Country: UK
Year: 1963
Duration: 98'


A day in the life of Billy Fisher, whose constant fantasies are oddly triumphant in comparison to the rather grim reality of his very ordinary life. His parents consider him lazy (which he is); he is trying to dispose of 270 calendars supposedly already mailed for his employer a mortician; engaged to two women, he is having a problem sharing the one engagement ring between them; his grandmother dies of a seizure brought on by his shouting at her Liz, on a visit to Billy's North Country town, persuades him to come to London with her but at the last minute he panics and deliberately misses the train. Billy's only escape can be in his imagination.

"With Billy Liar, John SchIesinger shows us that it is possible to make a film in this country that has movement, energy grace and charm, that it is possible to make immense comic use of the remarkable Mr. Courtenay and to exploit an industrial suburban setting for its absurdly local yet characteristic happenings, for its sense of the lighthearted as well as the drab. Like its central character Billy Fisher (Tom Courtenay), Billy Liar is a film of many moods, a film of an essential ambiguity of feeling. As Billy's mind shifts from reality to Ambrosia his imaginary country where he always has success the film shifts with him, changing dreariness to farce. Yet, since Billy does not really know how he feels at any particular moment, we are not too sure how we feel about Billy." (Peter HarcourtBilly Liar, "Sight and Sound", n. 4, Autumn 1963, p. 193)

Biography

film director

John Schlesinger

John Richard Schlesinger (Londra/London, Regno Unito/UK, 1926 - Palm Springs, CA, Usa, 2003).

FILMOGRAFIA

A Kind of Loving (Una maniera d’amare, 1962), Billy Liar (Billy il bugiardo, 1963), Darling (id., 1965), Far From the Madding Crowd (Via dalla pazza folla, 1967), Midnight Cowboy (Un uomo da marciapiede, 1969), Sunday Bloody Sunday (Domenica maledetta domenica, 1971), The Day of the Locust (Il giorno della lucusta, 1975), Marathon Man (Il maratoneta, 1976), Yanks (Yankees, 1979), Honky Tonk Freeway (Crazy runners - Quei pazzi pazzi sulle autostrade, 1981), The Falcon and the Snowman (Il gioco del falco, 1985), The Believers (The Believers - I credenti del male, 1987), Madame Sousatzka (id., 1988), Pacific Heights (Uno sconosciuto alla porta, 1990), The Innocent (id., 1993), Cold Comfort Farm (id., tv ,1995).

Cast

& Credits

Director: John Schlesinger.
Screenplay: Keith Waterhouse, Willis Hall, dalla loro commedia, tratta dal libro di K. Waterhouse Billy Liar.
Director of photography: Denys Coop.
Editor: Roger Cherrill.
Art director: Ray Simm.
Music: Richard Rodney Bennett.
Cast: Tom Courtenay (Billy Fisher), Julie Christie (Liz), Wilfred Pickles (Geoffrey Fisher), Mona Washbourne (Alice Fisher), Ethel Griffies (nonna Florence), Finlay Currie (Duxbury), Rodney Bewes (Arthur Crabtree), Helen Fraser (Barbara), George Innes (Eric Stamp), Leonard Rossiter (Shadrack), Godfrey Winn (discjockey), Ernest Clark (direttore della prigione), Leslie Randall (Danny Boon), Anna Wing (Mrs. Crabtree), Elaine Stevens (segretaria di Danny), George Ghent (pubblicitario di Danny), Flo Fallows (prima prostituta), Alice Woods (seconda prostituta), Douglas Clarke (militare), Jack Cunningham (controllore), Lester Legh (capo del complesso), Gwendolyn Watts (Rita), Patrick Barr (ispettore Mac Donald).
Production company: Joseph Janni per la Vic Films/Waterhall Productions.
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