Billy Liar (film)

Billy Liar
original film poster
Directed by	John Schlesinger
Produced by	Joseph Janni
Written by	Keith Waterhouse (novel and play) Willis Hall (play)
Starring	Tom Courtenay Julie Christie Wilfred Pickles Mona Washbourne
Music by	Richard Rodney Bennett
Cinematography	Denys Coop
Editing by	Roger Cherrill
Studio	Vic Films Productions Waterfall Prouctions
Distributed by	Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors Warner-Pathé
Release date(s)	15 August 1963
Running time	98 min
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

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.

Cast

• Tom Courtenay as William Terrence 'Billy' Fisher
• Wilfred Pickles as Geoffrey Fisher
• Mona Washbourne as Alice Fisher
• Ethel Griffies as Florence, Billy's grandmother
• Finlay Currie as Duxbury
• Gwendolyn Watts as Rita
• Helen Fraser as Barbara
• Julie Christie as Liz
• Leonard Rossiter as Emanuel Shadrack
• Rodney Bewes as Arthur Crabtree
• George Innes as Stamp
• Leslie Randall as Danny Boon
• Patrick Barr as Inspector MacDonald
• Ernest Clark as Prison governor

References

• B. F. Taylor, The British New Wave: A Certain Tendency? Manchester University Press, 2006

External links

• Billy Liar at the Internet Movie Database
• Billy Liar at AllRovi
• Billy Liar at the TCM Movie Database
• Billy Liar at Rotten Tomatoes
• Billy Liar (film) at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Billy Liar locations (ReelStreet.com's guide to the Bradford film locations)
• Criterion Collection essay by Bruce Goldstein
• Criterion Collection essay by A.O. Scott