Best of British Films

[Stavros]

Barry Norman, who for many years presented the BBC's programmes about new films, has compiled a list of 49 films which he thinks represent the best of British Films in advance of this year's BAFTA Awards; as usual it is an eccentric list and raises the obvious question -what is on your list?

I have compiled my own list but I can't think of 49 or 50 films worth including, I could not accept any of the Bond films, or anything by Michael Powell, as I don't really think of them as films, the former are no more important than the Big Mac is to world cuisine, while Powell's films are visually so sickening to look at they are unwatchable. It is a pity that no attempt was made to include anything by the independent film-makers, though it would be asking a lot to include David Larcher's odyssey Mare's Tail (1969), or the equally introspective work of Ian Breakwell. Not including the work of Bill Douglas is Norman's one unforgivable omission.

Norman's list is here, with the link to the story + visuals in the Telegraph; my own follows, for what that's worth!

Fifty Best British Films
Barry Norman’s List
Barry Lyndon 1975
Black Narcissus 1947
The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957
Brief Encounter 1945
Chariots of Fire 1981
A Clockwork Orange 1971
The Cruel Sea 1952
The DamBusters 1954
Dr No 1962
Don’t Look Now 1973
Dracula 1958
Four Weddings and a Funeral 1994
The Full Monty 1997
Gandhi 1982
Get Carter 1971
Gladiator 2000
Great Expectations 1946
Gregory’s Girl 1980
Henry V 1944
I Know Where I’m Going! 1945
if… 1968
The Ipcress File 1965
Kes 1969
Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949
The King’s Speech 2010
The Lady Vanishes 1938
The Ladykillers 1955
Lawrence of Arabia 1962
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943
Local Hero 1983
The Long Good Friday 1979
A Matter of Life and Death 1946
Monty Python’s Life of Brian 1979
Naked 1993
The Railway Children 1970
The Red Shoes 1948
The Remains of the Day 1993
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning 1960
Secrets & Lies 1995
Sense and Sensibility 1995
The Servant 1963
Shakespeare in Love 1998
Skyfall 2012


My List
A Man for All Seasons 1966
A Taste of Honey 1961
Barry Lyndon 1975
The Bill Douglas Trilogy
My Childhood 1972
My Ain Folk 1973
My Way Home 1978
The Cruel Sea 1952
The Devils 1971
Don’t Look Now 1973
Get Carter 1971
The Ipcress File 1965
Kes 1969
The Lady Vanishes 1938
A Matter of Life and Death 1946
Monty Python’s Life of Brian 1979
Performance 1970
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning 1960
Secrets & Lies 1995
Sexy Beast 2000

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9848319/Bafta-special-the-49-best-British-films-of-all-time.html?frame=2470799

[robertlouis]

I much prefer your list, Stavros, although I would retain all of the Ealing entries. No Terence Davies, though? Or Ken Loach? Or Michael Winterbottom?

I would also have included This Sporting Life, Room at the Top, Darling, Billy Liar and a Kind of Loving as a representative cross-section from the brief renaissance of the early 60s.

[rodinuk]

Mr Norman's film list - now showing at the Pickleodeon :D

http://www.pickleodeon.co.uk/

[Odelay]

I like Mike Leigh's movies and although Olivier's Shakespeare is always held up as the best, I really prefer Branagh's version of HV and Hamlet. Does 2001 Space Odyssey count? It's my fav Kubrick.

[LibertyHarkness]

one of the best british movies made to date is danny boyles "sunshine" epic movie ..

[Odelay]

one of the best british movies made to date is danny boyles "sunshine" epic movie ..
Oooh, I like that too. British Sci Fi - very underrated. Boyle's Trainspotting is another goodie.

