The British Film Institute's Top-100 British Films All-Time (with links to full reviews)Nov 06 '05 (Updated Dec 22 '05) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Use this list and the associated links to find your way to some outstanding British films, as selected by the prestigious British Film Institute
The British Film Institute's list of the top 100 British films all-time is a pretty good starting place for finding many of the greatest British films ever made. Obviously, I don't agree that every film listed deserves its place on the list. There are also some striking omissions, such as Pygmalion (1939), I Know Where I'm Going (1945), and Repulsion (1965). Apparently the BFI excluded movies and mini-series made for television. Otherwise, Pride and Prejudice (1995) would certainly deserve to appear near the top of the list. Nevertheless, it's a very good list representing the compiled judgments of all of the members of the British Film Institute. I have personally reviewed 81 of the films on the list, including 58 of the top 60. I have included links to those reviews as well as 10 reviews written by other Epinions reviewers. Of the remaining 9 films, 4 are not included in the Epinions database. I've included links to the listings for the other 5. You might enjoy checking out my other lists of British and foreign film winners: All One-hundred and Six BAFTA Award-Winning Films London Critics' Circle Awards for Best Foreign Film British Films Selected by the London Critics' Circle as Best Film or Best British Film Celebrating the Oscars: All Seventy-Seven Best Picture Oscar Winners (with links to full reviews) Celebrating the Oscar Divas: All Seventy-Seven Best Actress Oscar Winners (with links to full reviews) All Fifty-Six Best Foreign Film Oscar Winners All Seventy-Seven Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or Winners National Society of Film Critics' Awards for Non-English Language Films New York Film Critics' Circle Awards for Foreign Films (1935-2004) Los Angeles Film Critics' Award Winners in the Best Foreign Film Category ********************************************************************** The British Film Institute's Top-100 British Films All-Time ********************************************************************** #1. The Third Man (1949) Director: Carol Reed My Rating: * * * * * Joseph Cotton, Trevor Howard, Alida Valli, and Orson Welles star in this richly atmospheric classic thriller. Cotton is an American writer who arrives in post-war Vienna and discovers that his old friend, Harry Lime, who had promised him a job, died under mysterious circumstances shortly before his arrival. #2. Brief Encounter (1945) Director: David Lean My Rating: * * * * This romantic tear-jerker starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard finds a respectable married woman meeting and falling in love with a physician at a railway platform and coffee shop. A theme from Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 is featured prominently. #3. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Director: David Lean My Rating: * * * * * This powerful epic drama, starring Peter O'Toole as Lawrence, with able support from Omar Sharif, Arthur Kennedy, and Jack Hawkins, won both the Oscar and the BAFTA awards for Best Picture. #4. The 39 Steps (1935) Director: Alfred Hitchcock My Rating: * * * * * Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll star in one of Hitchcock's best early thrillers. Donat plays an ordinary man who suddenly finds himself caught up in a web of intrigue when a female spy is killed in his apartment. When Donat later finds himself on the lam handcuffed to an uncooperative female companion (Carroll), the sexual chemistry is palpable. #5. Great Expectations (1946) Director: David Lean My Rating: * * * * * This is one of Lean's two great adaptations of Dickens's novels. It stars John Mills, Bernard Miles, Jean Simmons, and Alec Guinness. The brilliant opening scene in a graveyard, in which young Pip first meets Magwitch, sets at densely atmospheric tone for the entire film. #6. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) Director: Robert Hamer My Rating: * * * * Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson, and Joan Greenwood star in this darkly elegant Ealing comedy about a poor relative, ninth in line to inherit a vast family fortune, who then sets out to systematically eliminate the eight claimants with precedence. #7. Kes (1969) (Not listed at Epinions.) Director: Ken Loach My Rating: Unavailable David Bradley, Lynne Perrie, and Colin Welland are the leads in this story about a working-class boy who adds meaning to his drab existence by training and caring for a kestrel (a small falcon). This film does not appear to have been ever released in a Region 1 compatible format on either VHS or DVD. #8. Don't Look Now (1973) Director: Nic Roeg My Rating: * * * * * Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are the leads in this horror classic in which a distraught couple visiting Venice are contacted by their drowned daughter through a medium. The labyrinthine alleyways of off-season Venice give this film a quality of Gothic mystery. #9. The Red Shoes (1948) Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger My Rating: * * * * * This stirring drama stars Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer, and Marius Goring in a love triangle that pits a ballerina's love for her profession against her love for her husband. Though beautiful throughout, this film suddenly leaps to an unexpected loftier plane of imagination during a 14-minute performance of The Red Shoes ballet at near the film's midpoint. #10. Trainspotting (1996) Director: Danny Boyle My Rating: * * * * * Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, and others lead the way in this dark and moving examination of heroin addiction and associated criminal activities. The powerful soundtrack, starkly realistic sets, and surreal segments give this film a stylishly modern quality. #11. