Celluloid Cymru: Landscape and society in 20th Century Welsh Cinema

Abstract

This thesis provides an overview of Welsh cinema in the twentieth century, circa 1912-1997, focusing on how notions of Welsh society, identity and culture have been depicted, and how cinema shows that these notions have shifted and adapted across the period. Complicating this shift is the fact that Welsh cinema is more transnational than national, made by outsiders and outside production companies who have imposed their own ideas onto Wales, with little in the way of an internalised film industry until the 1980s. This thesis will examine this transnationality, exploring how it has affected the development of Welsh cinema and ideas about Welsh society, and how international filmmakers have used and adapted aspects of the Welsh landscape, using it as an ‘actor’ to portray other societies, landscapes and cultures. These filmmakers tell a variety of stories which we can argue to be a vital part of Welsh cinema. Ultimately, the thesis will show how cinema provides a more complex view of Wales than has been recognised by historians, such as David Berry.
The first three chapters will look at how the Welsh landscape, as itself, has been portrayed on screen. The first chapter analyses how industry has rarely been depicted in North Wales set films, despite there being a strong industrial presence in the region, whilst at the same time industrial depictions have dominated South Wales. The second chapter will explore the outsider experience through depictions of tourism and how such films show social movements and issues, such as the permissive society. The third chapter will take romantic depictions, which centre around the north and Snowdonia, as its focus. For chapters four and five the thesis will look at examples of how the Welsh landscape has been used as an actor, first as parts of Asia and then in the following chapter as the rest of the world. Chapter six will look at how Wales has been depicted in horror and fantasy cinema, particularly from the 1980s onwards, and show how these have tied in (sometimes unintentionally) with Welsh mythology and folklore. There will then be an epilogue chapter briefly examining how trends in Welsh cinema have developed post-devolution.

Date of Award	27 Feb 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Bangor University
Supervisor	Robin Mann (Supervisor) & Mari Wiliam (Supervisor)