What started you off?

[deckard]

Can you remember what started you off to become a British film addict? I have a friend who is a serious film buff, but has no real interest in classic British film, so, I assume there are lots of people the same. Why am I so dedicated to Brirish film then?
The real answer is I don't really know fully, when I was a kid watching TV most of the American stuff shown was, to me, over done and somehow distant whereas, when the good old British stuff(like the saturday film etc) was on, it was a family event and we'd all sit round the box and I'd listen to my parents reminiscing about(then) how they don't make 'em like that anymore and oh that's so and so he was in such a film and so on.......but I found myself actually enjoying immensely Ealing comedies and stiff upper lip war films with Sir John Mills and the like. So into my teens when we go off and find ourselves(yer rite!)and look toward careers and various other distractions.....but still I come back to a love of the classic British film and want to find out more and watch as many films as possible, so I suppose in my case it was being brought-up on it that made me a life-long fan.
So coming full cicle, can you remember what started you off? It would be great to hear the various different reasons you all must have for becoming fans of the great British film. :) Regards, Decks.

[Brian Brandt]

The first English movie I remember watching was when I was about seven or eight at my grandmother's house in the early '50s. It was probably from the late '30s or '40s. There was a scene in which a late middle-aged man and a matronly woman were standing in a room talking. The room had large french windows in the rear. I guess the genre would have been 'Domestic Drama.' It was an intense conversation, and I remember thinking to myself, "Boy, this movie is really English!"

At least, that's the way I remember it.

I've never put this up on "Can you name this" because the description is so generic, and also because when I do see a movie again after many years, I find that what I'm watching is quite different from what I remembered. Anybody else on the Forum have as faulty a memory as me?

I really would like to see that movie again, though, if only to recall those weekends at Grandmom's house. Several of the rentals I've gotten recently ("South Riding," "Winslow Boy," and "Personal Affair") were with the thought that they might be the one, but no luck.

[DB7]

Windbag the Sailor was the first film I can recall watching and comedy was the element that turned me in the direction of British films. We may share a common language with the US but our comedies ranging from the whimsical charm of the Will Hay greats to the pitch black Ealing classics seemed to connect with me in a way few others did. After that the love affair mushroomed and like a sponge you try and absorb as many films as you can unearth.

[MrDrakesDuck]

Watching George Formby films on TV in the school holidays gave me a penchant for old style Britsh humour, which led me to watch more comedies, then an interest in war films and eventually an all round devotion to Brit movies. scarf

[Steve Crook]

I'm tempted to say "Seeing A Matter of Life and Death" but I probably saw some other ones before that. Will Hay & Ealing films at Staurday Morning Pictures.

Then, as my tastes developed I added Ealing (comedies & dramas) and others from the other studios.

But it was when I saw A Matter of Life and Death and the other Powell & Pressburger films that I knew there was something really special going on that just wasn't happening with any other films.

Steve

[Bobj]

Difficult to specify an exact date when my interest in British films took off.
Certainly seeing 'Zulu' for the first time on the big screen as a child provided a refreshing antidote to all those westerns I was brought up with.
However sometime in the late 70s in my teens BBC2 screened Ealing movies and an old newsreel in the early evening on a Thursday. My parents went out that night so I watched alone. Thanks to this I discovered classics like 'Passport to Pimlico' and 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' Also being scared to death by 'Dead of Night'
Even today one of my great pleasures is discovering a little gem as I did with 'The Long Memory a few years back.

[ 14. December 2004, 14:55: Message edited by: Bobj ]

[dar111]

I remember growing up in Brooklyn and sometimes watching a movie on tv with my Mom after I'd come home from school. The Ealing comedies were favorites with us. Later on in life, I was attracted to the nuanced work of British actors in general. I also liked the Dirty Dozen but that's for another forum.

[Jim]

</div><div class='quotemain'>MrDrakesDuck: Watching George Formby films on TV in the school holidays gave me a penchant for old style Britsh humour, which led me to watch more comedies, then an interest in war films and eventually an all round devotion to Brit movies. scarf [/b]

I remember seeing most of the films talked about, actually on the 'flicks', so to have them in my own home and watch them whenever I want to is utmost heaven for me. There is something in the 'innocence' of these films that appeals to me. I doubt if England or Britain, was ever as depicted in these films, but who cares? thumbs_u

[smudge]

My addiction started with loads of telly as a sprog ; then I discovered BBC 2 in the days when it showed loads of old Britflicks. I was hooked - Saturday afternoon meant settling down with a big bag of crisps to check out what was on.

