The greatest British films of all time?

Lawrence of Arabia

"Love, Actually", of course.

The Servant 1963

Howards End and A Room with a View

Brief Encounter

Don't Look Now

Murder on the Orient Express

Brief Encounter

I Know Where I'm Going

Jack Clayton's The Innocents (1961) Beautiful adaptation of Henry James The Turn of the Screw

‘Victim’ from 1961 with Dirk Bogarde

Gandhi

Jim Sheridan's powerful In the Name of the Father with Daniel Day Lewis' best performance

I agree with a lot listed here. Would add THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP, BLACK NARCISSUS, and THE RED SHOES by Powell and Pressburger.

Also DARLING by John Schlesinger and THE BOYFRIEND and WOMEN IN LOVE by Ken Russell. These three distill so much of their particular time period while also commenting on their time that they transcend quibbles about their subject matter not being weighty enough to be considered “important.”

R10, the acting is superb. The Others is good but it doesn't hold a candle to the ambiguity in The Innocents.

The Red Shoes. I like more everytime I rewatch it. It looks incredible in 4k, you can see how suprrised audiences must have been when they watched it for the first time. Those ballet sequences are incredible. I'm someone who hates musicals and I loved this movie (which is sort of a musical, but not completely).

I love 'Love, actually', actually.

I love musicals which is why I say like in Chorus Line 'Fuck The Red Shoes!' Or whatever the line is. It has one of the most embarrassing endings ever. Shearer however is very beautiful.

No Ealing comedies, no credibility.

Is Lawrence a British film? It was produced by Columbia and Sam Spiegel.

The list is too long.

Are Stanley Kubrick films American or British?

I don't know about "great," but Get Real is one I really enjoyed.

Huh?

“Kes”

It still breaks my heart all these years later.

R13, In the Name of the Father is a wonderful movie. It's also an IRISH one.

Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles.

I know someone is going to mention Withnail and I. I guess it's a British thing - so fucking boring and not funny. And I love most British comedies.

I have no idea why they love this film so much.

UK here, and I never thought “Withnail and I” was remotely funny. Dull people quote from it endlessly.

Burglar

Sunday Bloody Sunday - this movie has ages very well. A love triangle between an office worker (Glenda Jackson), a wealthy doctor (Peter Finch) and the object of their affection, an artist (Murray head)

Darling - Schlesinger really had his finger on the pulse in the 60s and 70s

The servant

The Go Between - a beautiful, gripping drama about a love affair between a grounds keeper and a wealthy young woman and a kid who gets caught between the two lovers.

Mona Lisa - I love this one, London at its seediest

Hope & Glory

This Happy Breed

As somebody else said: the Red Shoes, Black Narcissus

Also,

Maurice, Room at the Top, Barry Lyndon, A Clockwork Orange…

Too many to choose from.

Brief Encounter

Performance

A Taste of Honey. Grim, gritty plus a sympathetic gay character and Rita and Dora. One of my favorites.

I always thought The End of The Affair with julianne moore and Ralph fiennes was pretty underrated. I have a thing for melodramas.

Also The Crying Game

The Wings of the Dove also somewhat rarely spoken about these days, but it’s a beautiful movie.

Full Monty, Far From the Madding Crowd (Terence stamp one), Zulu, Straw Dogs (the real one), Georgy Girl, Help!, Hard Days Night, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, A Taste of Honey, anything with Alan Bates in it, The Shout, etc etc

No Mike Leigh love?

Secrets And Lies, Topsy Turvy, Vera Lake (divisive, I know.) and many others.

Deep End (1970)

Straw Dogs is nuts. The movie just gets crazier and crazier until the very end.

Eyes Wide Shut!

The Long Good Friday

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp has to be the most British movie ever made, and it also happens to be one of the most brilliant. P&P were in fine form the acting is top notch across the board. So many of their films are gems, but Colonel Blimp sits at the top of the heap.

I enjoyed this one about a trio of buddies who escape the nursing home and end up on a remote isle.

