We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

The Price

Armageddon approaches!

Brexit could bring an unhappy ending for UK’s Oscar nomination bonanza

At first glance, Carol and Get Blake! do not appear to have much in common. One is an Oscar-nominated period drama about sapphic romance set in the lush interiors of upper-middle-class 1950s Manhattan, the other a French science fiction cartoon about alien squirrels. And yet both might never have been made were it not for EU funding.

But while one can just about imagine surviving without Get Blake, which was the centrepiece of a tabloid row about dreadful Europeans wasting our hard-earned British money on pointless film and TV projects in August, it is doubtful whether many right-minded Brit cineastes would be willing to dispense with Todd Haynes’s treasured drama about a love affair between Cate Blanchett’s opulent housewife and Rooney Mara’s wide-eyed department store ingenue.

If Brit cineastes would not be willing to dispense with EU-funded dramas starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, that must mean that in the event of a Brexit the rest of us would have to dispense with Brit cineastes.

Sounds good. Armageddon outta here.

10 comments to The Price

  • Mr Ed

    I am a bit surprised, despite myself, that the EU has managed to subsidise Shaun the Sheep, is there no end to the madness of the Common Agricultural Policy?

  • Julie near Chicago

    Natalie! *Eee-eee-ewwww!!!*

  • Runcie Balspune

    and yet both might never have been made were it not for EU funding.

    Might. Yes. We have an undecided moment here, a risk, a slight chance that it could all go horribly wrong. Then again, what about the dozens, nay, hundreds, no lets just say millions, of movies that did not get made because the EU refused to fund them, or because EU legislation made it impossible for anyone but the EU to fund them? surely Brexit is preferred then?

    I like this fantasy game of made-up speculation. It’s a pity I have to pay for it, even if I don’t play.

  • The only worry I have if we leave the EU is that, with the extra cash the governement will have, we will get even more of these turkeys.

  • Paul Marks

    “Vote for the E.U. or I lose my subsidies”.

    And the “creative” people do not understand how corrupt that is.

  • Mr Ecks

    The EU costs us money–making it less likely that more films will be made.

    A slight hand-out of a fraction of our own money to selected projects is a joke.

    Every lying sack of shit in the world etc

  • John B

    If Brit cineastes (is that legal?) want cineastic stuff then let them pay for it themselves rather than having their pleasures served at the involuntary expense of the rest of us.

  • Roue le Jour

    Hang about, I’m a right minded Brit cineaste and I’m perfectly happy to do without Carol. Perhaps they meant left minded?

  • Nicholas (Excentrality!) Gray

    You Brits won’t get any more Oscars, anyway! Mad Max sequels are going to rule the future, and Australia isn’t in the EUnion!