Billy Liar (film)
Encyclopedia
Billy Liar is a 1963 film based on the novel
by Keith Waterhouse
. It was directed by John Schlesinger
and stars Tom Courtenay
(who had understudied Albert Finney
in the West End theatre adaptation of the novel) as Billy and Julie Christie
as Liz, one of his three girlfriends. Mona Washbourne
plays Mrs. Fisher, and Wilfred Pickles
played Mr. Fisher. Rodney Bewes
, Finlay Currie
and Leonard Rossiter
also feature. The Cinemascope
photography is by Denys Coop
, and Richard Rodney Bennett
supplied the score.
The film belongs to the British New Wave
(or "kitchen sink drama") movement, inspired by the earlier French New Wave
. Characteristic of the style is a documentary
/cinéma vérité
feel and the use of real locations (in this case the city of Bradford
in Yorkshire
). One sequence includes a very early use of a swear word ("pissed"), which was unusual by commercial film standards of the time; the word is uttered by Mona Washbourne.
In 2004 the magazine
Total Film
named Billy Liar the 12th in their list of the greatest British Films of all time.
In 1999 the British Film Institute
named Billy Liar number 76 in their list of the top 100 British films
.
Billy Liar
Billy Liar is a 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse, which was later adapted into a play, a film, a musical and a TV series. The work has inspired and featured in a number of popular songs....
by Keith Waterhouse
Keith Waterhouse
Keith Spencer Waterhouse CBE was a novelist, newspaper columnist, and the writer of many television series.-Biography:Keith Waterhouse was born in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
. It was directed by John Schlesinger
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director and actor.-Early life:Schlesinger was born in London into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician...
and stars Tom Courtenay
Tom Courtenay
Sir Thomas Daniel "Tom" Courtenay is an English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , Billy Liar , and Dr. Zhivago . Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre...
(who had understudied Albert Finney
Albert Finney
Albert Finney is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television....
in the West End theatre adaptation of the novel) as Billy and Julie Christie
Julie Christie
Julie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....
as Liz, one of his three girlfriends. Mona Washbourne
Mona Washbourne
Mona Washbourne was an English actress of stage, film and television.Mona Washbourne began her entertaining career training as a concert pianist. While performing on stage in the early 1920s, she found that she liked acting and became an actress...
plays Mrs. Fisher, and Wilfred Pickles
Wilfred Pickles
Wilfred Pickles OBE was an English actor and radio presenter.Born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Pickles was a proud Yorkshireman, and having been selected by the BBC as an announcer for its North Regional radio service, went on to be an occasional newsreader on the BBC Home Service...
played Mr. Fisher. Rodney Bewes
Rodney Bewes
Rodney Bewes is an English television actor and writer who is best known for playing Bob Ferris in the BBC television sitcom The Likely Lads and its colour sequel Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? , and in the various radio series based on them , and in the big screen film The Likely Lads...
, Finlay Currie
Finlay Currie
Finlay Jefferson Currie was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television.Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1878. His acting career began on the stage. He and his wife Maude Courtney did a song and dance act in the US in the 1890s. He made his first film in 1931...
and Leonard Rossiter
Leonard Rossiter
Leonard Rossiter was an English actor known for his roles as Rupert Rigsby, in the British comedy television series Rising Damp , and Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin...
also feature. The Cinemascope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
photography is by Denys Coop
Denys Coop
Denys Coop BSC was a British cinematographer. He is sometimes credited as Denys N. Coop.As Camera Operator on The Third Man, he was responsible for many of the now iconic 'Dutch' angles and striking compositions, which had previously not been seen in cinema, but now form an everyday part of film...
, and Richard Rodney Bennett
Richard Rodney Bennett
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, CBE is an English composer renowned for his film scores and his jazz performance as much as for his challenging concert works...
supplied the score.
The film belongs to the British New Wave
British New Wave
The British New Wave is the name given to a trend in filmmaking among directors in Britain in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The label is a translation of Nouvelle Vague, the French term first applied to the films of François Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard among others.There is considerable overlap...
