HR: The Hollywood Renaissance moves to Britain

The HR took cues from British working class cinema and realism (Alfie, Ipcress File, Peeping Tom, etc) and low budget horror (Witchfinder General, etc). This use of handheld cameras, cheaper and grainy film stocks, realistic and down to earth stories characterized these films.

Americans made films in England in similar ways: Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs. Both Americans used the freedom gained by filming in remote British locations to create masterworks that would have been unfilmmable in Hollywood due to subject matter. These films combined the Renaissance with a sense of British working class realism to stunning effect.

This freedom extended to British filmmakers as well:

British horror of the 70’s-The horror of this period was primarily constructed as a reaction against the tired Hammer sequels that had become so one dimensional. The Wicker Man portrays modern day paganism on a small island. Nothing is far fetched, and the inhabitants of the island are all friendly and very rational. Just don't mess with their crops. Don’t Look Now’s use of location and cinematography effectively highlights the overall creepiness present in day to day life. When a father pulls his daughter's corpse from a dark pond, it is at once haunting, stunning, and sears its imagery onto your brain.

David Lean turned his epic vision inwards in Ryan’s Daughter. The film focused on a single tiny Irish village and how tensions boil over due to the rebellion and IRA. The epic scope of Lean’s vision gives the story a uniquely odd sense, as it is really more suited for an intimate and simple camera. The 70mm gaze is overpowering and simultaneously provides a romanticized vision of what life could be and what it actually is underneath the surface. This is also when the romantic in Lean finally broke away from the restraints of British society. The postcard romanticism in Doctor Zhivago now becomes a full examination of a love scene between the young girl and the British officer in an almost Eden like setting.

The HR even influenced the greatest British film export-the James Bond series. The films were going elsewhere from public opinion of the late 60’s and had lost star Sean Connery. Some drastic changes were needed. Thus the experiment of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service produced the greatest of their canon. At once fantastic and firmly grounded in reality, OHMSS presents a world that is our own and deeply interesting. Here James Bond is mortal once more and capable of being both a human being and an actual spy. The casting of inexperienced actor George Lazenby adds a great deal of credibility to the film as it allows for the filmmakers to get away from all of our preconceived notions of who Bond is. The masterstroke is Peter Hunt’s brilliant direction. Being the editor for the previous five Bonds, he was the one man who knew precisely what worked in a Bond film. Thus the gadgets, double entendres, hollowed out volcanoes, WWIII scenarios, unrealistic women, and campy humor went out the window. This is revolutionary in the way the series was handled and of course was never repeated again, like much of the Renaissance films.

As this 007 says: "This never happened to the other fellow."