The Ladykillers with Alec Guinness.

NOTES ON A SCANDAL. Perhaps not the best but definitely the most quotable.

Nonsense. The most quotable is Cold Comfort Farm.

Bob Hoskins has two: Mona Lisa, The Long Good Friday.

Withnail and I is eminently quotable.

Is Gosford Park British? It was made in England, but the director is a Yank.

Greatest: The Third Man

Other favorites: Quiet Wedding; The Rocking-Horse Winner; The Man in the White Suit; The Meaning of Life; Letter to Brezhnev;.

I’ll add A Hard Day’s Night

This Sporting Life

Carry On Campung

Kind Hearts and Coronets, the iciest of ice-cold comedies ('I was sorry about the girl', in Dennis Price's inimitable drawl). And Life of Brian, of course.

Matron!

Distant Voices, Still Lives

r49 Is Claudette Colbert British or just affected?

A perfect movie that time has seem to have forgotten:

If....

Why has no one mentioned my personal favorite, Lawrence of My Labia?

(I am so witty!)

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

The Informer

This Sporting Life

If...

They ARE the greatest British films of all time!

Great choices so far.

The Remains of the Day

Four Weddings and a Funeral is not the greatest, but it is high on the list!

I'm surprised no one said Conspirator

David Lean's Great Expectations

Thanks R43. I'd never heard of "Alive & Kicking," but really enjoyed it this aft. It's like a good Ealing movie: charming and very funny, without too much corniness. According to Wikipedia: "In 1964, the film was released in the US, with the film trailer establishing a tie-in to Stanley Holloway's success in My Fair Lady." Holloway is wonderful in "Alive & Kicking," and does squeeze in a song.

Another vote for Wings of the Dove. HBC has never been better.

The Fallen Idol

Hand in Hand

Yield To The Night aka Blonde Sinner

The Red Shoes 👠.

The Black Narcissus.

No Sex, Please, We’re British.

O Calcutta!

Maurice.

The “Carry On” films 🎥.

Make Mine Mink

Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?

may be of interest .......

Women In Love

A Day In The Death of Joe Egg

Darling

The Homecoming (1973)

Designed to be analyzed, debated, and interpreted-thanks to its singular treatment of class family and gender-The Homecoming is both fabulously ambiguous and terrifically specific it has the force of a nuclear bomb and the precision of a sniper's bullet-Every 70s Movie

Séance on a Wet Afternoon .

Is The Witches from 1990 a British film?

I watched If… again recently and found that I’d somehow confused it a bit with Another Country. For the life of me, I was certain that two students were found in bed together and it led one to commit suicide. In actual face one prefect was in bed with a younger pupil but nothing ever came of that.

The two films are pretty similar in terms of theme though and how English society can ultimately cause one to rebel.

It’s so unfortunate that this film, that was going to be directed by Michael Powell was never completed.

Looks like it could have been another good one from Powell.

David Lean's Oliver Twist. The first few minutes of Oliver's mother in the storm is amazing.

Scofield was cute back then.

Another vote for The Long Good Friday. Organized crime is such an American genre but the Brits put their own stamp on it.

Great casting too, Pierce Brosnan's film debut playing gay bait!

The Prince And The Showgirl

I was always a fan of Scum.

This movie has some issues, but I love it. It tears me up at the end.

Blowup (1966)

Oliver Twist is on at 11:30 am Eastern today on TCM if you want to catch it and all its black and white glory (I love b&w).

If Antonioni counts then Kubrick counts too.

Beau Brummel

Fire Over England

Years from now, when you talk about this, and you will, be kind.

A Hard Days Night. A moment in time captured perfectly.

Enchanted April is one of my favorites. Also, Shirley Valentine and all those house points.

I don't know how people don't find A Hard Day's Night unfunny. I think it's very funny but I"m biased because I love The Beatles.

Who admits to NOT liking The Beatles?

The Secret Garden

R99, many people. I know people who think the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin are superior. Those people are dumb!

