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Billy Liar [DVD]

Tom Courtenay (Actor), Julie Christie (Actor), John Schlesinger (Director) | Rated: Parental Guidance | Format: DVD
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Actors: Tom Courtenay, Julie Christie, Mona Washbourne, Wilfred Pickles, Ethel Griffies
  • Directors: John Schlesinger
  • Producers: Joseph Janni
  • Format: PAL
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: PG
  • Studio: Optimum Home Entertainment
  • DVD Release Date: 11 Sep 2006
  • Run Time: 96 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000HEVTD6
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 21,061 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)

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Reviews

From Amazon.co.uk

Billy Liar was the multimedia phenomenon of its era. Starting out as a novel by Yorkshire writer Keith Waterhouse, it rapidly became a long-running stage play, adapted by Waterhouse with playwright Willis Hall, which lead to the movie, scripted by Waterhouse and Hall for John Schlesinger to direct, then a stage musical and finally a spin-off TV series. Do you get the feeling it caught the mood of the times?

The basic set-up owes a lot to James Thurber's classic short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Our hero, Billy Fisher, lives at home in a Bradford semi with his nagging parents and works as a lowly clerk in an undertaker's parlour. But, in his imagination he lives a rich and varied fantasy life as gallant military leader, suave socialite, best-selling novelist and so forth. Trouble is, he can't always keep fantasy and reality apart, any more than he can the keep two girls he's engaged to separate. Not to mention his other problems….

Schlesinger's direction brings out the desperation behind the comedy, and Tom Courtenay, at once defiant and hangdog, slips perfectly into the role created on stage by Albert Finney. But the whole cast's a joy, not least the great Leonard Rossiter as undertaker Mr Shadrach, Billy's saturnine boss. And then there's Julie Christie--the luminous spirit of the Swinging 60s--in her first starring role as the girl who offers Billy a chance of real escape. At the end, when she takes the train to London, away from the smoke and the grimness "oop" north, the whole British New Wave went with her.

On the DVD: just the theatrical trailer which is a fairly crass affair. There's been no remastering, it seems, but both sound and vision are clean enough and the print preserves the original's full 2.35:1 widescreen ratio. --Philip Kemp

Product Description

Undertaker's clerk Billy (Tom Courtenay) escapes his dreary small town existence in a 1950s Northern town by living in a fantasy world where he realises his ambitions. When his job, unsympathetic working class family and two fiancees threaten to become too much, he meets fashionable Julie Christie, who offers him his one chance for real escape.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars CINDERELLA 7 Feb 2003
By Daniel S.
Format:DVD
... 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....

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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Movie 4 Oct 2007
By ray dorrity
Format:DVD
As a 18 year old when I first saw this,it convinced me that I was not nuts and that other people had their own fantasy worlds just like Billy's "Ambrosia".
In the days before franking machines, the stamp tin was the personal perquisite (perk) of the junior clerk of the office.
When Billy tries to hand in his notice at the Undertakers where he works, he is told that it will not be accepted until "the stamp book balances".
The piles of unposted Christmas calendards hidden in Billy's bedroom always bring back guilty memories for me!
Also, this movie caused me to fall in love with a young and impossibly beautiful Julie Christie.
A great piece of 1960's Northern life.
Buy and enjoy
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74 of 79 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Stick to the Criterion edition 20 Jan 2002
By A Customer
Format:DVD
Go to amazon.com and order the American version instead. Sharper, widescreen print, plus commentaries from Schlesinger/Courtney/Christie, original trailers, and a clip of the 1993 Northern Lights documentary (Waterhouse and Hall revisiting locations etc). None of which are on this UK disc.

Once again, the British lose out to the 'that'll do' mentality and get a very shoddy product. Billy Liar is the best film ever made, and deserves better.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Tom Courtenay makes this film!
I am currently into British 60's films and Tom Courtenay is one of my favourites so this film was a must buy. It is a light, enjoyable film.
Published 26 days ago by Sandra Nilsson
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent film
Excellent film ,it totally takes me back ,I remember watching this as a child ,a good old English film about the the trials and tribulations of Billy who tells lies to try and... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ameliakezia
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Product
Great product did exactly what the advert said it would do. I would recommend this to you all. It worked as described.
Published 3 months ago by LED
5.0 out of 5 stars Iconic
Perhaps not a very original title for the review of a most original film which far surpasses he play of the same name. Read more
Published 5 months ago by J. Anderson
5.0 out of 5 stars BRADFORD'S BILLY LIAR
I could never work out whether I loved this film because of my nostalgia for old Bradford, or because it was a classic kitchen-sink comedy. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Reg Nelson
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Sixties Teenage Angst
This is one of those rare films that, IMHO, is better than the book.

Billy Liar is unalbe to cope with life, clashes horribly with his father, hates his job, is engaged... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Dr. D. Brand
5.0 out of 5 stars Just gets better with time
Tragi-comic misadventures of a young man who invents a fantasy world as cover for his troubles and dreary middle-class existence in sixties Yorkshire. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mr. Ja McLaughlin
3.0 out of 5 stars He Confuses His Fantasy Life with Real Life
Billy Liar," (1963), is generally considered a British comedy classic, as it adds some romance, some drama, and some sci-fi fantasy to its screwball beginnings. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Stephanie DePue
5.0 out of 5 stars superb
Filmed in 1963 this film was proberly inspired by thurburs Walter Mitty,an undertakers clerk lives in a world of fantasy. Read more
Published 18 months ago by alana
5.0 out of 5 stars 1960's, Bottled at Source. Worth a look if you grew up then
Filmed 1962 mainly Leeds & Bradford. Nearly half a century, 49 years ago. Partly depends on your age and the film's relevance to you. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Renzo
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