My Top Ten Best of British Films

As the Inventors of the moving picture in 1895, it’s no surprise that Britain have a sophisticated catalogue of outstanding films under their belt. Out of this vast array I’ve chosen some of my personal favourites, but it was no mean feat to whittle this list down. From the cheeky cockney geezers to the stiff-upper-lipped boarding school toffs, prepare to get suited and booted for this diamond selection…

This is England (2006)(18)
Shane Meadows has firmly marked his place in British film Directors’ lore with his stirring contributions to the last decade - most notably A Room for Romeo Brass (1999), Dead Man’s Shoes (2004) and This is England (2006). This is England looks at eighties culture through the eyes of twelve-year-old Sean, who’s father died in the Falklands War. He falls in with a gang of young skinhead misfits, lead by easy-going Woody and his girlfriend Lol, who take him under their wing. All is good until the return of the domineering and psychotic Combo who leads the lad towards a sinister run in with the bubbling and growing ethic of intolerance against immigrants in the community. The soundtrack includes one of my favourite recent English bands Gravenhurst (sadly now dispersed) who are responsible for the melodic Nicole. The TV series which followed, This is England ’86, is also well worth a watch, it is humorous mixed with harrowing viewing.

Sexy Beast (2000)(18)
I’ve never understood why this film has this title? When my mate leant it to me I thought he was giving me some dodgy kinky flick. On the contrary it's about big and burly old ex-gangsters (Ray Winstone and Cavan Kendall) who decide they’ve done their time for crime in Blighty, hand in the towel, take their best girls and amassed sterling, and move to the Costa-Del-Scorchio. But unfortunately for them it’s not that simple to leave their past behind. The Don (Ben Kingsley), a very foul mouthed skeleton in the cupboard, pays them a rather unpleasant visit. From the opening scene of Winstone basking in the pool on a lilo, and a boulder tumbling down the hill towards him, to the sound of the Strangler’s ‘Walking on the Beaches’, I was hooked. Kingsley as Don Logan is mesmerizingly good.

But why is it called Sexy Beast? I don’t get it. Does anybody know?

If…. (1968)(15)
If.... is the first part of the Mick Travis Trilogy directed by Lindsay Anderson and starring Malcolm McDowell. Set in a boys boarding school, the students arrive for the new school term and settle into the old traditional hierarchy of the senior ‘Whips’ bossing everybody, especially the fresh-faced first year ‘Scum’. Travis and his companions are of the older crowd, but they have disdain for the Whips and belong to the rebellious set, with escape, girls and violent revolution hot on their minds. Surreal at times and questionable in its infamous conclusion, this was the character that set McDowell up for his portrayal of Alex in A Clockwork Orange.

The second of the trilogy is O Lucky Man, which features for me the most horrifying scene I have ever witnessed in a film, involving a ram’s body. And I’m sorry to say I haven’t seen the final instalment, BritanniaHospital, yet.

 Quadrophenia (1979)(18)
Directed by Frank Roddem, this is the Mecca for Mods in film form featuring Lambretta scooters, made to measure suits, trilbies and parkas, amphetamines, ‘faces’ and clashes with rockers on Brighton Beach, all to the epic musical meanderings of the The Who. Jimmy (Phil Daniels), is a young London lad in the sixties getting by living at home with his straight-laced working-class parents and earning money as a post-boy in a stuffy office. His way of escape from this humdrum life comes with his total devotion to everything that is Mod - The gang, immaculate style, drugs, parties, music, hatred of rockers, fights and freedom. But when things overwhelm him and he attempts to completely reject reality and draw this weekend recklessness out as his life, the highs crumble, the truth is revealed and he finds himself a mixed up gang of one.

Nil by Mouth (1997)(18)
Gary Oldman, having engraved a permanent space for himself on the big Hollywood stage with formidable roles in films such as True Romance, Romeo is Bleeding and Leon, came home to the UK to write and direct this (so far) one off. And what a shocking debut it is! Based on Oldman's personal experiences growing up on a London council estate, it looks at one family’s self-inflicted demons. Ray Winstone as Ray, the twisted paterfamilias and Kathy Burke his doormat wife Valerie are both so genuine it’s frightening. This is a frank depiction of the true gritty side to violence within the family, hopeless addiction and a deeply mundane and depressing existence. It’s made all the more powerful by its status as Oldman’s open and honest mission to rid himself of the demons of his own alcoholic past. It is an ode to the women in his life, his mother sings at the end and his sister Laila Morse plays Valerie’s mother. And the whole film is rife with the ghost of his father. The cathartic quality of this film is inspiring. He need never make another film, but I certainly wouldn’t mind if he did.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)(15)
I grew up on the dry and zany comic genius of Python. I remember being very young and listening over and over again to some bootleg cassette my big brother had of the Life of Brian, so I knew it virtually word for word years before ever seeing the film. Monty Python were John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and Terry Jones and their three great feature films are The Holy Grail, The Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life. This, the first of these three, tells the well known English legend of the illustrious King Arthur and his worthy knights of the round table... well sort of! The Knights who say Ni, if it floats it’s a witch, can a coconut be carried by a migrating African swallow? The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, all these things and many more make sense once you have seen the film… well not especially. This and the other Python films are surely amongst the funniest films of all time. 