[LibertyHarkness]

not forgetting his game changing 28 days later movie :) turned the zombie thing on its head

[nysprod]

Hard Days Night 1964

In 2004, Total Film magazine named A Hard Day's Night the 42nd greatest British film of all time. In 2005, Time.com named it one of the 100 best films of the last 80 years. Leslie Halliwell gave the film his highest rating, four stars, the only British film of 1964 to achieve that accolade

[Dino Velvet]

Horror Of Dracula:rock2

http://www.impawards.com/1958/posters/horror_of_dracula.jpg

[Stavros]

I much prefer your list, Stavros, although I would retain all of the Ealing entries. No Terence Davies, though? Or Ken Loach? Or Michael Winterbottom?

I would also have included This Sporting Life, Room at the Top, Darling, Billy Liar and a Kind of Loving as a representative cross-section from the brief renaissance of the early 60s.

Some good films, but have they lasted? No Terence Davies; no Michael Winterbottom, and Ken Loach directed Kes.

[GroobySteven]

I completely disagree with your assessment of Powell movies. Stunning - and Bond movies being like Big Mac's. Come down off your pedestal.

Hang on - just looked at your list and it has "A Matter of Life & Death" on it?

[miner]

The Wild Geese staring Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Kruger.

[GroobySteven]

Wasn't
"The Third Man", British?

I'd also include:
"Tommy"
"Pink Floyd's The Wall"
"Naked" - Mike Leigh
High Hopes - Mike Leigh
"This is England" - Shane Meadows

[Dino Velvet]

Always like these British Film threads. I usually drift over to Amazon and spend a good amount on Blu-rays/DVDs after.

Anybody want to start a British TV(television not transvestites) thread and I'll be there too. I'd like to order some of that stuff to watch also.

[flabbybody]

This is HungAngels so I have to add "The Crying Game"
I'm a Michael Caine fan... "Zulu"
and I agree with seanchai. Not fair to trivialize Bond. "Dr No" and "Goldfinger" were tons of fun. Isn't that why we go to the movies?

[Dino Velvet]

I like this box set.

Amazon.com: The Alan Clarke Collection (Scum / Made in Britain / The Firm / Elephant): Gary Oldman, Lesley Manville, Philip Davis, Andrew Wilde, Charles Lawson, William Vanderpuye, Jay Simpson, Patrick Murray, Robbie Gee, Terry Sue Patt, Nick Dunning, Nicholas Hewetson, Alan Clarke: Movies & TV@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51002RD3VDL.@@AMEPARAM@@51002RD3VDL (http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Clarke-Collection-Britain-Elephant/dp/B0002J9Z9Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1360162445&sr=1-1&keywords=alan+clarke+collection)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51002RD3VDL.jpghttp://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nFDGOES-L.jpg

[Gillian]

A few others to add ...

Gregory's Girl (1981) - up there with any portrayal of teenage angst
http://ferdyonfilms.com/gregory_girl1.jpg

Sleuth (1972) - The plot twists mean it only works once, but a good view nonetheless

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTMzODk1MDY3NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzAwNTcxMQ@@._ V1_SY317_CR7,0,214,317_.jpg

The Railway Children (1970) - Great ensemble acting, Jenny Agutter, trains, and Jenny Agutter <3

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSEXnnfQ35Wm2pmozctyRtTMee1jhyN2 2UfHj2Wr1LCw0YpQmPo

The Vampire Lovers, or any Hammer film of that era; as a boy in seventies Britain, that was as near to porn as you were going to get ... :D

http://c3.cduniverse.ws/resized/250x500/movie/022/5993022.jpghttp://paperfruit.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/drjekyllsisterhydebox4.jpg

[GroobySteven]

The Long Good Friday.

[Dino Velvet]

The Long Good Friday.

Great with the subtitles. Speaking of that, really like Harry Brown.

[Prospero]

I think the problem with this thread - and all of the films included so far - is that there is a real confusion between "best" and "favourite" . A list of the second is pretty easy to compile. Everyone has their faves depending upon their pet actors, the sort of films they like generally and whag they can remember....

But what is "best". I'd love to know Barry Norman's criteria... he's unlike to post here in a hurry I suspect 9Barry what is your user name on HA?) and equally that of Stavros as "best" rather than favourite.

