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Thecinema of Wales comprises the art of film and creative movies made inWales or byWelsh filmmakers either locally or abroad. Welsh cinema began in the late-19th century, led by Welsh-based directorWilliam Haggar. Wales continued to produce film of varying quality throughout the 20th century, in both theWelsh andEnglish languages, though indigenous production was curtailed through a lack of infrastructure and finance, which prevented the growth of the industry nationally. Despite this, Wales has been represented in all fields of the film making process, producing actors and directors of note.
Wales has a long film making history, with the first films shot in 1896, just a year after the development of theLumières'cinematographe. The first known film to be recorded in Wales was by AmericanBirt Acres featuring a royal visit toCardiff by the Prince of Wales, laterEdward VII. The film was later shown at the Great Fine Art, Industrial and Maritime Exhibition in Cardiff'sCathays Park in June 1896.[1] Indigenous film production began in 1898, whenRhyl basedArthur Cheetham began recording silent 'short' films of local events. His first film was shown in January 1898 of children playing on Rhyl sands.[1]
The first Wales based film-maker of enduring stature wasWilliam Haggar, who made over 30 fiction films between 1901 and 1908.[2] Haggar's work received a worldwide audience mainly through theGaumont andUrban companies.[3] Haggar's most notable film wasDesperate Poaching Affray (1903) which is recognised for its violence, iconoclasm and progressive editing. The film, along with Frank Mottorshaw'sA Daring Daylight Burglary and Edwin Stanton Porter'sThe Great Train Robbery, has in the early Twenty-first century, been credited with influencing the chase subgenre of American films.[4]
Other extant pre–Great War films to be shot in Wales were made by film-makers from outside the country. These included the British Biograph Company's filmConway Castle (1898) and Charles Urban Company'sWales, England: Land of Castles and Waterfalls (1907).[5] The1906 British Home Championship encounter between Wales and Ireland at Wrexham was filmed by Blackburn firm Mitchell and Keynon, and is now the oldest surviving film of an international football match.[3] While the oldest footage of any football match is the 1898 film by Arthur Cheetham,Blackburn Rovers v West Bromwich Albion.[1]
During the first few decades of Welsh cinema Wales was at the height of an industrial revolution, but there is little sense of the industrial landscape or life captured in the early silent movies taken within the country. Visiting companies, such asEdison andBritish and Colonial tended to favour filming in rural Wales.[3]
Much of the cinema of Wales in the later 1910s and 1920s has been lost. In 1920 nine films were shot in Wales, all now lost.[3] One of the most notable and celebrated of the films from this period isA Welsh Singer (1915), adapted from a work by Welsh writerAllen Raine, which starredFlorence Turner.[3]Henry Edwards who directedA Welsh Singer, also created the 1930 filmAylwin, from the novel byTheodore Watts-Dunton, drawing into the world of gypsies and a mythical, mystical Wales.[5] The 1930s saw the firstWelsh language film,Y Chwarelwr directed byIfan ab Owen Edwards in 1935. The decade also saw two importantagitprop documentaries,Today We Live (1937) set among the unemployed miners of the village ofPentre in theRhondda Valleys, andDonald Alexander'sEastern Valley (1937). The outbreak of World War II saw the backdrop of a mining valley in Wales being used as the setting for a war propaganda film,The Silent Village (1943). Designed as a tribute to the mining community ofLidice, Czechoslovakia, which had suffered from Nazi atrocities,The Silent Village transpose the events to a Wales; and was also used to draw analogies with the oppression of the Welsh language.[5]
The coming of thesound era had little impact on Welsh cinema, though 1938'sThe Citadel an adaptation ofA. J. Cronin's1937 novel brought Wales to a large audience; thoughKing Vidor's interpretation failed to express the novel's political message.[3] The first Hollywood 'talkie' to be set in Wales was James Whale'sThe Old Dark House.[6] The best known films connected to Wales during this period failed to harness Welsh talents,The Proud Valley (1940) andHow Green Was My Valley (1940) were neither directed or adapted for the screen by Welsh people.John Ford's How Green Was My Valley is notable for starring just one Welsh actor,Rhys Williams, and for being shot in the United States. Although John Ford's view of Wales was based on a mythical and romantic view of the industrialised valleys,Jill Craigie’sBlue Scar (1949), part financed by theNational Coal Board, raised serious and radical questions about the nationalisation of the coal industry and has striking location photography around south Wales.[3][5] Another release from 1949 to make an important cultural statement wasEmlyn Williams'The Last Days of Dolwyn, the plot of which centred on the flooding of a Welsh village to create a reservoir; a subject that became extremely controversial in Wales in the 1960s.[5]
