Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Kitchen Sink Comedy That Still Makes You Laugh, November 25, 2001
"Billy Liar" was made in 1963 three years after my birth and I can just remember Britian being like this; but it is not just a nostalgia trip. This is a beautifully executed piece of film making works from the opening, when we see a nation's homemakers brought together by the BBC's "Housewife's Choice", to the end when the battered and degected Billy walks up the hill to his parents semi-detached house at the head of his make believe army.In between we get to witness Billy's fantastic imagination at work vividly brought to life in mock news-reel form and the chaos of his real life as his past mistakes catch up and eventually overwelm him. The central problem Billy faces is one that most if not all young people experience at some time; the desire to do something great and become important and the feeling that they are being constrained and inhibited by the older generation's lack of vision. It is not easy to distinguish who is responsible for what. The writers Wallis Hall and Keith Waterhouse obviously deserve a great deal of credit as they also wrote the novel and stage play but John Schlesenger's direction and the superb cast bring the film to life. Schlesenger came from a BBC television background and the opening sequence as well as the Danny Boon character seem very authentic. Danny Boon, played by Leslie Randall, is the type of British comedian that used to and in some cases still does, present game shows on television in the UK complete with irritating catch phrases and over fimiliarity with middle aged women. Intrestingly Wilfred Pickels, who plays Billy's father, was previously best known for his radio quiz show "Have a Go" but he is now best remembered for his roll here. The great dicovery of the film has to be Julie Christie who breezes in and sweeps all before her checking her make-up in a C&A mirror (their last store closed in the UK this year) and swinging her handbag as she walks down the street. But it is her scenes with Tom Courtney's Billy where she comes alive. Although the makers regard her as fantacy figure in fact she is the only one who accepts him for what he is and offeres him a means of escape. The fact that he can't quite go through with it tells us so much about the diffidence that is at the centre of Billy's personality. Criterion have given us an eccellant quality DVD with a superb director and leading actors commentry as well as a BBC documentary that puts the film in it's context of the British Kitchen Sink dramas that started in the late 1950's and echoes of which are still present in films like "The Full Monty" and Billy Elliot. Watch and enjoy.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
CINDERELLA, July 22, 2001
John Schlesinger's BILLY LIAR has just entered the DVD market thanks to Criterion. A superb widescreen copy, english subtitles, a commentary by John Schlesinger and Julie Christie (not very interesting), a theatrical trailer and a 15 minutes excerpt from a BBC serie about british cinema (very interesting) are offered as bonus features.Tom Courtenay is William Fisher, a young man with problems. He doesn't like his job as a funeral furnishings employee, he still lives at his parents's home and spends a lot of time lying to his two girlfriends. In order to quit for a while his everyday life, he has created an imaginary world - Ambrosia - that has got some resemblance with the South or Central America bananas republics of the sixties. He is the leader of this country and people adore him. In short, he is an escapist. BILLY LIAR has been shot partly on location, partly in studio and I often had the feeling to watch two different movies on the screen. Like Billy. The destructions of buildings shown throughout the movie add to the strange impression that a world is collapsing. When Billy meets Liz, played by a terrific Julie Christie, he has the opportunity of his life to give some reality to his dreams because Liz is so real. Let's admire how John Schlesinger, in a french New Wave style, films her strolling in the streets. A great moment of cinema. Comedy, social study or metaphor on the Cinema, BILLY LIAR can easily be seen at different levels and is, in my opinion, a valuable addition to your library. A DVD zone Hillary.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging, Entertaining, Thoughtful, Cinematic, September 7, 2001
I am full of admiration for Schlesinger's film. It stands in a tradition of many great British movies that managed to make something truly cinematic out of stage material (another outstanding example would be David Lean's 1945 'Brief Encounter').The film follows a young man of 19 by the name of Billy Fisher. In the small Yorkshire town of Stradhoughton (fictional I am sure), Billy copes with the mundanity of everyday life by creating for himself an inner world of fantasy to which he retreats continually. Courtenay is superb as the perpetual liar and daydreamer, and the supporting cast is equally excellent. Denys Coop's photography. Is reminiscent of the French New Wave, particularly the opening scenes which echo the opening of Truffaut's 'Les 400 Coups,' the beautiful scenes of Julie Christie as she skips her way through the streets, and the final shots of Billy's street which have a 'cinema verite' look. The editing, especially in the fantasy sequences, brings a uniquely cinematic dimension to what could have easily been done in a more cliched style. Schlesinger presents a very moving, and very human, fable. Towards the end, as Billy marches through the empty streets, humming the last post, following the death of his grandmother, there is a real air of pathos. Similarly, we get interesting insights into the character of Billy as, waiting to board the train to London, he clutches two cartons of milk to his chest, a touching maternal symbol. Again, there are clear echoes of the scene in Truffaut's 'Les 400 Coups' in which the young Antoine Doinel steals, having run away from home, steals a bottle of milk from a doorway. This is not to say that the film is an incredibly sophisticated look into characters and personalities, but it touches upon some very human and profound moments. This is also a tremendously witty film, not losing on iota of the humour and irony of the original book by Keith Waterhouse (and subsequent stage play co-authored by Willis Hall). There are scenes of laugh-out-loud hilarity, and many of Billy's fantasies will strike a chord with many of the more imaginative of us, perhaps making us uncomfortable as we see a reflection of ourselves, albeit on a bigger scale.
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