The term Heritage film refers to a movement in British cinema in the late 20th century which depicts the England of previous centuries often in a nostalgic fashion. It includes the wave of filmings of Shakespeare plays and Jane Austen novels. Typical of such films is the use of splendid scenes of the English landscape to create a feel-good factor. The movement can be seen in the context of the discovery of "heritage" (stately homes etc.) as marketable commodity. It has been criticised from a socialist perspective for its romanticised portrayal of the past.

Literature

• Eckart Voigts-Virchow (ed.), "Janespotting and Beyond": British Heritage Retrovisions since the Mid-1990s, Tuebingen: Gunter Narr, 2004.
• Lucia Krämer, "Oscar Wilde as an Object of the English Heritage Industry", Irish Studies Review, 13, 2005, 359-67.
• Andrew Higson, English Heritage, English Cinema: Costume Drama Since 1980, 2003.