I wouldn't be so bold as to say Best - because what is the measure. Box office success? (In which case why isn"t the Sound of Music on either list ) What is a "british" film - financed rimarily by the UK? Made in UK studios? etc... and is best its performances or the screenplay or the fact it is pioneering work?All unanswered by looking at these lists. So in terms of favourites... and some I am prejudiced to think are among the best - is my list.

Barry Lyndon
Rebecca
Walkabout
Don't Look Now
The Ipcress File
Henry V (Olivier and Branagh's versions)
A Man For All Seasons
Hamlet (Nicol Williamson)
Performance
The Life of Brian
The lady Vanishes
The Servant
The Red Shoes
Lawrence f Arabia
Gregory's Girl
Brief Encounter
A Clockwork orange
Paths Of Glory
Letter to Brezhnev
The Entertainer
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Sammy And Rosie get laid
From Russia With Love
Peeping Tom
Black Narcissus
A Touch Of Class
Gregory's Girl
A Hard Day's Night
A Shot in The dark
Blow up
The Haunting
Get Carter
Mona Lisa
My Fair Lady
In This World
The Third man
Nil By Mouth
Lolita (The remake)
Time and the city
Alice in Wonderland (Jonathan Miller)

[Winkle]

No Snatch or Lock stock? blimey.

[Stavros]

I completely disagree with your assessment of Powell movies. Stunning - and Bond movies being like Big Mac's. Come down off your pedestal.

Hang on - just looked at your list and it has "A Matter of Life & Death" on it?

A Matter of Life and Death -I did a cut and paste job and left that in by mistake, I really do have an almost physical aversion to Powell movies, and if I want to be entertained why would I go to see a Bond movie when British cinema has Norman Wisdom for light-hearted entertainment? Anyway the Americans do light hearted and energetic escapist fantasy so much better, and I have recorded how much I like popular films like many of Clint Eastwood's films, Walter Hill's early films and so on, I don't live on a pedestal. In fact I went to the cinema to see Skyfall and couldn't believe how bad it was, a film franchise that has run out of stories and falls back on a single idea -the most lethal enemy is one of our own etc. There was a time when you knew in advance that if it was a Bond movie there would be a car chase, a boat/underwater chase, a ski chase, improbable gadgets, beautiful women taking their clothes off, and a multi-billionaire megalomaniac determined to destroy the world, as predictable as a burger in a bun and just as satisfying. That's not entertainment, it is superficial trash. Yes, even Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a better film; as is The Italian Job, but I didn't list it as Noel Coward defiles it.

[GroobySteven]

Goldfinger.

[Stavros]

[QUOTE=Prospero;1272673]
I wouldn't be so bold as to say Best - because what is the measure. Box office success? (In which case why isn"t the Sound of Music on either list ) What is a "british" film - financed rimarily by the UK? Made in UK studios? etc... and is best its performances or the screenplay or the fact it is pioneering work?All unanswered by looking at these lists. So in terms of favourites... and some I am prejudiced to think are among the best - is my list.

Rebecca
Walkabout
Lawrence of Arabia
Paths Of Glory
--Are these really British films?
--The problem with Lean is that his obsession with getting the right image often led him to forget he was supposed to be telling a story. There is a comical scene in Lawrence when the 2nd Unit (directed by Nicolas Roeg) films Lawrence and the Arabs moving east-west across the Wadi Rum, then moments later moving west-east -they changed the camera angle and asked the group to move one way then another, an amateurish manoeuvre in a film that makes a mockery of historical events anyway.

Letter to Brezhnev
Sammy And Rosie get laid
--You cannot be serious, Prospero, unbelievable!

Blow up
--again, is this a British film?

In This World
--I have never heard of this film, so cannot comment.

The Third man
--the abuse of music alone makes this one of the worst films ever made, and it isn't British either, surely?

I think the strength of the best of British films is the different narrative style that they have compared to Hollywood, the European continent and Japanese cinema. We have produced some idiosyncatic directors like Ken Russell, Derek Jarman, Lindsay Anderson and Isaac Julien, and even the recently deceased Tony Scott''s first feature, Loving Memory, could never be made or even shown in a country with such puritan attitudes to film as the USA.