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Director: David Lean My Rating: * * * * * Alec Guinness provided a magnificent performance in this seven-Oscar award winning jungle epic that pits British P.O.W.'s against their Japanese captors. Guinness plays an officer who wins the psychological battle of wits with the Japanese commander, but who is so wedded to the ideals of British efficiency and know-how that he loses sight of the big picture. #12. If… (1968) Director: Lindsay Anderson My Rating: * * * * This was the first of a trilogy of films in which Malcolm McDowell played the same character. In this coming-of-age segment, McDowell's character leads a rebellion against tyranny at an English private school. #13. The Ladykillers (1955) Director: Alexander Mackendrick My Rating: * * * * * Alex Guinness, Katie Johnson, Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Danny Green, and Jack Warner star in this caper film and black comedy from Ealing Studios in which a pack of criminals use a boarding house as a staging site for a heist but are repeatedly thwarted by the interference of the well-intentioned landlady. #14. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) Director: Karel Reisz My Rating: * * * * This film helped launch the so-called angry young man movement in British cinema and lifted the careers of Albert Finney, Shirley Ann Field, and Rachel Roberts. Finney is a lathe operator determined to enjoy life for all its worth, boozing, brawling, and bedding whichever women he can. All that changes when Finney's character meets the comely Doreen (Field), who won't settle for less than a ring and a home. #15. Brighton Rock (1947) Director: John Boulting My Rating: * * * * * Richard Attenborough and Hermione Baddeley star in this thriller about an amoral young gangster who commits a murder and then sets out to destroy the pretty but naïve waitress that he married only to ensure that she couldn't testify against him. #16. Get Carter (1971) Director: Mike Hodges My Rating: * * * * Michael Caine stars as the London gangland enforcer who gets personal after his good-guy brother is killed by gangsters in his old hometown. Caine's suave and sadistic character is utterly relentless in his effort to discover who was responsible for his brother's death. #17. The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) Director: Charles Crichton My Rating: * * * * * Alec Guinness, Stanley Halloway, Sidney James, Alfie Bass, and a great script make for a hilariously funny classic that combines caper film and slapstick elements. A very young Audrey Hepburn makes a brief appearance as Chiquita. #18. Henry V (1945) Director: Laurence Olivier My Rating: * * * * * Laurence Olivier wrote, directed, and starred in this stirring propaganda effort aimed at bolstering British resolve during the bleak days of World War II. In this simplified rendition of the great Shakespearean drama, Henry inspires an out-numbered British force to victory at the Battle of Agincourt. #19. Chariots of Fire (1981) Director: Hugh Hudson My Rating: * * * * * Ben Cross and Ian Charleson are two runners with Olympic aspirations, each driven by an interior fire. Cross plays a Jewish student at Cambridge striving to overcome his status as an outsider while Charleson plays a devout Scottish missionary driven by his belief that he runs for God's glory. This sports film exceeds the usual limitations of its genre to provide an absorbing study of character. #20. Stairway to Heaven (1946) Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger My Rating: * * * * * This lovely romantic fantasy has the seemingly oddball premise of a World War II pilot (David Niven) defying death during a plane crash when the fog over the English Channel obscures him from the angel assigned to collect his soul. By the time the mistake is discovered in heaven, Niven's character has fallen in love with the female radio operator (Hunter). Since his situation has been altered materially by heaven's mistake, the celestial court must decide whether he should be granted a reprieve. The British title for this film is A Matter of Life and Death. #21. The Long Good Friday (1980) Director: John Mackenzie My Rating: * * * * * Bob Hoskins delivers a remarkable performance in this violent crime thriller in which a London mob boss comes up against the IRA. Helen Mirren, as Victoria, the girlfriend, provides Hoskins with able support. #22. The Servant (1963) Director: Joseph Losey My Rating: * * * * * This powerfully dark drama written by Harold Pinter finds Dirk Bogarde as a manservant who slowly but methodically takes control of his rich but useless employer (James Fox), with the aid of a sexy faux-sister (Sarah Miles). #23. Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) Director: Mike Newell My Rating: * * * * This skillfully structured comedy stars Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell as the pair whose timing is perpetually mismatched. When he's available, she isn't, and vice versa. With a fine supporting cast as well, this film grossed more than $258 million in box-office receipts. #24. Whisky Galore! (1949) Director: Alexander Mackendrick My Rating: * * * * Basil Radford, Joan Greenwood, and a slew of Scottish locals gave charm to this light comedy about an island in the Scottish Hebrides where the wartime rationing of whisky is posing great hardship – until a ship loaded with 50,000 cases of the golden brew is wrecked upon the reefs offshore. #25. The Full Monty (1997) Director: Peter Cattaneo My Rating: * * * * Robert Carlyle and Tom Wilkinson and their misfit friends are out-of-work Sheffield steelworkers who are so desperate for wages that they decide to try their . . . er, hands . . as male strippers. Social issues provide a backdrop for this fresh comedy that ultimately received four Oscar nominations. #26. The Crying Game (1992) Director: Neil Jordan My Rating: * * * * * There are twists galore in this thriller, starring Stephen Rea and Miranda Richardson, about an IRA man who becomes friendly with a British soldier being held for ransom. Rea's character later goes searching for the girlfriend that the soldier had described as the ideal woman, but the man's past continues to exert a claim on his allegiance. #27. Doctor Zhivago (1965) Director: David Lean My Rating: * * * * * Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Rod Steiger, and Alex Guinness star in this great romantic epic based on a novel by Boris Pasternak. Spanning the years of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, this film is graced with gorgeous sets and won Oscars for its cinematography, screenplay, costumes, art direction, and musical score. #28. Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) Director: Terry Jones My Rating: * * * * * Blasphemy was the charge when this film hit the screen with its outrageous brand of satire and wit. Brian is a young half-Jew contemporary of Jesus. Though far more down-to-earth than the famous prophet, Brian manages to acquire a following of his own and incurs the wrath of the speech-impaired Pontius Pilate. The Pythons – John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, and Terry Jones – each play multiple roles. #29. Withnail and I (1987) Director: Bruce Robinson My Rating: * * * * * Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann star as a pair of down-on-their-luck actors who escape dreary London for a holiday in the country. Richard Griffiths is the delightfully lecherous uncle who follows them there in the hope of romancing McGann's Marwood character. There's enough grim and withering humor in this piece to turn your toes. #30. Gregory's Girl (1980) Director: Bill Forsyth My Rating: * * * * * When the gangling and hyper-hormonal Gregory (John Gordon Sinclair) falls hopelessly for the beautiful and athletic Dorothy (Dee Hepburn), it's up to the rest of the sensibly minded high school girls to redirect his amorous inclinations toward the gal who already covets his attention. #31. Zulu (1964) Director: Cy Endfield My Rating: * * * * * Based on a true story, this is an epic depiction of the defense of an undermanned British outpost at the mission of Rorke's Drift in South Africa, when Zulu warriors lay siege. Michael Caine makes one of his earliest appearances, but the film belongs to Stanley Baker as the officer who rallies the men for an heroic defense. There's a stirring musical score by John Barry. #32. Room at the Top (1958) Director: Jack Clayton My Rating: * * * * John Braine's popular novel gets a fine screen adaptation featuring Laurence Harvey, Simon Signoret, and Heather Sears in a love triangle. Harvey plays a man on the make, hoping to rise out of his working class background by marrying a young woman (Sears) from a wealthy family, but, in the meantime, he inadvertently falls in love with an older woman (Signoret) with whom he enjoys true rapport. Signoret received an Oscar along with screenwriter Neil Paterson. #33. Alfie (1966) Director: Lewis Gilbert My Rating: * * * * Alfie (Michael Caine) is a charming Cockney lothario set on bagging as many "birds" as possible without getting attached. This was the first of several collaborations between Caine and Gilbert and features an excellent musical score by Sonny Rollins. #34. Gandhi (1982) (See George Chabot's Review.) Director: Richard Attenborough George Chabot's Rating: * * * Ben Kingsley imbued this epic film about the life of Gandhi with a brilliant Oscar-winning lead performance. The film follows the ascent of Gandhi from a young lawyer to the foremost political and spiritual leader of modern India. The film acquired eight Oscar trophies including Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Screenplay. #35. The Lady Vanishes (1938) Director: Alfred