Visual Style

Abstract

Abstract IN order to map the field of visual style in 1950s British cinema, we need to relate the formal elements in the film text to their conditions of production. This means we have to provide an account of some of the shifting power relations in the technical side of the industry--of the struggles of, and accommodations between, art directors, lighting cameramen, costume designers, and others. Much depends on the career trajectories of individual workers-and of who became, or ceased to be, their patron. Having artistic talent was not enough; being offered chances at the right time was crucial. Much depended too on when designers came to maturity or went into artistic decline, and on the degree of autonomy permitted by the director or producer. This depended in turn on the management of the production process. British cinema in the 1950s was in a state of profound flux. Because of the shift away from producer-power and towards distributor-power, the older chain of command grew progressively weaker. This inevitably affected films’ visual style, since the management process engendered a different set of relations between technical workers, in which old patterns of dependence atrophied and new freedoms were seized. In addition, there were technical determinants on visual style. The 1950s was a period of important technological innovations in the film industry, and it had to deal with the artistic consequences of Eastman color, Cinema Scope, and single-strip Technicolor.