Conclusion

Abstract

I began this book by considering general theories of creativity as a necessary precursor to examining film-making as a creative process. I suggested that Williams’s conception of creativity, with its stress on communication, description and interpretation, constituted a more appropriate model, with regard to current British film-making than Adorno’s Modernist perspective, with its emphasis on confrontation, disruption and dissonance. Communication also implies an element of intentionality which, contrary to the arguments of Adorno, represents an important consideration in the creative process. British cinema has never been at the forefront of Modernist experimentation although, like Hollywood, it has appropriated Modernist techniques, particularly those initiated by the French New Wave. These devices are familiar to audiences and no longer have the power to shock. They are merely part of an increasingly eclectic borrowing of visual effects and narrative techniques by film-makers, derived from a variety of contemporary cultural sources including commercials and pop promos.