Billy Liar (1963) - DaaVeeDee

Billy Liar (1963) (Blu-Ray) (*)

$29.99

Screened, competed or awarded at:
BAFTA Awards
Venice Film Festival

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Dolby Linear PCM )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( Blu-Ray/Region B )

Running Time:
98 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Interactive Menu
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Trailer(s)
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1963 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
John Schlesinger

Written By:
Keith Waterhouse
Willis Hall

Actors:
Tom Courtenay ..... William Terrence 'Billy' Fisher
Wilfred Pickles ..... Geoffrey Fisher
Mona Washbourne ..... Alice Fisher
Ethel Griffies ..... Grandma Florence
Finlay Currie ..... Duxbury
Gwendolyn Watts ..... Rita
Helen Fraser ..... Barbara
Julie Christie ..... Liz
Leonard Rossiter ..... Emanuel Shadrack
Rodney Bewes ..... Arthur Crabtree
George Innes ..... Stamp
Leslie Randall ..... Danny Boon
Patrick Barr ..... Insp. MacDonald
Ernest Clark ..... Prison Governor
Godfrey Winn ..... Disc Jockey

Synopsis:

Tom Courtenay delivers a star-making turn as William Terrence Fisher ('Billy Liar') in one of the most memorable and universally acclaimed films of the 60s. Running from an unsympathetic working-class family, a pair of demanding fiancées and an insecure job at an undertakers, Billy escapes, Walter Mitty-like, into a world of fantasy where he can realize his dream ambitions. As work and family pressures build to new intolerable levels, Liz (an early, charismatic turn from Julie Christie), enters his drab life and offers Billy the one real chance he'll ever get to leave the past behind. Scripted by Keith Waterhouse from his own novel, and sensitively directed by John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy), Billy Liar is one of the few comedies of the British 'New Wave', marrying visual and verbal wit with a rather poignant rumination on the futility of dreams.

A young British clerk in a gloomy North Country undertaker's office, Billy is bombarded daily by the propaganda of the media that all things are for the asking. This transparently false doctrine, coupled with the humdrum job and his wild imagination, leads him on frequent flights to 'Ambrosia,' a mythical kingdom where he is crowned king, general, lover or any idealized hero the real situation of the moment makes him desire. His vacillating commitment and post-adolescent immaturity have created situations which make Ambrosia all the more attractive. He's succeeded in becoming engaged to two different girls, simultaneously, while in love with a third, Liz. He's in hot water with his employer, having spent a rather large sum of postage money on his personal frivolities. And last, but not least, his dream of becoming a highly-paid, famous scriptwriter in London seems doomed to failure. The only person in his life capable of bringing him down to earth is Liz, and she's having a difficult time of it. Finally, he gets his life sufficiently in order to leave for London with his true love. Billy still hasn't come to grips with the real world by the end of the film. He leaves the train to buy milk from a vending machine and watches the train slowly pull out for London with Liz aboard. He returns to the more comfortable shelter of his parents home, Ambrosia and his imagination.

A lazy, irresponsible young clerk in provincial Northern England lives in his own fantasy world and makes emotionally immature decisions as he alienates friends and family.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 01 October, 2013.

Customers who bought this product also purchased

The Body (DVD)	Chelsea Girls (DVD)	My Friend the Murderer / Al Capone of the Palatinate (DVD)
Saturn Films (DVD)	Darktown Strutters (DVD)