Don't forget early Hitchcock! The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, The Man Who Knew Too Much...

r101 I don't like any of those British Invasion bands. They were like the K-Pop of their time.

Spice World

Withnail & I

The Red Shoes wins

Lawrence of my Labia

Casino Royale.

Shallow Grave was good.

The original “Great Expectations “

Don't know if it's part of the greatest, but I recently enjoyed The L-Shaped Room with darling Leslie Caron and handsome moody writer Tom Bell.

That Hamilton Woman

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

[quote] The original “Great Expectations “

A great movie! The ending is much better than the novel.

R77, I will definitely have to check that out

A Passage To India (1984)

Mary Poppins

Colonel Blimp was on TCM today. I'll have to watch the whole thing.

Hope and Glory

Local Hero

[quote] No Mike Leigh love? Secrets And Lies, Topsy Turvy, Vera Lake (divisive, I know.) and many others.

Much Leigh love but those aren't even his best.

Naked--a fucking masterpiece

Life is Sweet

Dawson’s Fifty Loads at the Weekend

The 39 Steps

Rhythm Nation 1812

10 Rillington Place

Georgy Girl

Alfie

The Full Monty

Brief Encounter

My Beautiful Launderette

To Sir, With Love

A Room with A View, Maurice

Remains of the Day

The Crying Game

And one that I cannot recall the title...It's set in the late 19th/early 20th c...a boy, boarding school incident, and a trial: " The ...Boy"??

OMG, Merchant-Ivory owns this thread! Remains of the Day, Howard's End, Wings of the Dove, A Room With a View.

Priest with Linus Roach and Robert Carlyle. Maurice; Wilde.

R127, The Winslow Boy starring Rebecca Pidgeon and Jeremy Northam. Loved that one.

Michael Caine's Alfie.

[quote] Colonel Blimp was on TCM today

Will Chrissy Metz star in the remake?

Mary Poppins is not a British film.

Is Elizabeth, with Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush a British Film? Because I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed Mary Queen of Scots with Margot Robbie a few years ago.

R129 I prefer the 1948 version.

Certainly the great "Hitchcock Six" from his British period; all are terrific and interesting: THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (I'm always moved by the ending) THE 39 STEPS (masterpiece) SABOTAGE (fascinating) SECRET AGENT (interesting, with a young Gielgud) YOUNG AND INNOCENT (weakest of the six by far) THE LADY VANISHES (masterpiece)

Why are so many classic British films not available in the USA on home video/DVD/etc?

R22 3 Kubrick films are on the list:2001, A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon

Peter Watkin's The War Game 1966

It was intended as an hour-long program to air on BBC but it was deemed too intense and violent to broadcast. It went to theatrical distribution as a feature film instead. Low-budget and shot on location, it strives for and achieves convincing and unflinching realism

I wonder what the number 1 choice would be if everyone was polled...

Barry Lyndon

Billy Elliot!!!!! Cannot overlook one of my favorites.

Pride, the movie that came out in 2014 to celebrate the Gays hooking up with the miners who were on strike and marching in solidarity. I loved that movie.

The King's Speech

Barry Lyndon is fantastic. I think it has the best lighting of any movie ever made. And it really does feel like you've been transported back in time.

Shakespeare In Love

R134 Yes! Yesterday I tried to watch the later one and cringed when I saw the screenplay and directing was David Mamet, not a fan. But I love Jeremy Northam so I gave it a shot. Gave up after 20 minutes and switched to 1948 version, screenplay by Terence Rattigan. New we're talking. Robert Donet more than made up for no Jeremy.

Red, White and Royal Blue.

The Third Man.

That ending on the Zentralfriedhof is haunting.

Some directors that really rarely hit a bad note were David Lean, Michael Powell & e. Pressburger and Kubrick, I will watch almost anything by any of them. Then we had the foreign interpretations of Britain from directors like Antonioni …

Is Peeping Tom a great movie? I've heard good things.

R149 I forgot to add Joseph losey to that distinguished list.

