How good are British Movies?

[VladTheImpala]

Bit of a cheat this, I'm starting a thread to which I can't contribute. Ever since I was asked for my favourite British Movie in completing the registration for the site I have realised either a) I've never actually seen one or b) that so many fine movies over so many years (many remembered fondly but vaguely) causes my mind to go blank.



To get to the point, I though it might be interesting to see how many of you would nominate a British Movie as your favourite movie per se. And if not, how many would appear in your all-time top ten and where?

[Steve Crook]

name='VladTheImpala']Bit of a cheat this, I'm starting a thread to which I can't contribute. Ever since I was asked for my favourite British Movie in completing the registration for the site I have realised either a) I've never actually seen one or b) that so many fine movies over so many years (many remembered fondly but vaguely) causes my mind to go blank.



To get to the point, I though it might be interesting to see how many of you would nominate a British Movie as your favourite movie per se. And if not, how many would appear in your all-time top ten and where?

I think with me it's more a case of how many non-British movies would appear in my top ten



Have a look through some lists of British movies like the one on this site of the Users' Top One Hundred and see how many you know



Although I suppose it also makes a difference which era you're looking at. If you look at the 1940s, 50s & 60s then there are loads of great British movies. If you are only looking at the last few years then there aren't so many, but there are still a few



Steve

[stevie boy]

Trainspotting at number 1 ??, interesting film but number 1.!! Good to see AMOLAD & The Third Man there, imo they should be 1 & 2.

[Steve Crook]

name='stevie boy']Trainspotting at number 1 ??, interesting film but number 1.!! Good to see AMOLAD & The Third Man there, imo they should be 1 & 2.

Well you can vote with your own Top Three and try to readjust things



Steve

[stevie boy]

name='Steve Crook']Well you can vote with your own Top Three and try to readjust things



Steve

done



The Third Man

AMOLAD

Kind Hearts & Coronets



cheers Steve

from Steve

[JamesM]

Are the standings updated automatically?

[VladTheImpala]

Ok, fair's fair; I'll have a crack at answering my own question.



My favourite British movie is, and always has been, The Third Man. For reasons I won't go into here, I've found myself re-assessing it over recent years but it just about holds on to top spot.



The point is that it certainly isn't my favourite movie per se and if it gets into my top ten it would be a squeak. I'll try to come up with an illustrative all time top ten but it's likely to take some time....

[Pricey]

I got my virtual head bitten off on this site once for having the temerity to suggest that a film's nationality was based on the nationality of the studio that produced it - e.g a Hollywood film like "The Charge of the Light Brigade" was an American movie despite the writers, directors and leading actors all being hungarian, tasmanian, english etc etc. This was apparently a sordid and vulgar suggestion of no merit!

By this logic (which I am quite happy to go along with by the way), all Charles Chaplin's entire film career was British as he was the sole artistic input to all aspects of the film's production. So hoorah, the list of available British movies for consideration in any top ten has increased considerably. I hereby nominate the Gold Rush!

[Fellwanderer]

I don't have a shadow of a doubt that my two favourite films are British.



If you put me on a desert island with a solar powered dvd player, I know I'd be quite happy with my top ten British films without the need for anything else - unless some idiot tries to claim Walkabout isn't British.



I can't think of a non-British film that I'd be desperate to see.

[batman]

I just love films, regardless of their country of origin. I prefer 'classic' British films because there is a unique 'feel' to them and because IMHO the best of them tended to be better written, directed and performed than films from anywhere else. I also have a great fondness for US film noir and westerns, French films of the 40s/50s (especially those of Clouzot) and Italian cinema too.



If I had to pick a 'best' film it would have to be a US film, On The Waterfront. IMHO this film ticks all the boxes that I previously mentioned with regard to Britfilms and has the added bonus of Marlon Brando at his very best.



If I had to be shut away with just one film it would be that one, but this film is in the minority as the rest of my choices (if I couldn't have that one) would be mostly British.



Bats.

[DB7]

name='JamesM']Are the standings updated automatically?

Yep, I do have to hand edit it occasionally as people enter a spelling that doesn't match the database; The Ladykillers and The Lady Killers etc.

[Steve Crook]

How good are British Movies?

They're good enough to attract a lot of people (4,096 and counting) to this forum



Steve

[dogstar]

I find myself agreeing with Vlad the Impala ( quite a surreal sentence to be writing !). Greatly as I admire a whole slew of British films not many of them would get into my list of top ten favourites. One that would is Sea of Sand for reasons explained in the Favourite Films section. I don't think this is a reflection on the relative merits of British films, more a case that certain films strike a particular chord and remain with you for whatever reason and for me the ones that I go back to again and again are not on the whole British.



I was going to ask what AMOLAD was, suspecting that it was an arcane neo-masonic reference to something obscure and forbidden but have just worked out it refers to A Matter of Life and Death. Or does it.....?

[Steve Crook]

name='dogstar']I was going to ask what AMOLAD was, suspecting that it was an arcane neo-masonic reference to something obscure and forbidden but have just worked out it refers to A Matter of Life and Death. Or does it.....?

Yes, that's right. We do sometimes over-use acronyms, initials or abbreviations. But they're not intended to be a code, they're just a shorthand for people that write them a lot. If there are ever any references like that that puzzle you, do please ask



Steve

[Wolfgang]

My number 1 film is British co-production, and four of my top five all time films are either British productions or co-productions - only one being completely American. Surprisingly, perhaps, I have no German films in my top 5.

[DB7]

For cultural reasons I'd guess 5 or 6 of my ten favourite films would be British, I enjoy many films from elsewhere but without going all Morrissey I identify closest with those films I was brought up on. Today's generation will no doubt grow up on Blockbuster dvds and Sky Movies, and be greater influenced by Hollywood.

[VladTheImpala]

I didn't expect so many people to have mostly British movies among their top, top favourites. The question was stimulated by the prevalence of 'best' and 'favourite' threads: although I tend to feel that categories like 'best' or 'all-time favourite' are problematic.



Personally I think that, pound for pound, British films are as good as any. However, they only make up a small proportion of the world's output and,of course, the US industry has had a huge commercial advantage over everyone else in both volume and purchasing power for the best talent. So I would expect, on the law of averages alone, few of the very best movies ever made to be British.



On the other hand, as DB7 says, I tend towards those movies I grew up with and they were overwhelmingly British; so if I was to list my top, say, 500 movies I suspect there would be a heavily disproportionate number of British ones among them.

[Steve Crook]

name='VladTheImpala']Personally I think that, pound for pound, British films are as good as any. However, they only make up a small proportion of the world's output and,of course, the US industry has had a huge commercial advantage over everyone else in both volume and purchasing power for the best talent. So I would expect, on the law of averages alone, few of the very best movies ever made to be British.

But that's just considering the quantity. I think quality should be taken into account as well. And that's where British films often successfully fight back against Hollywood.



Although there are some terrible British films, given that the Americans made so many more films, if you play the pure averages game, they must have made a lot more terrible films



Steve

[Azanti]

Our biggest problem is lack of distribution and all of chains of cinemas except for Odeon are owned by US companies. But we just don't have the advertising or campaigning resources that the Americans do.

[Steve Crook]

name='Azanti']Our biggest problem is lack of distribution and all of chains of cinemas except for Odeon are owned by US companies. But we just don't have the advertising or campaigning resources that the Americans do.

T'was ever thus. That's why Rank bought the Odeon chain back in 1938



Steve