flexible attitudes towards casting Black and Asian British actors, with Robbie Gee and Naomie Harris take leading roles in Underworld and 28 Days Later respectively. The year 2005 saw the emergence of The British Urban Film Festival, a timely addition to the film festival calendar which recognised the influence of Kidulthood on UK audiences and which consequently began to showcase a growing profile of films in a genre which previously was not otherwise regularly seen in the capital’s cinemas. Then in 2005 Kidulthood, a film centring on inner-city London youth had a limited release. This was successfully followed up with a sequel Adulthood (2008) that was written and directed by actor Noel Clarke. Several other films dealing with inner city issues and Black Britons were released in the 2000s such as Bullet Boy (2004), Life and Lyrics (2006) and Rollin' With the Nines (2009).
Like the 1960s, this decade saw plenty of British films directed by imported talent. The American Woody Allen shot Match Point (2005)[43][44] and three later films in London. The Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón helmed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and Children of Men (2006); New Zealand film-maker Jane Campion made Bright Star (2009), a film set in 19th century London; Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn made Bronson (2008), a biopic about the English criminal Michael Gordon Peterson; the Spanish film-maker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directed 28 Weeks Later (2007), a sequel to a British horror film; and two John le Carré adaptations were also directed by foreigners - The Constant Gardener by the Brazilian Fernando Meirelles and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by the Swedish Tomas Alfredson.
The decade also saw English actor Daniel Craig became the new James Bond with Casino Royale, the 21st entry in the official Eon Productions series.
To present
On 26 July 2010 it was announced that the UK Film Council, which was the main body responsible for the development of promotion of British cinema during the 2000s, would be abolished, with many of the abolished body's functions being taken over by the British Film Institute. Actors and professionals campaigned against the Council's abolition. The move also led American actor and director Clint Eastwood to write to the British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in August 2010 to protest the decision to close the Council. Eastwood warned Osborne that the closure could result in fewer foreign production companies choosing to work in the UK. An online campaign was launched and a petition established by supporters of the Council. At the closure of the UK Film Council on 31 March 2011, The Guardian reported that "The UKFC's entire annual budget was a reported £3m, while the cost of closing it down and restructuring is estimated to have been almost four times that amount." One of the UKFC's last films, The King's Speech, is estimated to have cost $15m to make and grossed $235m, besides winning several Academy Awards.
In January 2012, at Pinewood Studios to visit film-related businesses, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that his government had bold ambitions for the film industry: "Our role, and that of the BFI, should be to support the sector in becoming even more dynamic and entrepreneurial, helping UK producers to make commercially successful pictures that rival the quality and impact of the best international productions. Just as the British Film Commission has played a crucial role in attracting the biggest and best international studios to produce their films here, so we must incentivise UK producers to chase new markets both here and overseas."
The film industry remains an important earner for the British economy. According to a UK Film Council press release of 20 January 2011, £1.115 billion was spent on UK film production during 2010.
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