Billy Liar (film)

Billy Liar
original film poster
Directed byJohn Schlesinger
Screenplay byKeith Waterhouse
Willis Hall
Based on1959 novel by Waterhouse
1960 play by Waterhouse and Hall
Produced byJoseph Janni
StarringTom Courtenay
Julie Christie
Wilfred Pickles
Mona Washbourne
CinematographyDenys Coop
Edited byRoger Cherrill
Music byRichard Rodney Bennett
Color processBlack and white
Production
companies
Vic Films Productions
Waterhall Productions
Distributed byAnglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors
Warner-Pathé
Release dates
  • 15 August 1963 (1963-08-15) (London, West End)
Running time
98 min
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
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]).

  1. ^ "Nat Cohen's Many Deal with Yanks". Variety. 31 January 1962. p. 4.
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ "Billy Liar (1963) - Box office / business" – via www.imdb.com.
  5. ^ "Billy Liar". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  6. ^ "Reel Streets". www.reelstreets.com. Archived from the original on 20 June 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2014.

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