I thoroughly enjoy good British/ Irish movies and would appreciate a few suggestions from you. Extra points for little-known gems. Both “gentle” films that grandparents might enjoy and serious films are okay, but all should have that inimitable Brit/Irish feel. Here are a few off-the-cuff recommendations. I’ll add more soon.
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill, But Came Down a Mountain. Plenty of charming, funny moments.
Ladies in Lavender. Don’t know much about it, but it’s come highly recommended.
Mrs. Henderson. Any excellent recent Judi Dench vehicle.
Educating Rita. 1980s film with Michael Caine in a modern take on Pygmalion.
Remains of the Day. Excellent, excellent
Howard’s End. Ditto.
Angela’s Ashes. As serious as they come, but a great film.
Any recent Jane Austen/Bronte sisters flix, including “Mansfield Park,” “Jane Eyre,” “Pride and Prejudice,” and “Sense and Sensibility”
The (original) Avengers. Actually, from the classic 1960s TV series, co-starring Diana Rigg. It doesn’t get any more Brit than this.
The British have made some great gangster filsm: Face; Get Carter; The Krays; Layer Cake; Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels; The Long Good Friday; Mona Lisa; Sexy Beast; Villain.
Of course, there’s also Withnail & I, which is one of my favorite movies ever. It’s hilarious but it has a quite serious and sad subtext. It’s eminently quotable. It stars Richard E. Grant! What more could you ask for?
A lot of the ones I would have recommended have been mentioned already. All these movies are great. I’ve seen most of them and I can’t think of one I wouldn’t also recommend. I especially loved Educating Rita (nice to see it on your list) and Breakfast On Pluto. Both of these movies contain two of my all-time favorite movie characters, Rita in ER and Kitten in BOP.
So, what about Scottish movies? There are lots of great ones, even if you might have to turn on the subtitles.
My all-time favorites are :
Local Hero (a delight that gets better with every viewing) Comfort and Joy (though unfortunately this isn’t on DVD in the US)
Just about anything by Bill Forsyth is worth watching.
If you get in the mood for depressing films:
Ratcatcher (this is an English film set in Scotland. Man is it depressing!) Morvern Callar (perplexing and dark) Trainspotting (an obvious choice, but worth mentioning)
The Magdalene Sisters, which Miss Purl just mentioned, was directed by the actor Peter Mullan who was just in Children of Men (as Syd). He’s been in many good films, such as My Name is Joe. That was directed by Ken Loach, who’s directed many fine films, including Ladybird, Ladybird.
Also on the very good but depressing list: Nil By Mouth (directed by the actor Gary Oldman)
Another Actor/Director is Tim Roth, who directed The War Zone. Both of these movies feature Ray Winstone, an actor who’d finally getting some attention.
An edgy and fascinating movie is The General, starring Brendan Gleeson.
This is not depressing, but you’ve probably seen it:
That reminds me - Gregory’s Girl is an amazingly sweet yet honest film about a teenage crush. The only negative is that the American version was redubbed with less strong Scottish accents, and the dubbed makes a kind of strange effect. But the story and the acting manage to overcome this minor quibble.
The Wimbledon Poisoner was a mini-series that I saw on vid many years ago, and still get a giggle out of. Bought the book eventually, and it’s grouse too.
I totally agree with the Local Hero suggestion as well. Reminded me that I haven’t seen it in over 10 years, and it’s about time to waddle down to the vid library and see if I can find a copy.
War of the Buttons is a nice Irish film. Hadn’t known it was a remake of a French film, the setting seems perfect.
Also [The Field[/utl], with Richard Harris, is a great Irish film.
Then there’s[url=Hope and Glory (1987) - IMDb]Hope and Glory](The Field (1990) - IMDb), about kids in London during the Blitz. It’s truly funny in parts, my best bit being the heartfelt “Thank You, Adolf” - you’ll see why.
Let’s try that again: War of the Buttons is a nice Irish film. Hadn’t known it was a remake of a French film, the setting seems perfect.
Also The Field, with Richard Harris, is a great Irish film.
Then there’sHope and Glory, about kids in London during the Blitz. It’s truly funny in parts, my best bit being the heartfelt “Thank You, Adolf” - you’ll see why.
Well, if you’re going to watch Dog Soldiers, definitely check out The Descent. One of the freakin scariest movies I’ve seen in a long time. This definitely ain’t your gramma’s British movie though!
For a movie eminently suitable for grannies, and everyone else really, there’s one of my all-time favorites, Enchanted April. Of course, it’s not available on DVD right now, though Amazon has a tantalizing teaser page for it. Here’s the VHS link. It’s got Miranda Richardson, Alfred Molina, Jim Broadbent, and Joan Plowright, and it’s the movie answer to Prozac, I swear.
Warning: this movie is known to cause irresistable longing to visit Portofino, Italy
Howzabout “The Closer You Get,” a very sly comedy about a bunch of remote Irish or Scottish villagers whose young men of marriageable age put an ad in the Miami Beach paper for young women to come and get romanced, because the local women are just too stuck up to have anything to do with them. Which of course the local women find out about before it even hits the mail. Hilarious stuff ensues.
Hear My Song – delightful comedy about the hunt to bring legendary Irish tenor Josef Locke to perform in the UK – where he’s a tax exile. Ned Beatty playes Locke, but the movie is about Adrian Dunbar’s efforts to find him and convince him to sing – without being arrested by dogged revenue agent David McCallum.
Widow’s Peak – delightful little revenge comedy in a town of gossips.
I’ll also second Waking Ned Devine, The Englishman . . . , Brassed Off, Local Hero, Comfort and Joy and Gregory’s Girl
My admiration of Local Hero, my favorite-est film of all, prompted me to rent *Gregory’s Girl * from Netflix. Even with the dubbing, I found it very helpful to turn on the DVD’s closed captioning. The deleted scenes, which weren’t dubbed over, on the DVD demonstrated what a **real ** brogue sounds like! It’s a great movie – not as satisfying as Local Hero, but fun to watch nonetheless.