A History of British Film
Early British Comedy
Early Hitchcock
Introduction to Humphrey Jennings
Humphrey Jennings and Third Cinema
The Stars Look Down / The Proud Valley – Conflict and Unity
The Renaissance of the 1980s
Film On Four

Introduction

Both The Stars Look Down and The Proud Valley were released in 1940. Both are tragic melodramas, focussing on small mining communities and the social effects of unemployment, poverty and tragedy within them. Given this, one would expect two very similar films. Surprisingly however, the films are very different in their treatment of the subject matter.

These differences can broadly be categorised under the headings ‘conflict’ and ‘unity’. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate these differences by examining the representations of family and community within the films.