The 1970s Project

With the wholescale withdrawal of Hollywood funding from British film production at the end of the 1960s, and the new Conservative government's curtailment of the instruments of state support (the National Film Finance Corporation and the Eady Levy), British film-makers lacked a secure production base in the early 1970s.

There emerged a culture of diverse, often ad hoc, funding arrangements in response to this crisis. One was a renewed interest in Anglo-European co-productions, which might be of mutual financial benefit to each partner. In 1972 Britain signed up to membership of the EEC, joining the 'Common Market' in 1973. That year, 8 co-productions were released. The existing Anglo-Italian and Anglo-French agreements were exploited afresh, and an agreement was made with West Germany in 1974. These arrangements can be seen to have spawned a wide variety of film projects, from low-budget horror and soft-porn exploitation films, to large scale thrillers and adventure movies with international appeal. In between, serious dramas and historical films attracted such luminaries as Joseph Losey, Nicolas Roeg and Franco Zeffirelli.

This paper considers the financial deals, the production arrangements and the sense (or absence) of a European vision. It draws on fresh evidence available from British national archives, and offers a case study of John Woolf's adaptations of the Frederick Forsyth thrillers Day of the Jackal (Fred Zinnemann, UK/France, 1973) and The Odessa File (Ronald Neame, UK/W Germany, 1974).