No ken Loach or Andrea Arnold

R152 I see Kes was mentioned

J. Lee Thompson was the best director ever.

R154 I love

Also The Queen of Spades by Thorold Dickinson deserves a mention.

Repulsion

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

R155, what do you think of Yield To The Night aka Blonde Sinner?

R156 I saw it a while back I really liked it. Also Dance with a Stranger which covered the same territory

R84 I agree with you that "Oliver Twist" is a great, great film. I love how it unfolds-each scene takes it time. And although Fagin's nose is a bit absurd, Guinness' performance is a master class. As is the child actor playing Oliver. The Brits have a way of making their child actors into small wonders. And finally, it's all about Lean. David Lean can tell a story like no one else-the way he lights a place, how he creates smallness, and how he make each actor fill out his character so that we know a little more about mankind with each one. That's what keeps it Dickens.

Sean Penn looks like Fagin.

Atonement

Brief Encounter

Anyone like British actor Michael Craig?

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

R166, good choice

Trainspotting the first one. The Wicker Man a pagan starter kit.

The Moon Spinners.

I'm glad someone mentioned The Fallen Idol. A wonderful film. Before covid started Film Forum was going to have the man who played the child at a screening. I was definitely going. Don't know if they did it after. I gave up my membership it had gotten so expensive and very rarely double features of classic films. A lot of money for one classic film. I was used to so many years of reasonable prices for double features. At one of their last of pre code films of '33 I saw a triple feature. I was going to leave after the second but I'm glad I stayed. I think it was Female. It was jaw dropping. I think the audience was slightly in shock.

I love Female, I still remember the anmazing art deco sets so well.

SNATCH

Another vote for The Fallen Idol from the prolific director Carol Reed: Oliver, The Third Man, Outcast of the Islands., Odd Man Out, Trapeze

Anything by Triga Films.

A Kid For Two Farthings

Three Farthings For a Lump of Shit

Steaming

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER...still the definitive story of the sinking of the world's most famous ship.

And DARLING of course. Made me fall in love with Julie Christie. Does DOCTOR ZHIVAGO count as a British film?

[Quote] Does DOCTOR ZHIVAGO count as a British film?

It's not Russian that's for sure!

[quote]The greatest British films of all time?

Still waiting for one.

Mary Poppins. No contest

Bryan Forbes Whistle Down the Wind

Comedy about a progressive lord who thinks his servants are his equals and then ends up being stranded on an island with them where class tensions arise.

I think Dr. Zhivago is Spanish. It was tough getting all that snow into the Spanish countryside and then to keep it frozen.

Yeah Red Shoes-wonderful over and over. Robert Helpmann sycophant here -anything chitty bang,55 days anything.

Chitty Bang is the best thing Helpmann ever did on screen and the only good thing about that terrible movie.

Kind Hearts and Coronets.

I am surprised there is so little admiration for the British New Wave/Angry Young Men films...

Room at the Top

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

Look Back in Anger

This Sporting Life

Billy Liar

among others...

Naked by Mike Leigh. But I never want to watch that one ever again.

R189 I love love love Room at the Top also the sequel is pretty good too Life at the Top.

Mona Lisa

The Crying Game

The Go Between

Sunday, Bloody Sunday - so ahead of it’s time

Thank you r184! I just watched The Admirable Crichton on your recommendation . What a charming film and one that warms the heart of this DL maiden aunt.

Gregory’s Girl

Whisky Galore!

Local Hero

The Remains of The Day

Chicken Run

The Wicker Man

Went The Day Well? - one of the greatest propaganda films ever made.

Which classic British films had gay elements to them?

194 The Servant

R194 Well, British films, ya? So all of them.

[Quote] Which classic British films had gay elements to them?

if . . .

The Red Shoes wins

Passport to Pimlico

The Red Shoes is so overrated and the ending so ridiculous that there are other Powell Presburger films that are better. I don't hate it. I have the 4k. But I know Where I'm Going is the most beautiful of their films. Wendy Hiller gives one of my favorite performances.

R200, Red Shoes is perfection

Hobson's Choice.