| | Billy Liar DVD (1 Customer Review)
| Category | Dramas DVDs, Television/TV Series Movies, Comedies Videos, Adventure, Comedians/Comediennes, Criterion Collection, Fantasy Worlds, England, Adaptation, Dreams, Television Personalities | | Starring | Tom Courtenay, Julie Christie, Leonard Rossiter, Finlay Currie, Mona Washbourne, Rodney Bewes, Wilfred Pickles, Gwendolyn Watts | | Director | John Schlesinger | | Screenwriter | Keith Waterhouse | | Source Writer | Keith Waterhouse |
Feature film DVD starring Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie. Billy Fisher is a daydreamer stuck at a dead end job selling funeral furnishing. Spinning lie after lie, which includes stringing two fiancees and claiming to be a comedy writer, Billy's wish to escape his life becomes a possibility when he meets Liz, a free spirited icon of rebellion. BILLY LIAR was an immediate sensation as first a novel, then a hit play--both written by Keith Waterhouse, who also served as screenwriter on the film. Director John Schlesinger's screen version was a British landmark in the fertile cinema of the late 1950s and early '60s, and launched the career of Julie Christie, who plays Liz, one of Billy's flames. A young Englishman named Billy Fisher (Tom Courtenay) dreams of escaping from his dull working-class family and his dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant. In constant conflict with his parents and with the many women with whom he is romantically involved (he is engaged to two), Billy regularly escapes into a rich fantasy world. Sometimes he imagines himself to be the powerful dictator of a small country. In another fantasy, he wants to become the scriptwriter for a popular comedian on television. Unfortunately, he often blurs the line between fantasy and reality, which is exactly the reason that everybody calls him "Billy Liar." Theatrical Release: December 16, 1963.
Tom Courtenay took over the role originally created on the stage by Albert Finney.
Source writer Keith Waterhouse based some parts of his main character's life on the years he spent clerking for an undertaker. He claims he took the job mainly to get access to a typewriter.
Julie Christie at first was rejected for the part of Liz, but the actress who was chosen subsequently suffered a nervous breakdown. Director John Schlesinger then asked Christie back, thus sparking her career. David Lean, upon first seeing BILLY LIAR, immediately cast her in his upcoming film, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, which also featured Tom Courtenay.
BILLY LIAR is included on the British Film Institute's list of One Hundred Favorite British films. Billy Liar Reviews: "...Schlesinger's production remains involving..."
-- Ben Walters, Sight and Sound 4 stars out of 5 -- "Skulking between temerity and timidity, callousness and innocence, Tom Courtenay dominates the picture..."-- David Parkinson, Empire
This is the only Gwendolyn Watts video. Billy Liar | List Price | $39.95 (You save $11.30) | | Studio | Criterion Collection | | Orig Year | 1963 | | DVD Encoding | Region 1 | | All Time Sales Rank |  33596  | | CD Universe Part number | 1837781 | | Catalog number | BIL040 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | Jul 10, 2001 | | Rating | Not Rated | | Running Time | 98 Minutes | | Additional Info | Widescreen | | Movie Details | B&W; Mono Sound; Widescreen; Criterion Collection |
Billy Liar Movie Review Average Rating: (5 out of 5 stars)  A teenage Walter Mitty - and the stuff that adolescent dream
"Billy Liar" (1963) is Keith Waterhouse's delightful story of a young British clerk (Tom Courtenay) who takes refuge in hilarious daydreams as a relief from his dreary life, and of the free-roving girl he meets (Julie Christie) who encourages him to go to London and seek a career. Skillful direction by John Schlesinger ("Darling", "Midnight Cowboy") that blends the fantasies with realities of everyday existence superbly and brilliant performances by entire cast. Miss Christie, in a very early screen appearance, is a radiant delight.
Through its cerebral comedy and Schlesinger's masterful direction, "Billy Liar" is rich in possibilities for discussion. Billy's dilemma is one we all face--how to deal successfully with the real world. The question is particularly relevant for young people, for many are having difficulty resolving it without flights of their own to a world of alcohol and drugs and other assorted escape routes.
What films like "Billy Liar" remind us of is the extraordinary power the cinema possesses, against all the odds, of anticipating as well as reflecting social change, so that the films seem to be at one and the same time prophecies of and metaphors for what is happening or going to happen. [filmfactsman]
Submitted by filmfactsman (Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
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Billy Liar DVD Region 1
Keep Case
Single Side - Dual Layer - RSDL
Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35
Letterbox - 2.35
Audio:
Mono - English
Additional Release Material:
Shorts: Excerpt from "Northern Lights," an episode of BBC series HOLLYWOOD U.K.: BRITISH CINEMA IN THE SIXTIES
Audio Commentary: John Schlesinger - Director, Tom Courtenay - Star, Julie Christie - Star
Trailers: Original Theatrical Trailer
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