(or "kitchen sink drama") movement, inspired by the earlier French New Wave
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
. Characteristic of the style is a documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
/cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.There are subtle yet...
feel and the use of real locations (in this case the city of Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
). One sequence includes a very early use of a swear word ("pissed"), which was unusual by commercial film standards of the time; the word is uttered by Mona Washbourne.
In 2004 the magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
named Billy Liar the 12th in their list of the greatest British Films of all time.
In 1999 the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
named Billy Liar number 76 in their list of the top 100 British films
BFI Top 100 British films
In 1999 the British Film Institute surveyed 1000 people from the world of British film and television to produce the BFI 100 list of the greatest British films of the 20th century. Voters were asked to choose up to 100 films that were 'culturally British'...
.
Cast
- Tom CourtenayTom CourtenaySir Thomas Daniel "Tom" Courtenay is an English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , Billy Liar , and Dr. Zhivago . Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre...
as William Terrence 'Billy' Fisher - Wilfred PicklesWilfred PicklesWilfred Pickles OBE was an English actor and radio presenter.Born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Pickles was a proud Yorkshireman, and having been selected by the BBC as an announcer for its North Regional radio service, went on to be an occasional newsreader on the BBC Home Service...
as Geoffrey Fisher - Mona WashbourneMona WashbourneMona Washbourne was an English actress of stage, film and television.Mona Washbourne began her entertaining career training as a concert pianist. While performing on stage in the early 1920s, she found that she liked acting and became an actress...
as Alice Fisher - Ethel GriffiesEthel GriffiesEthel Griffies was an English actress of stage, screen, and television....
as Florence, Billy's grandmother - Finlay CurrieFinlay CurrieFinlay Jefferson Currie was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television.Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1878. His acting career began on the stage. He and his wife Maude Courtney did a song and dance act in the US in the 1890s. He made his first film in 1931...
as Duxbury - Gwendolyn WattsGwendolyn WattsGwen Watts was a British actress of the 1960s and 1970s.-Career:Born as Gwendolyn Watts in Carhampton, Somerset, Watts made her first television appearance in 1958 in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, going on to appear in The Rag Trade , The Avengers , Maigret , Steptoe and Son ,...
as Rita - Helen FraserHelen FraserHelen Fraser is an English actress, a familiar face in many television comedies and dramas from the early 1960s to the present. She is now living in Halesworth, Suffolk.-Career:...
as Barbara - Julie ChristieJulie ChristieJulie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....
as Liz - Leonard RossiterLeonard RossiterLeonard Rossiter was an English actor known for his roles as Rupert Rigsby, in the British comedy television series Rising Damp , and Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin...
as Emanuel Shadrack - Rodney BewesRodney BewesRodney Bewes is an English television actor and writer who is best known for playing Bob Ferris in the BBC television sitcom The Likely Lads and its colour sequel Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? , and in the various radio series based on them , and in the big screen film The Likely Lads...
as Arthur Crabtree - George InnesGeorge InnesGeorge Innes is an English actor.-Stage career:He began his career on the stage with the National Theatre of Great Britain under Laurence Olivier. Before that, he trained at Toynbee Hall and evening classes at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art , where he was awarded the Shakespeare Cup...
as Stamp - Leslie Randall as Danny Boon
- Patrick BarrPatrick BarrPatrick David Barr was a British film and television actor.Born in Akola, India, Patrick Barr went from stage to screen with The Merry Men of Sherwood . He spent the 1930s playing various beneficent authority figures and "reliable friend" types...
as Inspector MacDonald - Ernest ClarkErnest ClarkErnest Clark was a British actor of stage, television and film.-Early life:Clark was the son of a master builder in Maida Vale, and was educated nearby at St Marylebone Grammar School. After leaving school he became a reporter on a local newspaper in Croydon...
as Prison governor
External links
- Billy Liar locations (ReelStreet.coms guide to the Bradford film locations)
- Criterion Collection essay by Bruce Goldstein
- Criterion Collection essay by A.O. Scott