BFI Top 100 British films

[Belle]

Here's the list from Wiki and I must say I'm not impressed. I wonder who makes these lists and what their rationale can be!? I found "The Third Man" tiresome, pretentious and repetitive and I was beginning to question my sanity after hearing that dreadful theme played on the zither over and over and over!! This list is just bizarre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BFI_Top_100_British_films

This film, "The Dresser", isn't even mentioned in the list and it's absolutely stunning!! Tom Courtenay - surely one of the greatest of all English actors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ7kZGSva4I

In short, I don't think we can take such lists seriously. I just put it here for fun.

[John F]

You may not think much of "The Third Man," Belle, but it is unquestionably one of the most famous, best known, and often shown British films of all. That's why it tops the British Film Institute's list. In Vienna there are scheduled "Third Man" tours to locations shown in the movie. A "top" British film for sure.

One can always quarrel with lists like this; that's part of the fun. I've never heard of "Kes," number 7 on the list, and that's just for starters. No doubt it's because the BFI surveyed "1,000 people from the world of British film and television"; we foreigners were not included. Even so, I'm surprised that one of my favorites, Spike Milligan's "The Bed Sitting Room," isn't there, nor is Olivier's "Richard III."

[Belle]

I'm well aware of the importance of "The Third Man" but I don't like it, just as I never really liked "Citizen Kane".

I wonder what the criteria were for the rankings; whether they were asked to nominate their favourite films or whether specific aspects were to be addressed such as script, acting, direction etc. Some of the films listed wouldn't have me going next door to view. And any list without "Billy Eliot" isn't one to take seriously. What about "In the Name of the Father"; surely one of the very greatest ever British films.

Today I watched again the restoration of "Lawrence of Arabia". I've now seen the film several times and still I found things I didn't see or hear before. Lean had a breathtaking cinematic eye as well as a feeling for small ensemble sequences, such as the relationship between Lawrence and Sherif Ali and between Faisel and Lawrence. On this huge sprawling canvas Lean's film throws into sharp relief the gamut of relationships between men - proud, hostile, combative, tender and respectful. I thought O'Toole and Sharif were never better in their careers. After all, they were delivering the masterful lines of Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. Can there have been a finer screen writer than the great Robert Bolt?

My absolute favourite scene in "Lawrence" is when he returns to the desert to pick up the man who has fallen off his camel and who is staggering on foot in the desert heat. Ali says Lawrence shouldn't go back; that it is "written" that he will die if he does so. Lawrence does go and returns to the camp, thirsty and exhausted and the camera tracks Lawrence and the rescued man on the camel riding back to camp; Sherif Ali is waiting with water to give Lawrence, walking beside the camel in lock step and looking up at Lawrence filled with pride and admiration for the Englishman. It's written all over his face. Before taking that drink Lawrence tells him "nothing is written". Wonderful stuff.

[John F]

="Belle"I wonder what the criteria were for the rankings; whether they were asked to nominate their favourite films or whether specific aspects were to be addressed such as script, acting, direction etc.

The criterion, according to the Wikipedia article, was that they be "the greatest British films of the 20th century" that were "culturally British." Anything more specific than that would go some way toward predetermining the result, just as with a vote on the 100 greatest novels or operas or paintings. No doubt the "1,000 people from the world of British film and television" each had his or her own further criteria, or merely personal impressions. That doesn't concern me, as I never take such lists seriously anyway, as you apparently do.

More serious, perhaps, is the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress, as it determines which American movies are most worthy of physical preservation and restoration. Acquiring and working on prints of those movies costs money, and meanwhile the unworthy films are left to the mercy of private institutions or persons or just left to decay. The Registry ranges from "The Great Train Robbery" to "Citizen Kane" (of course - one of the first selections) to the Zapruder home movie of the Kennedy assassination.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_ ... stry#Films

[jserraglio]

Speaking of David Lean, I just saw Passage to India for the first time. Helluva good flick. Next on my list is Brief Encounter c/w Andre Previn's opera.

[Belle]

Speaking of David Lean, I just saw Passage to India for the first time. Helluva good flick. Next on my list is Brief Encounter c/w Andre Previn's opera.

"Mrs. Moore"!!!!!!
"They've got breasts the size of Bombay mangoes"!!
"Is not this the same box with a vengeance?"

[david johnson]

Hey, "Brassed Off" is on there A flick about brass band stuff.

[jserraglio]

"They've got breasts the size of Bombay mangoes"!!

As they had in Bridge over River Kwai, South Pacific and Grand Illusion.