London in Cinema (The Cinematic City Since 1945)

Charlotte Brunsdon’s illuminating study explores the diverse cinematic “Londons” that appear in films made since 1945.  Brunsdon traces the ways in which film-makers show that a film is set in London--by use of familiar landmarks and the city’s shorthand iconography of red buses and black taxis, and the recurring patterns of representation associated with films set in the East and West Ends of London, from Mona Lisa to It Always Rains on Sunday. London’s transformation from imperial capital to global city is traced through the different ways in which the local is imagined, as well as through the shifting imagery of the River Thames and the Docks. Challenging the view that London is not a particularly cinematic city, Brunsdon demonstrates that many London-set films offer their own meditation on the complex relationships between the cinema and the city.