School holidays were even better back then - LOADS of 'filler' films ! Then at 11 or 12 I discovered Hammer.

Two brief spells in the theatre got me even more hooked on actors and acting and as the teens went by the interest started to develop into the history and technical side of all this stuff.

Student years went back to TV shows from the 60s, but still the film addiction was bubbling away. VHS was a godsend and DVD has been used to free up some space - so the saga continues.

Funnily enough, the wife asked only the other day if I tought we'd still be watching 'daft' old British films together if we both made it into our dotage. I said yes and she replied, "I thought so..." and smiled.

A lost cause, that's me...;-)

SMUDGE

[Bob M.]

My first memory is watching The Ladykillers one wet Sunday afternoon with my mum and dad and five brothers and sisters sitting round the open fire.
Mum did crumpets on a toasting fork all the way through the film. Every time I see this film (which is quite often) it takes me hurtling back forty odd years to that cosy front room.I think Britmovies have a certain something which I can't put my finger on, but whatever it is, it makes me keep comeing back for more. And more.

[Paul E]

As long as I can remember I've been fond of Brit films, particularly those of the 40s and 50s. What I think set me off taking an interest in the movie history of this period was, the day after seeing One of our aircraft is Missing for the first time, finding a copy of Michael Powell's book 200,000 Feet (about making Edge of the world ) in a charity shop. As anybody whose read this (or his autobiography) knows he was a much better director than a writer but I was sufficiently hooked to learn more about the 'heroic' period of British moviemaking.

[Dolly Bantree]

I can remember being allowed to stay up and watch a film with my mum. My dad did shift work back in the day. I think my earliest recollection of a britfilm would be The Servant. My sister and I would be on our best behaviour sitting quietly on the sofa. (I think mum was a bit scared on her own and wanted our company). So many films spring to mind and I've mentioned them on here. A kind of Loving, Bitter Harvest (my fav), A Tale of Two Cities (with Dirk Bogarde as Sidney Carton), Room at the Top, Darling. These are the ones that I still hark back to. As much as I love all manner of film from whatever genre, I still think those films are the ones that got me hooked and still remain class to this day. Also loved the Will Hay films - Ask a Policeman being my fav.

[The_Late_Peter_Cook]

I can't remember a particular turning-point in my love of British movies, I supose it was part and parcel with my love of movies in general. That love I think was kicked up by my coming across, at the age of 11, a copy of 'Halliwell's Filmgoers Companion' in the library and getting my first video recorder. Both BBC2 and Channel 4 over the weekend used to show the 'classics', while my local ITV region used to show some really obscure British B movies in afternoon matinees on Monday and Friday, which, as I was at school I used to tape. So I used to watch and enjoy such long-forgotten movies as 'Subway In The Sky' or 'Mystery Junction'.

Before that, I remember watching Will Hay/George Formby and Peter Sellers movies during the '70s.

[Marky B]

I always remember being off school with sickness and whilst laying on the sofa waiting glumly for the next heave,I watched Go To Blazes with Dave King,Daniel Massey,Norman Rossington and Robert Morely (none of them no longer with us,sadly ) as Arson Eddy. I still enjoy the film despite meeting its acquaintance under wallow conditions. I reckon though,one the whole,that is how I came across British films - off school:holiday,school or basically couldn't be arsed. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]
I suppose that is why I prefer the older films,because that is all I watched in those blissful carefree days wink
Ta Ta
Marky B thumbs_u

[The_Late_Peter_Cook]

</div><div class='quotemain'>Marky B: I always remember being off school with sickness and whilst laying on the sofa waiting glumly for the next heave,I watched Go To Blazes with Dave King,Daniel Massey,Norman Rossington and Robert Morely (none of them no longer with us,sadly ) as Arson Eddy. I still enjoy the film despite meeting its acquaintance under wallow conditions. I reckon though,one the whole,that is how I came across British films - off school:holiday,school or basically couldn't be arsed. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img] I suppose that is why I prefer the older films,because that is all I watched in those blissful carefree days wink Ta Ta Marky B thumbs_u [/b]

I first saw 'Jigsaw' and 'Night Of The Eagle' that way, either off ill or during half term. In those days before I started getting the televison magazines, the only bits of info I used to learn before hand about them was usually the title, the year it was made or whether it B&W or colour.

So I vaguely thought that 'Night Of The Eagle' was a war movie (I don't know why) and not a 15 certificate horror movie shown on a rainy Friday afternoon.... wink