[Dino Velvet]

Hey Stavros, speaking of Ken Russell, have you seen Crimes Of Passion? Anthony Perkins is Cuckoo For Cocoa Puffs in that deal.

I keep waiting for The Devils to get a good Blu-ray release over here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3foJZxFaJWM

[Stavros]

Anthony Perkins is Cuckoo For Cocoa Puffs in that deal.

I think I need a translator on this one Dino! Yes, seen it, but not one of Russell's best.

[Prospero]

Stavros wrote:

Rebecca
Walkabout
Lawrence of Arabia
Paths Of Glory
--Are these really British films? Good question? I think so...

--The problem with Lean is that his obsession with getting the right image often led him to forget he was supposed to be telling a story. There is a comical scene in Lawrence when the 2nd Unit (directed by Nicolas Roeg) films Lawrence and the Arabs moving east-west across the Wadi Rum, then moments later moving west-east -they changed the camera angle and asked the group to move one way then another, an amateurish manoeuvre in a film that makes a mockery of historical events anyway. Does authenticity matter? Its the overall cinematic experience for me.... it was a terrific cinematic vision

Letter to Brezhnev
Sammy And Rosie get laid
--You cannot be serious, Prospero, unbelievable! LOL Stavros... I remember liking them... I did say favourites. but it was a looong time ago.

Blow up
--again, is this a British film? italian director - but shot in the Uk and, I think, UK funded

In This World
--I have never heard of this film, so cannot comment. Michael Winterbottom film about five years ago - about two boys trying to get to the Uk from, I think, Kandahar. Heartbreaking

The Third man
--the abuse of music alone makes this one of the worst films ever made, and it isn't British either, surely? Nope... I love the music

I think the strength of the best of British films is the different narrative style that they have compared to Hollywood, the European continent and Japanese cinema. We have produced some idiosyncatic directors like Ken Russell, Derek Jarman, Lindsay Anderson and Isaac Julien, and even the recently deceased Tony Scott''s first feature, Loving Memory, could never be made or even shown in a country with such puritan attitudes to film as the USA.[/QUOTE]

Russell was certainly idisyncratic. Did you like Mahler then and The Music Lovers... The lair Of The White Worm, Tommy etc etc.... many shocklingly bad if visually arresting. As was, IMHO, The Devils (though Jarman's set design was something else)


And I completly forgot The Italian Job which was wonderful (the original not the remake) despite Noel Coward.

I've excluded Ken Loach from my list because i think him a joyless agitprop director who is far too po faced.

[bluesoul]

Some good films, but have they lasted? No Terence Davies; no Michael Winterbottom, and Ken Loach directed Kes.

neither did they include jarman. i'm not sure how serious that list is because it seems like they just listed a bunch of popular (obvious) films

also, i'd consider walkabout aussie

[Prospero]

[QUOTE=

also, i'd consider walkabout aussie[/QUOTE]

That is the problem... this is what it says about the movie on Wikipedia..."Roeg obtained backing from two American businessmen, Max Raab and Si Litvinoff, who incorporated a company in Australia but raised the budget entirely in the US and sold world rights to 20th Century Fox. Filming began in Sydney in August 1969 and later moved to Alice Springs.[1]


British director and writer, Aussie setting, British and Aussie cast, American money but an Australian based commerial operarion. What is it... Aussie/US/British? or cos the cash came from the Americans, it is an american film?

[thebunnyman]

I aint seen a mention of either The Wickerman or Dead Mans Shoes in this thread yet! I can only imagine that this is a oversight by everyone who has posted so far!

[Prospero]

I think Wickerman is a cult film with some truly dreaful elements (Britt Ekland for instance!) but it is a enjoyable curiosity.