Hitchcock My Rating: * * * * * This film was Hitchcock's last great British film before moving his skills to Hollywood. This is a mystery with comedic currents shot in Gainsborough. When an elderly woman suddenly disappears, an alarmed younger woman (Margaret Lockwood) finds no support for her recollections of the circumstances in dispute, until a young man (Michael Redgrave), with whom she had already had a run-in, comes to her aid. #36. The Italian Job (1969) Director: Peter Collinson My Rating: * * * * This comic caper film features a monstrous traffic jam and an action-packed car chase involving a fleet of Mini Coopers speeding through piazzas and across rooftops. Michael Caine stars along with an aging Noel Coward, carrying the action to a classic cliff-hanging ending. #37. Local Hero (1983) Director: Bill Forsyth My Rating: * * * Burt Lancaster and Peter Riegert lead a cast into Scotland for a story that pits environmental sensitivity against corporate interests. Reigert plays the young executive whose job it is to buy up all of the land in an old, run-down fishing village so that a refinery can be built nearby. One old geezer (Fulton Mackay) on a beach stands in the way. #38. The Commitments (1991) Director: Alan Parker My Rating: * * * * * Soul music in Dublin? You betcha! Alan Parker actually put together a band headed by vocalist Andrew Strong to create this film about a group of young musicians trying to scratch their way out of Dublin poverty by performing Dublin soul. The film's soundtrack is fantastic. #39. A Fish Called Wanda (1988) Director: Charles Crichton My Rating: * * * * * One Wanda is a fish but the other is a sexy con artist (Jamie Lee Curtis) who will double-cross her partners at the drop of a skirt to get her hands on a stash of stolen diamonds. John Cleese stars as a British barrister hired to defend one of the gang members already crossed by Wanda. He soon finds his life turned upside down by Wanda's seductive efforts. This is one hilarious comedy. #40. Secrets and Lies (1995) Director: Mike Leigh My Rating: * * * * * This skillfully crafted films features ensemble acting at its best as a white woman discovers that the child she gave up for adoption in infancy is now a talented young woman – and she's black. How will mom break the news to her other daughter, a rebellious teenager already troubled by her own fatherless status? There's both humor and drama in this Oscar nominated gem. #41. Dr. No (1962) Director: Terence Young My Rating: * * * * Say "Yes" to Dr. No, the film that launched the 007 franchise with aplomb. Not only is Sean Connery stunningly young and fit, but he's partnered with the lovely Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder and opposed by the chilling Joseph Wiseman as the disarming Dr. No. Jamaican settings give this film a lush tropical look. #42. The Madness of King George (1994) Director: Nicholas Hytner My Rating: * * * * Nigel Hawthorne's brilliant performance as the king addled by porphyria highlights this period piece. The costumes and castles add exquisite period detail. #43. A Man for All Seasons (1966) Director: Fred Zinnemann My Rating: * * * * * Robert Bolt's famous play is brought to the screen with Paul Schofield as the famous statesman, Sir Thomas More, who follows his conscience all the way to the chopping block. This film won six Oscars, including Best Film, Director, Actor, Screenplay, Costume Design, and Cinematography. #44. Black Narcissus (1947) Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger My Rating: * * * This sumptuous and melodramatic rendition of Rumer Godden's novel follows a group of nuns as they attempt to establish a mission in an abandoned abbey in the Himalayas. Cinematographer Jack Cardiff earned an Oscar for his brilliant Technicolor photography. Deborah Kerr, David Farrer, and Jean Simmons star. #45. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger My Rating: * * * * * This epic from The Archers follows the life of a patriotic British military man from the Boer War through World War II, as changing times slowly overtake the aging Colonel. Deborah Kerr is spectacular in three separate roles as the key women at various stages in Colonel Blimp's life. #46. Oliver Twist (1948) Director: David Lean My Rating: * * * * * Alec Guinness and David Lean teamed up again for another adaptation of a Dickens's classic. This highly atmospheric film provides memorable images and strong performances throughout the talented cast. #47. I'm All Right Jack (1959) Director: John Boulting My Rating: * * * * In this entertaining comedy, Ian Carmichael plays a dim but honorable upper class twit who takes a job as an ordinary worker mainly because he's too incompetent for management. His sincere effort to excel at his work soon has him at odds with the union steward, Fred Kite (Peter Sellers), despite the fact that Kite's buxom daughter is keen on the young man. A couple of management profiteers use Carmichael's destabilizing influence to force a strike so that they can shift a contract to a competing manufacturer at a hefty profit. #48. Performance (1970) Director: Nicolas Roeg, Donald Cammell My Rating: * * * * * Mick Jagger made his debut appearance and provides a couple of strong numbers, but the film belongs mostly to James Fox who plays a gangster hiding out in the psychedelic world of late-sixties Notting Hill in Soho. #49. Shakespeare in Love (1998) Director: John Madden My Rating: * * * * * Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow sparkle as the romantic intrigue finds a young Will Shakespeare (Fiennes) suffering writers' block, awaiting his muse (Paltrow). Paltrow plays a young wealthy heiress about to be bartered into marriage with an unwanted suitor. She'd rather recite Shakespeare's glorious prose on stage but women, at the time, were not allowed to perform. This film received seven Oscars, including Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth), and Best Screenplay. #50. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) Director: Stephen Frears My Rating: * * * * Daniel Day-Lewis got his first major role in this film, as the gay and punk Johnny. Gordon Warnecke, Saeed Jaffrey, and Roshan Seth star as Pakistani immigrants who feel like outsiders in London and who run afoul of lower class whites when the latter are displaced by successful Pakistani businesses. #51. Tom Jones (1963) Director: Tony Richardson My Rating: * * * * * Albert Finney stars as the irreverent, bawdy Tom Jones in this Oscar winning Best Picture that also earned Richardson a trophy as Best Director. Tom's escapades, from the countryside to London, eventually win him the woman of his desires. #52. This Sporting Life (1963) Director: Lindsay Anderson My Rating: * * * * * Richard Harris is the rugby star and former coal miner who just can't seem to rekindle the passions of the desolate widow, played by Rachel Roberts, with whom he boards. Roberts won a BAFTA award as Best Actress in this brutal film scripted by David Storey. #53. My Left Foot (1989) Director: Jim Sheridan My Rating: * * * * * The splendid performance by Daniel Day-Lewis as Christy Brown, a gifted Irish lad born with cerebral palsy, is the film's highlight. Lewis won an Oscar for his work along with Brenda Fricker who played Christy's mother. #54. Brazil (1985) Director: Terry Gilliam My Rating: * * * * * Terry Gilliam's dazzling futuristic society is a twist on the 1984 kind of bleak future in which every aspect of life is tightly controlled by a central authority. Jonathan Pryce stars, but Robert DeNiro also shows up as a maverick freedom fighter. Gilliam's director's cut became available in the U.S. only after his extended battle with the distributor. #55. The English Patient (1996) Director: Anthony Minghella My Rating: * * * * * This epic about love and loss features an all-star cast of Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Juliette Binoche, Willem Bafoe, Naveen Andrews, and Colin Firth. In the deserts of North Africa, a British survey team sponsored by the Royal Geological Society brings together Count Almasy (Fiennes) and Katharine Clifton (Scott-Thomas) in a heated romance that culminates in death and betrayal, while nurse Hana (Binoche) struggles with her own history of lost loves. #56. A Taste of Honey (1961) Director: Tony Richardson My Rating: * * * * * This poignant sixties classic features an interracial affair between a lower class teenager (Rita Tushingham) in the slums of Manchester and a black sailor from a ship docked in port. When Tushingham's character becomes pregnant, she finds support and friendship from an equally displaced homosexual young man (Murray Melvin). This film won four BAFTA awards including Best British Film. #57. The Go-Between (1970) Director: Joseph Losey My Rating: * * * * In the third collaboration between director Losey and screenwriter Harold Pinter, a twelve year-old boy, Leo, struggles to comprehend the meaning of an affair between the beautiful young aristocratic Marian Maudsley (Christie) and the local farmer, Ted Burgess (Bates), that Leo is co-opted into facilitating. The sets and costumes for this Edwardian drama elegantly highlight the splendid performances. #58. The Man in the White Suit (1951) Director: Alexander Mackendrick My Rating: * * * * Alec Guinness is at it again in this Ealing comedy about an idealistic inventor who upsets the economic balance between factory owners and trade unions by inventing an indestructible fabric. Joan Greenwood and Cecil Parker are delightful, along with sets featuring the inventor's gurgling equipment. #59. The Ipcress File (1965) Director: Sidney J. Furie My Rating: * * * * Michael Caine stars as Harry Palmer in this spy thriller pitting a reluctant British agent against a ring of culprits utilizing a mind-control technique. There's none of Bond's suave elegance in Harry Palmer, but plenty of brutal action. #60. Blow-Up (1966) Director: Michelangelo Antonioni My Rating: * * * * * On the surface, this classic film presents itself as a mystery thriller but ends up being a metaphysical and philosophical treatise about perception, truth, and artistic representations. This was the first English language film for the brilliant Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni. Several of the film's vignettes have rightly become famous. #61. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) Director: Tony Richardson My Rating: * * * * * Tom Courtenay gave life to this film about a talented but rebellious young runner who has to choose between being shafted by the system or being co-opted by it. With a screenplay by Alan Sillitoe, based on his own short novel, this film became one of the classic dramas of the sixties. #62. Sense and Sensibility (1995) Director: Ang Lee My Rating: * * * * * Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, and Hugh Grant deliver a spirited rendition of Jane Austen's youthful novel about young women in 18th-centruy England embroiled in finding husbands while trying to retain their dignity. The story contrasts a sensible and reserved older sister (Thompson) with a passionately poetic younger one (Winslet), but ensures that the sisters ultimately discover that they each possess a bit of the other's qualities as well. #63. Passport to Pimlico (1949) (See atruelove's Review.) Director: atruelove's Rating: * * * In this charming postwar comedy, the residents of Pimlico, in the heart of London, declare themselves an independent country after discovery of a royal charter ceding the property to the Dukes of Burgundy. Stanley Halloway, Margaret Rutherford, Basil Radford, and Hermione Baddeley are all in fine form. #64. The Remains of the Day (1993) Director: James Ivory My Rating: * * * * * Merchant-Ivory made their reputation on the basis of splendid periods pieces such as this beautifully filmed story of an ultra-proper butler (Anthony Hopkins) tending to the estate of a well-meaning but naïve owner (James Fox), who is politically active in the Nazi appeasement effort of the thirties. Hopkins turns in what might be his finest performance as the man who lets slip away an opportunity for romance with the head housekeeper (Emma Thompson). #65. Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) Director: John Schlesinger My Rating: * * * * A bisexual in his twenties, Bob (Murray Head), is the common denominator in two on-going love affairs, one with a thirty-something married but separated woman (Glenda Jackson) and the other with a homosexual Jewish physician (Peter Finch) in his late forties. Schlesinger uses these relationships as a character study and to sort through the meaning of such ideas as primary relationships, needs, commitment, and emotional repression. #66. The Railway Children (1970) Director: Lionel Jeffries Rating: * * * * * Jenny Agutter starred in this children's classic about a woman and three children living in the Yorkshire countryside after the father of the family is sent off to prison for espionage. The heartwarming story revolves around the local steam railway system. #67. Mona Lisa (1986) Director: Neil Jordan My Rating: * * * * Bob Hoskins plays a small-time hood, fresh out of prison, who gets a job driving a high-priced call girl to her johns. After falling in love with the mysterious hooker, Hoskins's character takes a major risk to rescue the hooker's best friend from a sadistic pimp, only to discover that the good guy doesn't always get the girl in the end. #68. The Dam Busters (1955) (There are no reviews. See Listing.) Director: Michael Anderson Rating: Undetermined This is a wartime drama from the vantage point of a scientist (Michael Redgrave) driven to perfect a special "bouncing" bomb to destroy the Ruhr dams in Germany during World War II. Richard Todd plays the pilot whose job it is to drop the bombs on target. #69. Hamlet (1948) Director: Laurence Olivier My Rating: * * * * * Laurence Olivier produced, directed, and starred in this attractively filmed version of the Shakespearean play, adapted by Alan Dent. This film won both the Oscar and the BAFTA awards for Best Film. #70. Goldfinger (1964) Director: Guy Hamilton My Rating: * * * * * Many Bond fans consider this the best film of the series. Sean Connery was in his finest form and Gert Frobe and Harold Sakata are superlative as the villain, Goldfinger, and his henchman, Oddjob, respectively. The film's theme song is among the best of the series. #71. Elizabeth (1998) Director: Shekhar Kapur My Rating: * * * * Cate Blanchett's performance is the highlight of this period drama in which the rise of Queen Elizabeth I is given a bit of a makeover in the form of Godfather-style intrigues and violence. The sets, costumes, and make-up are also terrific. #72. Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939) Director: Sam Wood My Rating: * * * * Robert Donat and Greer Garson star in this paean to the teaching profession, in which the introverted Mr. Chips (Donat) is so enriched by love that he grows into a beloved icon at Brookfield, an elite, tradition-bound, school catering to the children of wealthy aristocrats. Donat won an Oscar for his riveting performance as Chips over a half-century of the man's life. #73. A Room with a View (1985) Director: James Ivory My Rating: * * * * Helena Bonham Carter is a young, upper middleclass English woman coming of age during a chaperoned trip to Florence. Later, she struggles to choose between a class-appropriate marriage to her prissy fiancé (Daniel Day-Lewis) or her heart's desire in the form of a passionate young man (Denholm Elliott) of lesser class. This film won Oscars for Best Screenplay, Art Direction, and Costume Design. #74. The Day of the Jackal (1973) Director: Fred Zinnemann My Rating: * * * * This taut thriller finds Edward Fox playing the part of a