Kes (1969), If.... (1968), A Hard Day's Night (1964), This Sporting Life (1963), Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), A Taste of Honey (1961), King and Country (1964), The L-Shaped Room (1963) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best British New Wave movies.
Storyline: Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper (David Bradley), a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher Mr. Farthing (Colin Welland) and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence, until tragedy strikes.
Plot Keywords: british new wave, independent film, based on novel, bird, bully, child abuse, teacher ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In an indictment of the British public school system, we follow Mick and his mostly younger friends through a series of indignities and occasionally abuse as any fond feelings toward these schools are destroyed. When Mick and his friends rebel, violently, the catch phrase, "which side would you be on" becomes quite stark.
Plot Keywords: boys' school, boarding school, homosexuality, humiliation, violence, social satire, revolution ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A day and a half in the life of the Fab Four leading up to a televised concert gig. The boys seem to be constantly on the run, from their crazed fans and from their manager, who is constantly trying to rein them in. Sir Ringo Starr however is arrested and still isn't in the studio half an hour before air time. With Sir Paul McCartney's grandfather available for additional comical relief, the group performs a dozen or so songs.
Plot Keywords: rock 'n' roll, the beatles, rock band, arrest, disguise, police station, train ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In Northern England in the early 1960s, Frank Machin is mean, tough and ambitious enough to become an immediate star in the rugby league team run by local employer Weaver. Machin lodges with Mrs Hammond, whose husband was killed in an accident at Weaver's, but his impulsive and angry nature stop him from being able to reach her as he would like. He becomes increasingly frustrated with his situation, and this is not helped by the more straightforward enticements of Mrs Weaver.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
Plot Keywords: british new wave, bare chested male, storytelling, pub, song, singing, singer ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Arthur, one of Britain's angry young men of the 1960s, is a hardworking factory worker who slaves all week at his mindless job for his modest wages. Come Saturday night, he's off to the pub for a loud and rowdy beer session. With him is Brenda, his girlfriend of the moment. Married to a fellow worker, she is nonetheless captivated by his rugged good looks and his devil-may-care attitude. Soon a new love interest Doreen enters and a week later, Brenda announces she's pregnant. She tells Arthur she needs money for an abortion, and Arthur promises to pay for it. By this time, his relationship with Doreen has ripened and Brenda, hearing of it, confronts him. He denies everything, but it's obvious that their affair is all but over.—alfiehitchie
Plot Keywords: factory worker, british new wave, based on novel, british, caught cheating, fair, playground ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Black and white, gay and straight, mothers and daughters, class, and coming of age. Jo is working class, in her teens, living with her drunk and libidinous mother in northern England. When mom marries impulsively, Jo is out on the streets; she and Geoffrey, a gay co worker who's adrift himself, find a room together. Then Jo finds herself pregnant after a one night stand with Jimmy, a Black sailor. Geoffrey takes over the preparations for the baby's birth, and becomes, in effect, the child's father. The three of them seem to have things sorted out when Jo's mother reappears on the scene, assertive and domineering. Which "family" will emerge?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: working class, coming of age, family relationships, unwed pregnancy, pregnant teenager, mother daughter relationship, child abandonment ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: During World War I, the British troops are entrenched at Passchendaele, Belgium. Amongst the volunteers, there is a young British soldier, Private Arthur James Hamp (Sir Tom Courtenay), who is the sole survivor of his original company. Hamp spent three years in the trenches, and this makes him a veteran. He has never been accused of cowardice, but one day, he simply decides to leave the war behind him and walk all the way home to Britain. In Calais, France, he is challenged by a Military Police patrol, who promptly arrests him for leaving without permission. Hamp's commanding officers decide to convene a court-martial and charge him with desertion. If found guilty, Hamp could be shot by a firing squad. Captain Hargreaves (Sir Dirk Bogarde) is assigned to be Hamp's defending attorney, but he seems skeptical about the deserter's chances of acquittal. During their first talk, Captain Hargreaves is impressed by his client's utter sincerity and naivete. He learns that his client volunteered on a dare by his friends back home, spent three years in the front-line trenches, remained sole survivor of his company, and that he decided to leave the war and return home. When Hargreaves asks Hamp why he decided to leave the war, Hamp simply says that he got tired of watching his comrades die, and that the noises of war made him sick. On top of that, Hamp argued he received news from home about his wife's unfaithfulness. All of these reasons made him want to leave the war behind and return home to England. Captain Hargreaves remains unsympathetic. The military doctor's report indicated that deserter Hamp does not suffer from shell-shock and Captain Hargreaves accepts that fact. However, suspecting that his client's case is a more complex and peculiar case, Captain Hargreaves believes that Hamp is not responsible for his actions. He prepares the best he can for the upcoming court-martial.—nufs68