[bluesoul]

British director and writer, Aussie setting, British and Aussie cast, American money but an Australian based commerial operarion. What is it... Aussie/US/British? or cos the cash came from the Americans, it is an american film?

the entire fabric of that film is australian. they could've raised the money in japan and it wouldn't have made a difference. just like many indie filmmakers from the united states get funding from france and besides a few logos, it goes into film festivals as a yankie production


No Snatch or Lock stock? blimey.

there are much better examples of kitchen sink humor than that film

btw: jenny agutter :D

[Prospero]

Bluesoul... using that criteria is a film set fully in say Nigeria with a nigerian cast and theme a Nigerian film if the money all comes from the S, the director is - say - french?

The idea and the presiding genuis though was a british film maker on Walkabout - so i don't really know how you'd define it as Australian through and through.

That is the trouble these days. Labelling something a british or french or german film is hard since they're sort of multinational efforts. Look at the way some are labelled French/german/Notherlands/UK etc etc

[bluesoul]

well, i know the film (walkabout) is filed as an british/australia co-production (with no mention of the american investors). personally, i think "where is this story taking place- where are we in this story". an example would be 'the constant gardener' which was filmed by a brasilian director, produced by a briton shot entirely in kenya about a story from nigeria but backed mostly by amerikan finances. you know what that film is listed as? english :)

as for your question (with the nigerian with yankie dough and a frenchie director) i'd ask, where is the producer from?

[buttslinger]

My screensaver is the final scene from The Third Man, Top Two for me are Bridge over the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia,
My sentimental shout out is to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.

[Winkle]

there are much better examples of kitchen sink humor than that film

btw: jenny agutter :D

Such as? and they're two separate films btw.

[dannymac8]

Submarine is a great film that came out a few years ago. Most of my favourites have already been said but I find that film hilarious.

[Stavros]

Stavros wrote:
The Third man
--the abuse of music alone makes this one of the worst films ever made, and it isn't British either, surely? Nope... I love the music


Russell was certainly idisyncratic. Did you like Mahler then and The Music Lovers... The lair Of The White Worm, Tommy etc etc.... many shocklingly bad if visually arresting. As was, IMHO, The Devils (though Jarman's set design was something else)


I've excluded Ken Loach from my list because i think him a joyless agitprop director who is far too po faced.

-Would you sit at home and listen to the same 15 bars of music say, 30 times with only a few moments break in between? And where is it from, because it isn't Austrian, Hungarian or even Austro-Hungarian...?

I don't really like Russell's fims, but he is an example of the individual style that British film-makers have, and ought to be recognised. The Mahler and Tchaikovsky films were too concerned with the outrageous to be taken seriously, it is a wonder he never made a film about Wagner given what he could have done with some of the facts of that man's life!

Pity about Loach, Kes remains a poignant study of a young boy's life.

I don't think there is an answer to the 'nationality' of a film -is Sacrifice a Russian film, a Swedish film, an international film?

Popularity ought to be a criterion, but as there was a time when the Carry On films were popular, as were the fims of Norman Wisdom, then not only should they be on the list but the 'Confessions' films -Confessions of a Window Cleaner, for example...

I forgot one gem: The Great Rock 'n Roll Swindle...

[Odelay]

This is HungAngels so I have to add "The Crying Game"
I'm a Michael Caine fan... "Zulu"
and I agree with seanchai. Not fair to trivialize Bond. "Dr No" and "Goldfinger" were tons of fun. Isn't that why we go to the movies?
--
I just saw The Crying Game for the second time on cable (first time in the theatres, years ago). It holds up pretty well. Neil Jordan is a damn interesting filmmaker. Kind of whack.

Along the same alternative sexuality theme, I liked "My Beautiful Launderette"

[emmettray]

http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/URL=http://www.imagesnake.com/img/33143/withnail.jpg][IMG]http://www.imagesnake.com/tn/t33143/withnail.jpghttp://i49.tinypic.com/9gc3sx.jpg

[Prospero]

If you dine in the more touristy restaurants in Budapest the sort of zither music featured in The Third man is pretty common... Anton Karas was the musician I think who was Viennese

[Jericho]

Ice Cold in Alex
Quatermass and the Pit
Passport to Pimlico

[miner]

The Day of the Jackal with Edward Fox, not Bruce Willis.