...‘Let’s not go to Camelot. It is a silly place.’

 Trainspotting(1996)(18)
The Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh was the big thing of the nineties - with his drug fuelled, heroin-shooting, fast-talking, often violent, no holds barred no matter how vile or sick, many weird and gross scenarios, slant on modern society, all written in the local colourful Edinburgh dialect. The adaptation of Trainspotting was certainly the pinnacle, with every student plastering the “Choose Life” poster on their wall. It was also the springboard for Director Danny Boyle who has since taken over the world it seems. Not to mention it’s introducing Ewan McGregor to a wider audience of admirers… ooh that lovely cheeky smile! An Iconic moment all round. I picked up the book for a gander, read it all that night, unable to put it down, and then went straight to the cinema to see the film, which had just been released, and then naturally bought the soundtrack… and the video… and then the DVD. Well... it is really good!!

Performance (1970)(18)
Directors David Cammell and Nicholas Roeg’s surprise product caused a stir when shown to their patrons Warner Brothers in 1968. With popular star Mick Jagger’s involvement they were expecting a light-hearted romp along the lines of The Beatle’s A Hard Days Night. Instead they were offered a bizarre, opiatic, psychological, deviant and highly experimental piece of work. Concern over the results caused the delay of its release for two years and prompted much butchering of the original. A schizophrenic style, it begins like a gangster film but develops into a doped-out hippy utopia and finds itself in limbo between the two. Hard-man Chas (James Fox) runs into a bit of bother in his profession as an enforcer, he offends all the East London gangs, and is forced to go into hiding. He manages to find refuge in the other-worldly haven of reclusive musician Turner (Jagger) and his two playful female companions Pheber (Anita Pallenburg) and Lucy (Michele Breton), who are all unaware of his predicament. And from there on in things become very weird. James Fox, one of my favourite actors, was so affected by the making of this film (and hallucinogens) it pushed him over the edge and drove him away from acting for ten years (a shame for us!). And Mick Jagger is thoroughly in his element. I particularly enjoy the quote by Chas to Turner from a retrospective stance – ‘You're a comical little geezer. You'll look funny when you're fifty.’ Indeed, he should see Jagger now!

Pink Floyd’s The Wall (1982)(15)
Pink Floyd’s Musical with aspects of band-autobiography directed by Alan Parker and with the animation of political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. Pink (Bob Geldolf) is losing his mind. A drug addled rock star, his melancholy is explained by casting back to his life and upbringing through the medium of flashbacks, symbolic animation and verbally through the songs of Pink Floyd – a father who died in the world war, an overprotective mother, bullying teachers and ultimately a cheating wife are all shown to be the root. His solution is The Wall and to become comfortably numb. But the worms are gnashing and gnawing at the foundations and howling to tear it down. A beautiful visual musical head wreck of a film. 

Withnail & I (1987) (15)
Richard E Grant as Withnail and Paul McGann as I, have gone on holiday by mistake. Withnail, well educated and of wealthy descent, who feels his destiny is to be renowned for his acting prowess and to play the Dane, is instead outraged and indignant at finding himself rotting away on booze and all manner of toxins with his equally destitute companion and accomplice, in a damp dingy dirty drug den in Camden, skint and freezing, with something almost certainly living in the sink and most pressingly they are completely out of wine. They decide to escape to the country for a jolly, to the hideaway of Withnail’s Uncle Monty. Unfortunately the forecast is not in their favour, Monty, a raving puff, turns up and is feeling frisky, and in a nutshell, they don’t have the best of times. Richard E Grant’s finest performance, unrelentingly superbly funny dialogue and a classic supporting cast - Uncle Monty and Danny the squatter and his now famous Camberwell Carrot, amongst others. For those of you who haven’t seen it I would like to demonstrate with a youtube clip, and have chosen the one least laden with expletives… although they have snuck one in there.