| Billy Liar | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Original_movie_poster_for_the_film_Billy_Liar.jpg) original film poster | |
| Directed by | John Schlesinger |
| Screenplay by | Keith Waterhouse Willis Hall |
| Based on | 1959 novel by Waterhouse 1960 play by Waterhouse and Hall |
| Produced by | Joseph Janni |
| Starring | Tom Courtenay Julie Christie Wilfred Pickles Mona Washbourne |
| Cinematography | Denys Coop |
| Edited by | Roger Cherrill |
| Music by | Richard Rodney Bennett |
| Color process | Black and white |
Production companies | Vic Films Productions Waterhall Productions |
| Distributed by | Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors Warner-Pathé |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 98 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1 million[1] or £236,809[2][3] |
| Box office | £22,173 (USA)[4] |
Billy Liar is a 1963 British CinemaScope comedy-drama film based on the 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse. Directed by John Schlesinger, it stars Tom Courtenay (who had understudied Albert Finney in the West End theatre adaptation of the novel) as Billy and Julie Christie as Liz, one of his three girlfriends. Mona Washbourne plays Mrs. Fisher and Wilfred Pickles plays Mr. Fisher. Rodney Bewes, Finlay Currie and Leonard Rossiter also feature. The Cinemascope photography is by Denys Coop and Richard Rodney Bennett supplied the score.[5]
The film belongs to the British New Wave, inspired by both the earlier kitchen sink realism movement and the French New Wave. Characteristic of the style is a documentary/cinéma vérité feel and the use of real locations (in this case, many in the city of Bradford in Yorkshire[6]).
- ^ "Nat Cohen's Many Deal with Yanks". Variety. 31 January 1962. p. 4.
- ^ Sarah Street (2014) Film Finances and the British New Wave, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 34:1, 23-42 p26, DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2014.879000
- ^ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 360 gives figure at £219,227
- ^ "Billy Liar (1963) - Box office / business" – via www.imdb.com.
- ^ "Billy Liar". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
- ^ "Reel Streets". www.reelstreets.com. Archived from the original on 20 June 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2014.