Billy Liar (film)

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For other uses, see Billy Liar (disambiguation).

Billy Liar
original film poster
Directed by	John Schlesinger
Produced by	Joseph Janni
Written by	Keith Waterhouse (novel and play) Willis Hall (play)
Starring	Tom Courtenay Julie Christie Wilfred Pickles Mona Washbourne
Music by	Richard Rodney Bennett
Cinematography	Denys Coop
Distributed by	Continental Distributing Inc.
Release date(s)	UK August 15, 1963 USA December 16, 1963
Running time	98 min
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Billy Liar is a 1963 film based on the novel by Keith Waterhouse. It was directed by John Schlesinger and stars Tom Courtenay (who had understudied Albert Finney in the West End theater adaptation of the novel) as Billy and Julie Christie as Liz, one of his three girlfriends. Mona Washbourne plays Mrs Fisher, and Wilfred Pickles played 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.

The film belongs to the British New Wave (or "kitchen sink drama") movement, inspired by the earlier French New Wave. Characteristic of the style is a documentary/cinéma vérité feel and the use of real locations (in this case the city of Bradford in Yorkshire). One sequence includes a very early use of a swear word ("pissed"), which was unusual by commercial film standards of the time; the word is uttered by Mona Washbourne.

In 2004 the magazine Total Film named Billy Liar the 12th in their list of the greatest British Films of all time.