The 1950s and 1960s saw the output of two of the country's best documentary makers.Jack Howells andJohn Ormond dealt primarily with Welsh people and subjects. Howells is best known for his impressionistic, lyrical documentaries that includedNye! (1965) andDylan Thomas (1962).Dylan Thomas is the only Welsh film to have won an Oscar (forbest short documentary), it features Richard Burton as narrator, visiting the haunts ofDylan Thomas.[7] Ormond, a poet foremost, is remembered for his sensitive portrayals of writers and authors, and for documentaries concerned with the working class and with refugees, in particularBorrowed Pasture (1960) which follows two Polish ex-soldiers struggling to get by on aCarmarthenshiresmallholding.[8]
The period directly following the end of the Second World War saw political and social commentary disappear from Welsh cinema. The first few decades after the war saw few notable Welsh films; stand out exceptions includedTiger Bay (1959) andOnly Two Can Play (1962).[3] The main problems facing Welsh cinema during this period were a lack of a film production infrastructure, Welsh producers and finance. The fact that Wales was unable to produce films from within its own borders resulted in the stereotyping and common preconceptions of Welsh life formed by 'outside' film-makers.[9] One of the few beacons of light for the industry came in the late 1970s with the output of left wing producer and directorKarl Francis; whose controversial portrayal of contemporary life in the south Wales valleys was typified by his 1976 filmAbove us the Earth.[9] Welsh language films were few, notably the films produced in the 1970s by the Bwrdd Ffilmiau Cymraeg (Welsh Film Board).
Before the advent of a dedicated channel,BBC Wales and its commercial counterpartHTV produced Welsh language programmes for their viewers in Wales. Although this did not include the creation of feature-length films, in the 1970s HTV undertook a venture todub existing movies into Welsh. Their first attempt was George Stevens' 1953 Western,Shane. The result was seen as unintentionally humorous and the experiment was quickly abandoned.[10][11][12][13]
1982 saw the launch ofS4C, a Welsh language television channel, which began producing and funding longer dramas and films in the Welsh and English language. Initial output was poor, but after reassessing its responsibilities in 1986, the company produced films of note, includingBoy Soldier (1986) andRhosyn a Rhith (1986), the latter being the first film in the Welsh language to gain a London West End cinema release.[9] Although the production of Welsh features from S4C was low, it aided the emergence of talented Welsh film-makers, such asEndaf Emlyn,Marc Evans andStephen Bayly.[9] S4C's 1995 policy, to produce up to two feature films a year, to be released to cinemas before television transmission allowed Welsh film-makers new opportunities. Yet the reluctance of London-based distributors to handle Welsh language films make it difficult for Welsh films to reach a wider audience.[9]
The early 1990s began with the release of Welsh language filmHedd Wyn. It won theRoyal Television Society Best Drama award and became the first Welsh film to gain a nomination in theAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Despite this it failed to gain a British distributor.[9] The 1990s also saw two important films from Endaf Emlyn,Un Nos Ola Leuad (1991) is seen as one of the finest Welsh films made,[9] while hisGadael Lenin (1993) was voted by viewers at the 1993 London Film Festival as the most popular British film.
The later 1990s saw three English language films that found a home in mainstream British cinema. The first of the three was Marc Evans'House of America which drew comparisons to the realism of Karl Francis' work. Then in 1998,Kevin Allen producedTwin Town, a bawdy comedy satirising the older cultural traditions of Wales. This though was surpassed at the box office byJustin Kerrigan'sHuman Traffic (1999), a stylised comedy focusing on the club and drug culture of Cardiff.
2000 saw the release ofPaul Morrison'sSolomon & Gaenor, the second film to be nominated for the foreign language Academy Award.
Films of note in the early twenty-first century set in Wales include comediesHouse! (2000) andVery Annie Mary (2000), and horror filmsThe Dark (2005) andEvil Aliens (2006). In 2009 a biopic of the early relationship between Welsh poetDylan Thomas and his wifeCaitlin Macnamara was released entitledThe Edge of Love.
Despite an improvement in film production in Wales, finance is still an issue, with very few films being created without external funding.House of America took its funding from six different sources while multinationals funded bothTwin Town (PolyGram) andThe Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (Miramax).
