ABSTRACT
The British cinema industry during the 1980s - the Thatcher years - enjoyed a Renaissance. Indeed, early on in the decade even Hollywood helped to celebrate its rebirth: Oscars for Chariots OF Fire (Hugh Hudson, 1981), the appointment of its producer, David Puttnam as Director of Production at Columbia Pictures, and more Oscars for Gandhi (Richard Attenborough, 1983). The 1980s also saw notable hits on the art cinema circuit with Letter TO Breznev (Chris Bernard, 1985) and My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears, 1985), recognition for auteurs like Peter Greenaway, John Boorman, and Nicolas Roeg, plaudits in Berlin for heretic iconoclasts like Derek Jarman, and commercial successes for international directors like Stephen Frears, Ridley Scott, Adrian Lyne, and Alan Parker. A more hard-bitten, controlled professionalism among directors eclipsed the volcanic and fizzing talents of a Ken Russell and a Lindsay Ander-son from the previous decades. This group, by and large, opposed the ideological rigidities of Thatcher, matching the Iron Lady’s temperament with an equally steely determination not to whine or indulge in left-wing romanticism.
