ABSTRACT
In this chapter I want to address a series of questions which the concept ‘national cinema’ raises and to argue the case that debates around what is national cinema are still extremely important ones to be having, as indeed is the production itself of a national cinema (whatever that might happen to mean). I should make the point too that, as general editor of the National Cinema Series for Routledge (since 1989), I am acutely aware that the national of cinemas has been quite uppermost in my mind for over ten years now; and I am also acutely aware that there are no easy definitions-nor do I seek to establish any. What I do bear in mind, however, is Terry Eagleton’s statement that ‘To wish class or nation away…is to play straight into the hands of the oppressor’ (1990:23). In the light of the above comments, the questions I am raising are: What is the value of a ‘national’ cinema? What needs does it fulfil? How can we think in terms of framing or conceptualising it? What function does it serve? And, why is it still extremely important to be talking about it?
