Withnail and Us: Cult Films and Film Cults in British Cinema

Justin Smith

Feb 2010 · I.B.Tauris

About this ebook

Cult has entered the cultural psyche in a profound and pervasive way. There is no corner of popular culture beyond the potential for cult transformation. Indeed, in entering common parlance the term has effectively lost its clandestine mystique. But why? And how did we get here with cult? 'Withnail and Us' charts the journey of cult in culture through an exploration of British cult films and their fans. It is about our bizarre and enduring fascination with once obscure or shocking movies, from 'A Clockwork Orange' to 'The Wicker Man' . What is it about certain films that provokes such obsessive fan devotion? What impells people to remote locations in search of filmic relics? Why do they gather in groups to re-enact scenes learnt by heart? Is any film worth re-viewing over 100 times? From 1968 and all that, through the cultural by-ways of the 1970s, this book attempts to explain such strange practices, and to trace their origins in the makings of some remarkable films, including 'Tommy', 'The Man Who Fell To Earth', 'Quadrophenia', 'Withnail & I', 'Trainspotting' and 'Performance'. Prepare to enter the arena of the unwell!

About the author

Justin Smith is Professor of Media Industries and Reader in British Film Culture at the University of Portsmouth, UK. He is the author of Withnail and Us: Cult Films and Film Cults in British Cinema and, with Sue Harper, British Film Culture in the 1970s: The Boundaries of Pleasure (2011). He was Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded project 'Channel 4 Television and British Film Culture' (2010-2014).