Billy Liar

Billy Liar

By

  • Genre: Comedy, Romance, Drama
  • Release Date: 1963-08-15
  • Runtime: 98 minutes
  • : 6.87
  • Production Company: Vic Films Productions
  • Production Country: United Kingdom
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6.87/10
6.87
From 108 Ratings

Description

A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.

Trailer

Reviews

  • CinemaSerf

    7
    By CinemaSerf
    Tom Courtenay is "Billy", a lad whose grasp on reality is, well, tenuous. In his dreams, he is a brave and valiant life-saving sort of fellow. In real life he is a lowly clerk who works for a funeral director and lives with his increasingly exasperated parents. His problems only increase as he struggles to differentiate between his real life and that in his fictional land of "Ambrosia" and as his fantasies develop, he becomes more and more alienated from those around them. In the end, it is really only the happy-go-lucky "Liz" (Julie Christie) who might be capable of offering him a yellow brick road back to his, admittedly, rather dreary and relentless reality. Her imminent relocation from provincial Yorkshire to London might offer him salvation - but he will have to choose, and be brave - as brave as he is, on a daily basis, in his far away land. This is a tightly cast self-adaptation of Keith Waterhouse's play and with a strong supporting cast from Wilfred Pickles and Mona Washbourne we are quickly immersed in his dual existences in a fashion that is both entertaining and disconcerting. Clearly the young "Billy" is ill - but at a time when any form of mental health issues were stigmatised if acknowledged at all, and we cannot help but sympathise with the frustrated parents and with the young man himself. Christie is a breath of fresh air - she has a character full of pragmatism, optimism and opportunity that was clearly designed to offer that gust of wind to blow away the fabric of his paper house, and John Schlesinger allows the characterful performances and this most human of stories to thrive with a minimum of distraction. Courtenay and Christie are at the top of their games here, and as a study of aspects of human nature as yet largely unexplored by cinema, this is a fine example.

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