Top 49 British films as per Barry Norman

[Trufflehound]

As my no.50 would be Canterbury Tale by Powell & Pressburger that would make 6 by them so I am clearly even more greedy than you....

Clare Grogan? You are showing your age - Shirley Ann Field and Alexandra Bastedo plus Daniela Binachi (From Russia with Love) if you don't mind....

I have no problem with A Canterbury Tale going in there as well. Since Michael Powell is my all-time favourite director it's only fair he should have more entries than anyone else.

As for the lovely Clare, she was, is, and always will be precisely 11 days younger than me. Hence she will always be 'just right', and we can grow old disgracefully together (in my thoughts...).

 

[Stat Brother]

Oh, and since it's being discussed, I really like Gregory's Girl. But then I've had a thing for Clare Grogan for the past 30-odd years...

I too have loved Claire Grogan for almost exactly 30 years.

She'll be my 'Joanna Lumley', when I'm 70 years old and and still cooing over her while everyone else thinks I've gone insane.

 

[half time scores]

David Lean's 1948 version of Oliver Twist should be on there too. I know he's got 4 other films on the list so shouldn't be greedy, but in my opinion it's the 2nd best Dickens film adaptation ever. After Lean's Great Expectations, which did make the list.

Very much this.

And what about Dr Zhivago and Ryans Daughter not being there.

David Lean was a master at his craft.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Gregory's Girl deserves its place if only for the pronounciations of words like chips ("chups") and Gregory ("Grreggaary") as well as the immortal line from JGS: "She's gooorrrrgeous, absoluuuuutely gorrrrgeous" (plenty of rolling Scottish 'r's)

 

[Mo Gosfield]

I adored The Third Man since childhood, but in the last few years i've fallen into an eternal love with The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. A glorious tale of love, war and friendship and largely about one's growing irrelevance the more time moves around one without us barely noticing. Powell and Pressburger permanent legends.

I've loved The Third Man from the day I first watched it. The silhouetted figure. The music that still sends shivers down my spine. The brief but ' film stealing ' appearance from Welles. One of the greatest monologues ever delivered in film.
To think, he was 25 when he made Citizen Kane. His whole career in front of him. He should have been right up there in the Hollywood pantheon. And yet he spent his later years making sherry adverts. He never seemed to recover from the ' Magnificent Ambersons' flop. His performance in The Third Man was spellbinding. The charisma oozing out of every pore.
Sorry folks...blame Meade's Ball for mentioning it....it always sets me off.

 

[Trufflehound]

film stealing ' appearance from Welles. One of the greatest monologues ever delivered in film.

The Third Man is in my all-time top 5 films. Great monologue too. A shame no one pointed out to Welles that the Swiss didn't invent the cuckoo clock - the Germans did...

 

[JOLovegrove]

3 'Ealing Comedies' on the list, my personal favourite being Kind Hearts and Coronets. Alec Guinness playing 8 parts, what's not to love. He must be the most represented actor on the list with 4?

 

[Marxo]

Another film that I love with a Michael Powell connection is The Thief of Bagdad (1940).

 

[Meade's Ball]

I've loved The Third Man from the day I first watched it. The silhouetted figure. The music that still sends shivers down my spine. The brief but ' film stealing ' appearance from Welles. One of the greatest monologues ever delivered in film.
To think, he was 25 when he made Citizen Kane. His whole career in front of him. He should have been right up there in the Hollywood pantheon. And yet he spent his later years making sherry adverts. He never seemed to recover from the ' Magnificent Ambersons' flop. His performance in The Third Man was spellbinding. The charisma oozing out of every pore.
Sorry folks...blame Meade's Ball for mentioning it....it always sets me off.

Welles was an astonishingly powerful actor. I feel that sometimes nowadays with the Hoffman. In The Master, in fact in most things, he is a creature of odd authority and querisome fascination. Completely wipes the floor with any other actor alongside him.

I liked Welles as the Irish sailor in The Lady from Shanghai.

 

[Stat Brother]

3 'Ealing Comedies' on the list, my personal favourite being Kind Hearts and Coronets. Alec Guinness playing 8 parts, what's not to love. He must be the most represented actor on the list with 4?

I was thinking about KH&C, with Norman's generational criteria in mind.

I wondered if that film and performance does have any resonance with current generations.

It's hard for me to tell as it's been literally YONKS since I last saw it.

 

[JOLovegrove]

I was thinking about KH&C, with Norman's generational criteria in mind.

I wondered if that film and performance does have any resonance with current generations.

It's hard for me to tell as it's been literally YONKS since I last saw it.

I am actually 19 and loved the film when I watched it last year. Made me laugh but also just enjoyed it. I am a fan of Ealing anyway, so would have been surprised if I hated it. Any luck with the most represented actor?

 

[jakarta]

I am actually 19 and loved the film when I watched it last year. Made me laugh but also just enjoyed it. I am a fan of Ealing anyway, so would have been surprised if I hated it. Any luck with the most represented actor?

Seeing as there a load of Powell & Pressburger nominations I would guess some relatively obscure actors such as Anton Walbrook and Roger Livesey might sneak in there....

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Where's Brighton Rock? The first one, obviously.

 

[Stat Brother]

Four Weddings and a Funeral
Gandhi
Gladiator
The King's Speech
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Skyfall

3 correct

I adored The Third Man since childhood, but in the last few years i've fallen into an eternal love with The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. A glorious tale of love, war and friendship and largely about one's growing irrelevance the more time moves around one without us barely noticing. Powell and Pressburger permanent legends.

I've loved The Third Man from the day I first watched it. The silhouetted figure. The music that still sends shivers down my spine. The brief but ' film stealing ' appearance from Welles. One of the greatest monologues ever delivered in film.
To think, he was 25 when he made Citizen Kane. His whole career in front of him. He should have been right up there in the Hollywood pantheon. And yet he spent his later years making sherry adverts. He never seemed to recover from the ' Magnificent Ambersons' flop. His performance in The Third Man was spellbinding. The charisma oozing out of every pore.
Sorry folks...blame Meade's Ball for mentioning it....it always sets me off.

The Third Man is in my all-time top 5 films. Great monologue too. A shame no one pointed out to Welles that the Swiss didn't invent the cuckoo clock - the Germans did...

The Third Man, is on Chl 4 12:05, Thursday lunchtime.

Best set your videos, chaps.

 

[Beach Hut]

I'll name two:

Mona Lisa

My Beautiful Laundrette

 

[Rambo]

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels?

 

[Seagull on the wing]

Where's Brighton Rock? The first one, obviously.

My Dad was an extra in that film,I met Richard Attenborough on the set at the racecourse....a true gentleman.

 

[SeagullSongs]

The Third Man, is on Chl 4 12:05, Thursday lunchtime.

Best set your videos, chaps.

I don't have TV

 

[Stat Brother]

I don't have TV

What the hell do you stare at when you're eating tea?

 

[Mental Lental]

I have a problem with the Bond movies being on that list. Bond movies, especially the recent ones (i.e. Skyfall) are by and large funded with Hollywood cash and I wouldn't label them as "British" movies. We may as well say that Star Wars and the Alien movies are also British because they were all shot at Pinewood.