[Sebastian]

Love Actually (but don't tell anyone)

[irvin66]

Here are some of my favorites list:
Snatch 2000
RocknRolla 2008
Revolver 2005
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels 1998
Shaun of the Dead 2004
Hot Fuzz 2007
Guest House Paradiso 1999

There are probably more but these are the ones I remember at the moment. Here in Norway we are raised with British films and British football matches on TV. :geek:

[Prospero]

See from Irvin's list that NONE of these are on Barry's Norman's Best list... so best and favourite really are two different categories.

[txjr3]

I loved This Sporting Life and also Grand Prix. And all the Carry ons......

[MILFhunter]

Quatermass and the Pit! All dat green goop! Lovely

[zocco]

the carry on movies are classics of comedy

[robertlouis]

the carry on movies are classics of comedy

If they are classics the word needs to be redefined. Not one of them could touch the feet of an Ealing comedy. Puerile, smutty, sexist and hopeless.

Sorry.

[zocco]

If they are classics the word needs to be redefined. Not one of them could touch the feet of an Ealing comedy. Puerile, smutty, sexist and hopeless.

Sorry.


who is ealing

yes the carry on movies were sexist and smutty but people can still laugh with them to this day

[GroobySteven]

If they are classics the word needs to be redefined. Not one of them could touch the feet of an Ealing comedy. Puerile, smutty, sexist and hopeless.

Sorry.

Disagree. Different times and different movies. The Carry On movies were classics of their genre and for better or worse, like Python helped define British comedy to what it is. I believe many of the Ealing comedies were classed as "smutty" in their day (Alastair Sim cross-dressed?).

[Dino Velvet]

We really enjoy Monty Python over here. When I was in high school I used to watch Benny Hill. Do/Did you guys like him over there?

[zocco]

We really enjoy Monty Python over here. When I was in high school I used to watch Benny Hill. Do/Did you guys like him over there?


In Australia we watced many Britis comedies on TV
Benny Hill,On The Busses,Are You Being Served,Dick Emory and many more
yes many were smutty and politically incorrect but very funny some still hold up today which IMO defines them as classics

[Stavros]

We really enjoy Monty Python over here. When I was in high school I used to watch Benny Hill. Do/Did you guys like him over there?

Benny Hill's tv show died at a time when the public lost interest in shows in which women were for the most part semi-naked and keen to have sex even with someone who looked like him; much as beauty pageants disappeared from mainstream tv. But if this suggests that Benny Hill was seen as past his sell-by date as far as attitudes to women is concerned, if you look at his shows politically, he comes across as an anarchist who took a particular delight in undermining the authority of, for example, policemen, judges and politicians. For this reason, the left-wing MP at the time, Tony Benn, declared Hill his favourite comedian; for many others Monty Python was too abstract and too clever. There has always been a good dose of smut in British comedy, as well as the intellectual. Comedians have emerged from both working class backgrounds, and from Universities; or perhaps one is street-wise humour and the other satire...?

[Dino Velvet]

Benny Hill's tv show died at a time when the public lost interest in shows in which women were for the most part semi-naked and keen to have sex even with someone who looked like him; much as beauty pageants disappeared from mainstream tv. But if this suggests that Benny Hill was seen as past his sell-by date as far as attitudes to women is concerned, if you look at his shows politically, he comes across as an anarchist who took a particular delight in undermining the authority of, for example, policemen, judges and politicians. For this reason, the left-wing MP at the time, Tony Benn, declared Hill his favourite comedian; for many others Monty Python was too abstract and too clever. There has always been a good dose of smut in British comedy, as well as the intellectual. Comedians have emerged from both working class backgrounds, and from Universities; or perhaps one is street-wise humour and the other satire...?

Good post. Haven't watched Benny Hill in years but I never missed it when it was popular on TV here. He definitely was irreverent and politically incorrect.

[mattavs1]

If you think Ken Loach is po-faced (as one of the commentators here did) you ought to try Riff-Raff, Ricky Tomlinson is fantastic. Is Excalibur classed as British? One of my favourite films as a kid.