best british movie of all time and have you seen any decent ones lately ?

[sunnysidedown]

Spanish but set in UK: The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue

 

[sunnysidedown]

The Company of Wolves

 

[belboid]

Let a horror geek tell you that it was a Tygon pic and that there is a HUGE difference.

not to out geek you, but Tigon. There finest hour being the wonderful Blood On Satan's Claw.

 

[Citizen66]

I enjoyed Dad Savage iirc. Seems hard to get hold of nowadays. Or was.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

In the past ten years or so:

Eastern Promises
Last King of Scotland
Snatch
28 Days Later
Sexy Beast
Slumdog Millionaire

 

[Bakunin]

Think I might need to pick up some Powell & presburger films at the weekend - my brothers been raving about the life & death of colonel blimp lately, and their other films always seem to loom large on these threads.

 

[Reno]

not to out geek you, but Tigon. There finest hour being the wonderful Blood On Satan's Claw.

"Their..."

 

[Sirena]

The Company of Wolves

And because of the Julie Burchill/transsexual thread, I found myself thinking of another film written by Neil Jordan the other day: 'The Crying Game'.

 

[Sirena]

And, because I thought Robert Shaw was underrated in his lifetime...

The Royal Hunt of the Sun
Robin and Marian

 

[Reno]

Anyone mentioned "Went the Day Well?" yet ? The Nazis invade idyllic British village and Thora Hird goes kick ass. Still really gripping now.

 

[belboid]

"Their..."

why you

Anyone mentioned "Went the Day Well?" yet ? The Nazis invade idyllic British village and Thora Hird goes kick ass. Still really gripping now.

that is normally my job, but I thought I'd skip it this time. Bloody genius movie tho.

As are, to quote but a few:
Fires Were Started
Listen To Britain

both showing the pure genius of British documentary making, something no one else came close to touching us in until the last decade or so.

Repulsion
Culloden

both works of genius that pretty much defy description

 

[sunnysidedown]

Good call on Repulsion

Docos: Behind The Rent Strike

 

[Kaka Tim]

I loved Trainspotting. Before Trainspotting, my thoughts on Britain were formed by movies like Mary Poppins, or war movies with Jack Hawkins. Stiff upper lip, nannies in the park, happy poor people smiling and eating their chutney, or chips or whatever it is.

But with Trainspotting I thought -whoa, it's way different there. It's like a normal place - or at least, Scotland is.

Interesting point JC. I think it was a really important film. When I first saw it I remember thinking 'fucking hell - a film about a world and people I know' rather than fucking relentless 'heritage films' costume drama pony.

 

[Kaka Tim]

Quadrophenia

Scum

Matter of life and death.

Day of the Jackal.

Brazil

Attack the Block

Long Good Friday

Life of Brian

The Cruel Sea

A Bridge too Far (does it count as a brit film? Dickie Attenborough directs and it stars pretty much every major male post war british actor )
Passport to Pimlico

Brighton Rock (the brilliant original one)

Children of Men

Trainspotting.

Riff Raff.

Kes.

 

[belboid]

rather than fucking relentless 'heritage films' costume drama pony.

It was almost never really the case that brit movies were simply heritage fodder, although it certainly did seem that way for a long time, especially for those of us who grew up in the eighties, when bleeding Merchant Ivory was ruling the roost. Admittedly of of the alternatives seemed to be shit gangster flicks, but there were always some classics coming out at the same time.

 

[sunnysidedown]

Rita, Sue & Bob Too

 

[Reno]

Interesting point JC. I think it was a really important film. When I first saw it I remember thinking 'fucking hell - a film about a world and people I know' rather than fucking relentless 'heritage films' costume drama pony.

British cinema has a long history of social realist films. It's not like it was only flouncy crinolines and parasols till then.

 

[Kaka Tim]

British film has a long history of social realist dramas. It's not like it was only flouncy crinolines and parasols till then.

Well yeah - but that had pretty much vanished by the 80s. Trainspotting felt like arriving in the present day.

 

[Reno]

Well yeah - but that had pretty much vanished by the 80s. Trainspotting felt like arriving in the present day.

Plenty of films by Ken Loach, Frank Clarke, Stephen Frears, Neil Jordan and a few others around in the 80s which were about contemporary, working class life in the UK. Never seen My Beautiful Launderette or A Letter to Brezhnev ? They were hugely successful.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

The Croupier and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - Both Mike Hodges films that re-visit the underword settings of Get Carter.

Will Bill - Dexter Fletcher's debut - not seen, but heard lots of good things about it

I love Performance, and most of Nic Roeg's films.

Powell and Pressburger made some classic and stunning movies......both on ther own and together.

I'm enjoying Ben Wheatley's output - Down Terrace and Kill List were both very good. Still to see Sightseers.

We brits do some good shit.

 

[Kaka Tim]

Plenty of films by Ken Loach, Frank Clark, Stephen Frears, Neil Jordan and a few others around in the 80s which were about contemporary, working class life in the UK. Never seen My Beautiful Launderette or A Letter to Brezhnev ? They were hugely successful.

I said 'pretty much vanished'. launderette and letter to brezhnev were early 80s, trainspotting was 1994 and - whilst very good - they were not as smack in the face as Trainspotting. No film till then had addressed the whole 80s dole/drug culture which so many of us grew up with.

 

[Sirena]

It's a woman's film and it's a fairy tale rather than social realism but when i watched 'Shirley Valentine' for the first time in ages, I was quite impressed.

 

[Reno]

I said 'pretty much vanished'. launderette and letter to brezhnev were early 80s, trainspotting was 1994 and - whilst very good - they were not as smack in the face as Trainspotting. No film till then had addressed the whole 80s dole/drug culture which so many of us grew up with.

Mid-80s.

I'm not saying that Trainspotting wasn't an important film and for the British film industry groundbreaking film, but that's because it examined a particular subculture and had tremendous style, but not because there were only heritage films around, which can also be very good.

One I forgot to mention is Terence Davis who made several fantastic films starting in the 80s, both about working class Britain (Distant Voices Still Lives, The Long Day Closes) and superior costume dramas (The House of Mirth, The Deep Blue Sea)

 

[sunnysidedown]

Jubilee

 

[Firky]

lol If the OP lol can have the films lol he has listed lol then I choose lol Attack the Black lol and Cockneys vs Zombies lol

lol

 

[butchersapron]

Mid-80s.

One I forgot to mention is Terence Davis who made several fantastic films starting in the 80s, both about working class Britain (Distant Voices Still Lives, The Long Day Closes) and superior costume dramas (The House of Mirth, The Deep Blue Sea)

I appreciated his autobiographical films, but felt they didn't work quite as well as Bill Douglas' trilogy.

 

[DotCommunist]

Cockneys vs Zombies is a stone cold classic

 

[Reno]

Thinking of films from the early 90s, one I found very powerful but which seems have been forgotten about since then, was Priest, written by Jimmy McGovern, directed by Antonia Bird and starring Linus Roache, Tom Wilkinson and Robert Carlyle. It was about a gay, catholic Priest and it has one of the most moving endings I've ever seen.

 

[seeformiles]

First one that springs to mind is "Get Carter"

(Then again I love all the Ealing / Boulting Bros. films too - esp. if Peter Sellars or Bernard Cribbins are in them - too much choice!)

 

[DotCommunist]

In The Name of The Father is a good'un

maybe thats Irish though . Even tho petes english....