cunning assassin hired by the French OAS to kill President Charles De Gaulle as retribution for granting independence to Algeria. The Jackal's planning is meticulous but he's pitted against France's best inspector (Michael Lonsdale) in a brilliantly scripted cat-and-mouse game. #75. The Cruel Sea (1952) Director: Charles Frend My Rating: * * * * This World War II drama, based on a best-selling novel by Nicholas Monsarrat, earned an Oscar for scriptwriter Eric Ambler. The film has an almost documentary authenticity to its depictions of life aboard an escort Corvette deployed to protect British shipping from the ravages of Nazi U-boats. Jack Hawkins stars as the ship's captain. #76. Billy Liar (1963) (See Stephen Murray's Review.) Director: John Schlesinger Stephen Murray's Rating: * * * * * Tom Courtenay provides a stellar performance as Billy, a lazy young man who prefers fantasy to the dull routine of his job. The screenplay written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall was based on Waterhouse's novel and the stage play previously created by the same pair. #77. Oliver! (1968) Director: Carol Reed My Rating: * * * * This rousing musical version of the Dicken's classic, Oliver Twist, has a great cast, spearheaded by Ron Moody as Fagin, Mark Lester as Oliver, and Jack Wild as the Artful Dodger. Carol Reed's nephew Oliver was cast as the villainous Bill Sikes. This film won six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. #78. Peeping Tom (1960) Director: Michael Powell My Rating: * * This film was thoroughly vilified when it was first released and was shortly withdrawn from the theaters, but has been resurrected by a reevaluation led by Martin Scorsese. Carl Boehm is a creepy cameraman with a penchant for filming young women as he murders them. #79. Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) (Not listed at Epinions.) Director: John Schlesinger Rating: Undetermined Schlesinger teamed up once again with Julie Christie in the beautifully photographed film based on a Thomas Hardy novel. Bathsheba Everdene (Christie) finds herself the object of desire for three distinctly different suitors: a wealthy landowner (Peter Finch), an honest farmer (Alan Bates), and a dashing soldier (Terence Stamp). #80. The Draughtsman's Contract (1982) Director: Peter Greenaway My Rating: * * * * In the summer of 1694, on an English estate, a landscape draughtsman (Anthony Higgins) is hired by Mrs. Herbert (Janet Suzman) to furnish twelve drawings of the estate, while her husband is away on business. The artist accepts on condition that Mrs. Herbert attend to his sexual needs during his time in residence. The plot thickens when the woman's daughter, Mrs. Talmann (Anne Louise Lambert), declares that the drawings contain hints about an impending plot against her father and demands sexual favors from the artist as the price for her silence. Director Greenway films is a highly formalized style featuring minimal cuts or movement by either the camera or the actors, all set against delicately composed backdrops. #81. A Clockwork Orange (1971) Director: Stanley Kubrick My Rating: * * * * * Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece of disturbing modernistic cinema features antisocial as well as institutional violence and a fantastic performance by Malcolm McDowell as Alex. The film was banned in the U.K. after a number of copycat murders occurred. #82. Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) (There are no reviews. See Listing.) Director: Terence Davies Rating: Undetermined Freda Dowie, Pete Postlethwaite, and Angela Walsh star in this autobiographical examination of the damaging effect of a cruel father on various family members. This film was shot as two distinct parts with a long interval between the shooting periods. The lovely images and cheery soundtrack provide a sharp contrast to the main thrust of the narrative. #83. Darling (1965) Director: John Schlesinger My Rating: * * * Julie Christie won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in this film as a young woman whose life changes abruptly when she marries an Italian nobleman. Oscars were also given to scriptwriter Frederick Raphael and costume designer Julie Harris. #84. Educating Rita (1983) Director: Lewis Gilbert My Rating: * * * * Michael Caine and Julie Walters star in this Pygmalion-like story of a hairdresser from Liverpool who seeks an education through the Open University initiative. Caine plays the burned-out alcoholic professor assigned to tutor the ingénue but who is reluctant to tinker with her innate charm, originality, and vivacious with anything so uncertain as higher education. #85. Brassed Off (1996) (See telynor's Review.) Director: Mark Herman telynor's Rating: * * * * Lovely local lass Gloria (Tara Fitzgerald) shakes things up with her flugelhorn when she joins the Grimley Colliery band. They were about to scuttle their hopes of competing at the Royal Albert Hall after the Grimley mine, where they all work as miners, is threatened with closure. Pete Postlethwaite plays the retired miner who leads the band to the national competition. #86. Genevieve (1953) Director: Henry Cornelius Rating: Undetermined Genevieve is a car, not a character, but she's no ordinary car. She's a 1904 