The 49 Best British films of all time (?)

I can. It's an American film, made by Americans and acted by three Americans with very convincing English accents.

I'm misquoted there Kevin !  ;-)

Actually that's another one I'd question, on the whole basis of "what is a British film ?".  The criteria certainly aren't clear..... 

Spinal Tap probably belongs in the same qualifying bracket as Gladiator.  But I'd say at least its humour is British  ;-)

Ooops! Sorry Karlos!

As much as I love P&P and the old Eallng films, to bring the list up to date I'd also include something from Shane Meadows. This is England? Dead Man's Shoes

Good point Huwge.  Though much prefer Dead Man's Shoes of that pair........

I think I'd put "The Draughtsman's Contract" in there somewhere.

But then, I did do my college dissertation about Greenaway and he's an awfully nice (if weird) chap.

It's such a subjective thing, but as a list has inspired me to go and re-watch a few old favourites.

Probably best to stop at "the best 5000 British films"? 

That should cover it Big H  ;-)   As well as lay most arguments to rest......

I'd like to add Kes, 1969 directed by Ken Loach .. I saw it in the mid-70's and still remember being disturbed by it .. it's high on my list ..

Karlos

I wasn’t criticising Barry Norman’s choice, I too used to enjoy watching BBC’s Film program, but haven’t done so since he retired. He grew up during the “Golden Age” of British cinema, it’s natural that he should chose so many from this era. Similarly Adams suggestions span 21 years (59 to 80) with nothing released in the last 34 years. Not narrow minded, just an age thing.

Perhaps it would have been interesting to compare Barry Norman’s choice with Claudia Winkleman’s choice.

+2 Walkabout, an excellent film, which I also didn't think of as British.

I’m sure it would take a brave man to suggest such a thing in the Bobby Moore Stand on a Saturday afternoon.

Powell had the vision to employ Jack Cardiff. Take a look at this documentary and ask yourself how Black Narcissus would have turned out without the input from Jack Cardiff.
His work with P&P is discussed about 20 minutes in.

Surprised nobody’s mentioned the comedy genius Norman Wisdom, some of his films are top notch, my favourite being  “The Square Peg”

It comes about from the requirement that they should be British and 'best'.

I can think of quite a few Best films of all time which are shockingly recent but recent British films that I like and/or admire - not many and hardly worth mentioning in a Best list.

I loved 'In Bruges' but foolishly thought it was Irish. I would include 'Night of the Demon' - but hardly recent.

For 6 years I spent much of Christmas down in France binge watching the BAFTA nominated film DVDs for the next year with a friend who is a member. It isn't a cornucopia of pleasure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B..._Award_for_Best_Film - look at 'Outstanding British Film' .

Most years it's some little film that catches my attention and seems British in the sense that the finished product is different to anything that could be made elsewhere.

In this I would include 'Attack the Block' and 'Submarine'.

Films like 'The King's Speech' are well enough made but not significant.

I wouldn't go much further than to say they were fresh and I recognised the lives of the people in them - especially being chomped by aliens.

 Really? Really?

Didn't he do that movie that opened with a guy being smeared in, and forced to eat, dog feces and finished with a cannibalism scene where they chow down on some guy's genitalia? In spite of these classy bookends, the movie in between was in poor taste as I recall.

lol, a masterpiece of understatement!

Sounds like just about every film Pasolini made...

"The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover" was actually Greenaway's most critically well-received and commercially successful film!

In its defence, everything is allegorical for a reason, Michael Gambon's character was written with the specific intention of creating a villian for whom no-one could feel any sympathy or empathy whatsoever (something PG believed had never actually been done before), and acted superbly (Gambon won an award - not something that happens to many of the actors in Greenaway movies).

It had the (at the time) highest walk-out rate of any film in British cinema history - something PG was quietly pleased with ("generating emotion is the whole point of cinema.")

And Ian Dury is in it (they were good friends, and went to college together).

But if you found this film distasteful, then you really, really need to avoid "The Baby of Macon" (which I am in, but only vocally.)

Apparently John Gielgud considered his performance in "Prospero's Books", Greenaway's film of The Tempest, the finest thing he ever did. 

But yes, you do need to be in the mood for a Greenaway movie. "Nigh****ching", his last-but-one movie, with Martin 'hobbit' Freeman playing Rembrandt, is very good (and shock-free).

Ha! So, this ridiculous filter also precludes you from mentioning probably the most famous Dutch painting of all time! 

Actually, it had never occurred to me that "N I G H T W A T C H" contains the word "T W A T", and is only because of this absurd censorship that I would ever have noticed. How f***ing stupid.

Ever since I was spotted reading the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus during a particularly boring home game I have been an object of fear and awe in in the Bobby Moore Lower, FC...

Part of Powell's genius was spotting talent, be it actors, or cameramen, composers, art directors and so on. He gave Cardiff - along with Freddie Young, the greatest British cinematographer - his big break.

I've seen the film you posted - and very good it is too. But let me turn your question about Black Narcissus on its head. How would AMOLD have turned out if Cardiff had shot the "heaven" scenes in Technicolor and the "earth" scenes in B&W, as he'd expected to; Powell of course told him to do the exact opposite, and this is one of the things that makes that particular movie one of the all-time greats.

The relationship between cinematographers and directors is an interesting one. A lot of them tend to be long-term partnerships - Freddie Young and Lean, Billy Bitzer and DW Griffifth, Vittorio Storaro and Bernardo Bertolucci for example - and very fruitful ones at that.

But there is only ever one person in charge, and generally, that's the director. Let's look at two of the best movies ever made - Apocalypse Now and La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc; both had brilliant, and innovative cintematography (Storaro's vast widescreen vistas and palette of green, orange and black for Apocalypse and Rudolph Maté's bleached-out close crops on Joan). But while both made an incalculable contribution to those films, and their artistic success, they were not responsible for their success. A great cinematographer will determine how a film looks; a great director is responsible for how a film... is.

And finally, it's interesting that Cardiff only made one distinguished film - out of 15 overall -  as a director, Sons & Lovers. As a cinematographer, his contribution to cinema is far greater.

I actually did enjoy TCTTHWAHL. Disturbing for sure, but I think it deserved the accolades.