In an interview on British cinema

Your next recommendation is Ealing Studios by Charles Barr. What’s the draw of this book?

This, to me, is one of the three best books ever written about British cinema. As far as I’m concerned, writing about studios will never be the same again, and anyone who hasn’t read this book should not be writing about studios. Barr understands the way the studio functioned, and is appreciative of what it achieved but not at all sentimental about it. He’s excellently alert to the limitations of its Little England world view. One of the tics that you come across in criticism is people saying, “It’s very sub-Ealing”, even if (a) they weren’t alive when Ealing was going and (b) wouldn’t know an Ealing film if it hit them over the head. All they mean is that some small business is threatened by a big conglomerate and wins over it in the end – that’s all they have to say about Ealing.

Barr’s book makes it clear that there is a great deal more to be said. He makes a clear discrimination between its excellent major achievements, films like Kind Hearts and Coronets, It Always Rains on Sunday, Mandy and other gentler fare. This is a book which, with great assurance and confidence – as a result of knowing the films inside out and having done immaculate research – is capable of the sorts of discriminations we would all die to be able to make. I think Ealing, especially for comedy, holds a special place in the affections of filmgoers. But some of the films really require a tougher response and Barr gives them this.