Favorite British Films
by littlemartinarocena | created - 07 Oct 2010 | updated - 07 Oct 2010 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Brief Encounter (1945)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, Romance
Meeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey
Votes: 44,212
2. Darling (1965)
TV-MA | 128 min | Drama, Romance
Beautiful but amoral model Diana Scott sleeps her way to the top of the London fashion scene at the height of the Swinging Sixties.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Julie Christie, Dirk Bogarde, Laurence Harvey, José Luis de Vilallonga
Votes: 7,904
3. Kes (1969)
PG-13 | 111 min | Drama, Family
A working-class English boy spends his free time caring for and training his pet kestrel.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: David Bradley, Brian Glover, Freddie Fletcher, Lynne Perrie
Votes: 22,925
4. Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
115 min | Crime, Drama
A medium and her husband stage a kidnapping in order for her to pretend to solve the crime and achieve fame.
Director: Bryan Forbes | Stars: Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough, Margaret Lacey, Marie Burke
Votes: 7,453
5. If.... (1968)
R | 111 min | Crime, Drama
In this allegorical story, a revolution led by pupil Mick Travis takes place at an old established private school in England.
Director: Lindsay Anderson | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan
Votes: 25,181
6. Room at the Top (1958)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, Romance
An ambitious young accountant plots to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter despite falling in love with a married older woman.
Director: Jack Clayton | Stars: Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears, Donald Wolfit
Votes: 7,313
7. Billy Liar (1963)
Not Rated | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A lazy, irresponsible young clerk (Sir Tom Courtenay) in provincial Northern England lives in his own fantasy world and makes emotionally immature decisions as he alienates friends and family.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Tom Courtenay, Julie Christie, Wilfred Pickles, Mona Washbourne
Votes: 7,097 | Gross: $0.04M
8. Genevieve (1953)
Approved | 86 min | Comedy
Two British couples pit their vintage automobiles against each other in an exciting cross-country race.
Director: Henry Cornelius | Stars: Dinah Sheridan, John Gregson, Kay Kendall, Kenneth More
Votes: 3,442
9. The Sidewalks of London (1938)
Approved | 85 min | Comedy
Pickpocket Libby gets support from street performer Charles, and her dancing leads to her invitation to theater patron Harley's party which in turn launches Libby's stage career while Charles keeps on struggling in the streets.
Director: Tim Whelan | Stars: Charles Laughton, Vivien Leigh, Rex Harrison, Larry Adler
Votes: 1,466
10. The Innocents (1961)
Not Rated | 100 min | Horror
A young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.
Director: Jack Clayton | Stars: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins, Michael Redgrave
Votes: 33,053 | Gross: $2.62M
11. Black Narcissus (1947)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama
A group of nuns struggle to establish a convent in the Himalayas, while isolation, extreme weather, altitude, and culture clashes all conspire to drive the well-intentioned missionaries mad.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Flora Robson, Jenny Laird
Votes: 27,645
12. O Lucky Man! (1973)
R | 178 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
An ambitious coffee salesman has a series of improbable and ironic adventures that seem designed to challenge his naive idealism.
Director: Lindsay Anderson | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Ralph Richardson, Rachel Roberts, Arthur Lowe
Votes: 8,789
13. The Go-Between (1971)
GP | 116 min | Drama, Romance
A tale of torrid and forbidden love between a couple in the English countryside.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Dominic Guard, Margaret Leighton
Votes: 6,300 | Gross: $0.75M
14. Secrets & Lies (1996)
R | 136 min | Comedy, Drama
Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother -- a lonely white factory worker living in poverty in East London.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook
Votes: 47,170 | Gross: $13.42M
15. The Queen (2006)
PG-13 | 103 min | Biography, Drama
After the death of Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth II struggles with her reaction to a sequence of events nobody could have predicted.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell, Alex Jennings
Votes: 115,966 | Gross: $56.44M
16. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Not Rated | 163 min | Drama, Romance, War
From the Boer War through World War II, a soldier rises through the ranks in the British military.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook, James McKechnie
Votes: 16,346
17. The Third Man (1949)
Approved | 93 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard
Votes: 181,786 | Gross: $0.45M
18. A Kind of Loving (1962)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Romance
After his girlfriend's pregnancy forces him to marry her, a young man must adjust to his new life and contend with his domineering mother-in-law.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Alan Bates, June Ritchie, Thora Hird, Bert Palmer
Votes: 2,690 | Gross: $0.00M
19. Women in Love (1969)
R | 131 min | Drama, Romance
Two best friends fall in love with a pair of women, but the relationships soon go in very different directions.