Ffilm Cymru Wales is the development agency for Welsh film. It provides funding and training to emerging and established Welsh filmmakers, as well as hosting events that showcase Welsh films.[14]
BAFTA Cymru, established in 1987, is the Welsh branch of theBritish Academy of Film and Television Arts. Bafta Cymru has held an annual awards ceremony since 1991 to recognise achievements in Welsh cinema.[15]
Prior to the formation of S4C in 1982, there was very little work produced in the field ofanimation in Wales. The one notable exception being Sid Griffiths'Jerry the Tyke (1925-1927), a mischievous dog who was used for Pathé cinema news magazines.[16] Production increased after 1982, with S4C producing the popular children's animationSuperTed made bySiriol Productions. Siriol eventually branched into making feature length animations, including an adaptation of Dylan Thomas'Under Milk Wood (1992) and a joint venture with Hungarian companyPannóniaFilm,The Princess and the Goblin (1992).
The opportunities afforded by S4C's animation unit encouraged an influx of talented British artists into Wales.[17] The best known of this group of animators wasJoanna Quinn, who gained anOscar nomination in 1998 forFamous Fred and another in2021 forAffairs of the Art. Quinn also produced one of the segments ofThe Canterbury Tales, which wasOscar nominated in 1999.
Wales has produced film directors of quality throughout its history, though those that have found success have more often needed to leave Wales to gain recognition. Although based in Wales neither Cheetham or Haggar were Welsh born, similar forSidney Northcote who in 1912 produced a number of short films shot on location in Wales and Cornwall, based on Welsh and Cornish myths and tales, includingThe Pedlar of Penmaenmawr,The Witch of the Welsh Mountains andThe Belle of Bettwys-y-Coed.[18]
Welsh-born directors who have gained international recognition includeRichard Marquand, (Return of the Jedi),Peter Greenaway (Drowning by Numbers) andTerry Jones (Erik the Viking). Two of the more notable directors from Wales who have retained a strong connection with the culture of Wales are Karl Francis, who for two decades was the most powerful, distinctive and combative voice in Welsh film-making;[19] andStephen Weeks whose commercial features look back to a medieval or imperialist past, or a misty Celtic world.[20] Francis' work is embedded in a realistic exploration of Wales, its language and identity, in films such asMilwr Bychan (Boy Soldier) andThe Mouse and the Women. Weeks came to prominence after directingI, Monster, an adaptation ofDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Weeks would later film two versions of theArthurian myth ofGawain and the Green Knight. First asGawain and the Green Knight (1973) featuringMurray Head in the lead role and again asSword of the Valiant in 1984.[21]
Later Welsh directors, such asSara Sugarman and Marc Evans made films set in Wales. Welsh directorGareth Evans lived from 2009 to 2015 in Indonesia, where he made such action movies asThe Raid.
Wales has a long tradition of producing film-actors who have made an impact on the world stage. During the silent period Welsh actors of note includedJonah Benford, who came to prominence through cinema after starring inThe Lodger (1927) andDownhill (1927);Gareth Hughes, often cast as a youthful charmer, gained excellent notices for the now-lostSentimental Tommy (1921) andLyn Harding, whose stature and presence made him a sought after villain playingMoriarty in several earlySherlock Holmes films.
The 1940s sawRhondda'sDonald Houston breakthrough in his first two featuresThe Blue Lagoon (1949) andA Run for Your Money (1949). In 1945Ray Milland became the first Welsh actor to win theAcademy Award for Best Actor, for his role as an alcoholic writer inThe Lost Weekend.
The most significant period for Welsh actors came during the 1950s and 1960s. A new wave of realism entered British acting, and at the forefront came Welsh actorsRichard Burton,Stanley Baker andRachel Roberts. The period also saw Welsh character actors such asHugh Griffith, who won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in the 1959 version ofBen Hur.
Another famous Welsh actor isTimothy Dalton who portrayed famous secret agentJames Bond twice at the end of the eighties.
The most distinctive Welsh actor of the 1990s through to the 2000s wasAnthony Hopkins. Hopkins has appeared in film since the 1960s, starring in Hollywood costume dramas such asThe Lion in Winter. Starring in films as diverse asRichard Attenborough'sMagic andDavid Lynch'sThe Elephant Man, Hopkins became a Hollywood star after his Academy Award-winning performance asHannibal Lecter inThe Silence of the Lambs (1992). Hopkins continued to impress throughout the 1990s with critically acclaimed performances inShadowlands andRemains of the Day.
The 1990s produced an abrasive group of Welsh actors, includingRhys Ifans andMatthew Rhys. The 1990s also saw the success ofCatherine Zeta-Jones, who became one of Hollywood's highest paid stars, appearing alongsideAntonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins inThe Mask of Zorro and won theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress forChicago. The 2000s are most notable for the emergence ofIoan Gruffudd, who took the lead role in the 2006 historical dramaAmazing Grace, andMichael Sheen who appeared asTony Blair inPeter Morgan'sBlair Trilogy and playedDavid Frost inFrost/Nixon.
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