Darracq classic and her owners (John Gregson and Dinah Sheridan) plan to race her against a 1904 Spyker and its smug owners (Kenneth More and Kay Kendall). It's jolly good comedy highlighted by some harmonica riffs by the legendary Larry Adler. #87. Women in Love (1969) (See Stephen Murray's Review.) Director: Ken Russell Stephen Murray's Rating: * This adaptation of a novel by D.H. Lawrence traces two love affairs, while featuring a nude wrestling match involving the two guys. Glenda Jackson won an Oscar for her effort as one of the gals. #88. A Hard Day's Night (1964) Director: Richard Lester My Rating: * * * * * Filmed at the height of Beatlemania, this quasi-documentary features the fab four basically playing themselves. Stalwart Wilfrid Brambell provides the ballast as Paul's frisky grandfather, but the film's top star is the soundtrack. #89. Fires Were Started (1943) (Not listed at Epinions.) Director: Humphrey Jennings Rating: Undetermined This documentary features the difficult work of fireman during the time of the London Blitz. Originally designed as a training film, its general release during the war helped to boost public morale in a difficult time. The film uses only genuine firemen, though the vignettes are reenactments. #90. Hope and Glory (1987) Director: John Boorman My Rating: * * * * * Boorman wrote, produced, and directed this autobiographical tale of a lad growing up during the time of the London air raids and his subsequent removal to the countryside where he learns about fishing, life, and googlies, by observing various family members. #91. My Name is Joe (1998) (See nsing's Review.) Director: Ken Loach nsing's Rating: * * * * * Peter Mullan provided an award-winning performance as Joe, a former alcoholic, in this Glasgow based drama. Joe falls in love with a social worker, while running a pickup football team, but runs afoul of the menacing local drug dealer. #92. In Which We Serve (1942) (See j deverchai's Review.) Director: Noel Coward, David Lean j deverchai's Rating: * * Noel Coward wrote both the script and score, co-directed, and starred in this wartime drama set aboard a battleship during World War II. This patriotic piece includes debut performances by Celia Johnson, Richard Attenborough, and Daniel Massey. #93. Caravaggio (1986) (There are no reviews. See Listing.) Director: Derek Jarman Rating: Undetermined Beautiful cinematography and stunning male models highlight this embellished biopic of an Italian painter who precipitated scandal. Nigel Terry, Sean Bean, Garry Cooper, and Spencer Leigh are the leads. #94. The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954) (There are no reviews. See Listing.) Director: Frank Launder Rating: Undetermined Alastair Sim plays dual roles in this comedy about a bizarre girls' school in which an undercover policewoman (Joyce Grenfell) is pitted against the headmistress's bookmaker brother, who hopes to use the school as a front for his sinister scams. #95. Life Is Sweet (1990) (There are no reviews. See Listing.) Director: Mike Leigh Rating: Undetermined Alison Steadman and Jim Broadbent team up as a working class couple with a pair of screwball twin daughters in this bittersweet comedy from Mike Leigh. #96. The Wicker Man (1973) (See artbyjude's Review.) Director: Robin Hardy artbyjude's Rating: * * Horror reigns as Edward Woodward plays a Scottish police sergeant investigating the disappearance of a child on a remote island. There he discovers a local cult engaged in pagan rites. Anthony Shaffer provided the script. #97. Nil By Mouth (1997) (See reviewman's Review.) Director: Gary Oldman reviewman's Rating: * * * * * Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke provide brutally compelling performances in this tale of drink and drugs in London dives. Oldman both directed and wrote the script. Kathy Burke won the Best Actress award at Cannes for her performance in this film. #98. Small Faces (1995) (See xxxxer 's Review.) Director: Gillies Mackinnon xxxxer's Rating: * * * * This semi-autobiographical account has three brothers growing up in a Glasgow housing project in the late sixties. Coming-of-age in a world of gangs and dysfunctional families is an unsentimental business, but Mackinnon spices the topic with a liberal dose of good humor. #99. Carry On Up the Khyber (1968) (Not listed at Epinions.) Director: Gerald Thomas Rating: Undetermined At the Khyber Pass of India in 1895, a British regiment is charged with discouraging the Khasi of Kalabar from turning the Burpas revolt into an all out rebellion. If it sounds like an adventure film, think again. It's all presented by way of comedy, featuring raunchy bathroom humor, spoofs, and vulgar puns. #100. The Killing Fields (1984) Director: Roland Joffe My Rating: * * * * * Sam Waterston and Dr. Haing S. Ngor star in this story based on the memoirs of a New York Times reporter stationed in Cambodia during the American evacuation. The powerful script by Bruce Robinson divides the story into two parts, one pre-evacuation and the other depicting the travails of Ngor's character, a native reporter left behind to suffer through the humiliation of political reeducation at the hands of the grim-faced Khmer Rouge.  |
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