Director: Ken Russell | Stars: Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson, Jennie Linden
Votes: 8,549 | Gross: $1.03M
20. Yanks (1979)
R | 138 min | Drama, War
Joining WWII, USA ships soldiers to UK. Matt and John arrive in 1942. Each see a local woman - married or to be engaged with soldiers serving faraway.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane
Votes: 3,718 | Gross: $3.93M
21. Odd Man Out (1947)
Approved | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A wounded Irish nationalist leader attempts to evade police following a failed robbery in Belfast.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, F.J. McCormick
Votes: 11,413
22. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Not Rated | 104 min | Drama, Sport
A young thief takes up long-distance running when he is sent to a borstal.
Director: Tony Richardson | Stars: Michael Redgrave, Tom Courtenay, Avis Bunnage, Alec McCowen
Votes: 9,372
23. The Fallen Idol (1948)
Approved | 95 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A butler working in a foreign embassy in London falls under suspicion when his wife accidentally falls to her death, the only witness being an impressionable young boy.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Ralph Richardson, Michèle Morgan, Sonia Dresdel, Bobby Henrey
Votes: 9,666 | Gross: $0.34M
24. Victim (1961)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama
A closeted lawyer risks his career to bring a blackmailer to justice.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms, Dennis Price, Anthony Nicholls
Votes: 7,191
25. The Hit (1984)
R | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Ten years after ratting on his old mobster friends in exchange for personal immunity, two hit men drive a hardened criminal to Paris for his execution. However, while on the way, whatever can go wrong, does go wrong.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Freddie Stuart, Ralph Brown, A.J. Clarke, Terence Stamp
Votes: 9,535 | Gross: $0.88M
26. Conspiracy of Hearts (1960)
Not Rated | 113 min | Drama, War
Catholic nuns risk their lives to help Jewish children in an Italian internment camp escape to Palestine during World War II.
Director: Ralph Thomas | Stars: Lilli Palmer, Sylvia Syms, Yvonne Mitchell, Ronald Lewis
Votes: 560
27. The L-Shaped Room (1962)
126 min | Drama, Romance
A single, pregnant woman moves into a London boarding house where she meets a group of fellow misfits.
Director: Bryan Forbes | Stars: Leslie Caron, Anthony Booth, Avis Bunnage, Patricia Phoenix
Votes: 2,230
28. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
Approved | 89 min | Drama, Romance
A rebellious, hard-living factory worker juggles relationships with two women, one of whom is married to another man but pregnant with his child.
Director: Karel Reisz | Stars: Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, Rachel Roberts, Hylda Baker
Votes: 9,284
29. This Sporting Life (1963)
Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, Sport
Despite success on the field, a rising rugby star senses the emerging emptiness of his life as his inner angst begins to materialize through aggression and brutality, so he attempts to woo his landlady in hopes of finding reason to live.
Director: Lindsay Anderson | Stars: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell
Votes: 7,129
30. Accident (1967)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
At Oxford, Austrian student Anna von Graz (Jacqueline Sassard) is dating fellow student William (Michael York), whom she plans to marry, but she ends up involved with two unhappily married Oxford professors instead.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Stanley Baker, Jacqueline Sassard, Michael York
Votes: 4,985
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