Plot Keywords: world war one, british army, execution, british military, year 1917, interrogation, death penalty ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Jane, a young French woman, pregnant and unmarried, takes a room in a seedy London boarding house, which is inhabited by an assortment of misfits. She considers getting an abortion, but is unhappy with this solution. She falls into a relationship with Toby, a struggling young writer who lives on the first floor. Eventually she comes to like her odd room, and makes friends with all the strange people in the house. But she still faces two problems: what to do with her baby, and what to do with Toby.—John Oswalt <jao@jao.com>
Plot Keywords: unplanned pregnancy, soap, suitcase, boarding house, black cat, unwed pregnancy, lesbian ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: When their deeply religious mother dies, the seven Hook children bury her in the garden and continue life as normal. Then their absent father, Charlie, reappears...—Allen Dace
Plot Keywords: cutting hair, sociopath, fireplace poker, three word title, lie, punishment, dead body ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A young man, inching his way up from working-class traditions via a white-collar job, finds himself trapped by the frightening reality of his girlfriend's pregnancy and is forced into marrying her and moving in with his mother-in-law due to a housing shortage in their Northern England town.—alfiehitchie
Plot Keywords: hospital, marital separation, melodrama, miscarriage, mother daughter relationship, mother son relationship, newlywed ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Billy (Tom Courtenay), a young British clerk in a gloomy North Country undertaker's office, is bombarded daily by the propaganda of the media that all things are for the asking. This transparently-false doctrine, coupled with the humdrum job and his wild imagination, leads him on frequent flights to "Ambrosia", a mythical kingdom where he is crowned King, General, lover, or any idealized hero the real situation of the moment makes him desire. His vacillating commitment and post-adolescent immaturity have created situations which make Ambrosia all the more attractive. He's succeeded in becoming engaged to two different girls simultaneously, while in love with a third, Liz (Julie Christie). He's in hot water with his employer, having spent a rather large sum of postage money on his personal frivolities. Last but not least, his dream of becoming a highly-paid, famous scriptwriter in London seems doomed. The only person in his life capable of bringing him down to Earth is Liz, and she's having a difficult time. Finally, he gets his life sufficiently in order to leave for London with his true love, but still hasn't gotten to grips with the real world. He leaves the train to buy milk from a vending machine and watches the train slowly pull out for London with Liz aboard. He returns to the more comfortable shelter of his parents' home, Ambrosia, and his imagination.—alfiehitchie
Plot Keywords: train, liar, based on novel, character name in title, chapel, cannon, cafe ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: An Eastern cult discovers that the sacrificial ring is missing. Sir Ringo Starr, drummer of The Beatles has it; sent by the girl (who's to be sacrificed) as a gift. Clang, Ahme, Bhuta, and several cult members leave for London to retrieve the ring. After several failed attempts to steal the ring, they confront him in an Indian restaurant. Ringo learns that if he does not return the ring soon, he will become the next sacrifice. Ringo then discovers that the ring is stuck on his finger. Its a race against time; John Lennon, Sir Paul McCartney, and George Harrison try to protect their friend while they're all being chased not only by Clang and his minions, but also by two mad scientists and the Chief Inspector of Scotland yard. Will Ringo be saved, or will he be sacrificed?
Plot Keywords: ring, religious cult, drummer, the beatles, human sacrifice, mad scientist, trapdoor ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Based on Thomas Hardy's nineteenth century novel, Bathsheba Everdene is a willful, passionate girl who is never satisfied with anything less than a man's complete and helpless adoration, and she captures the lives and loves of three very different men: Gabriel Oak, a sheep farmer, who is captivated by her beauty and proposes marriage; William Boldwood, a prosperous man in his early forties, and a confirmed bachelor; and Sergeant Frank Troy, a handsome, reckless swordsman given to sudden fits of violence.—alfiehitchie
Plot Keywords: unrequited love, soldier, singing, shepherd, ring, prison, pride ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Screenwriter Jake Armitage (Peter Finch) and his wife Jo Armitage (Anne Bancroft) live in London with six of Jo's eight children, with the two eldest boys at boarding school. The children are spread over Jo's three marriages, with only the youngest being Jake's biological child, although he treats them all as his own. Jo left her second husband Giles (Richard Johnson) after meeting Giles' friend Jake, the two who were immediately attracted to each other. Their upper middle class life is much different than Giles and Jo's, who lived in a barn in the English countryside. But Jo is ruminating about her strained marriage to Jake, with issues on both sides. Jo suspects Jake of chronic infidelity, she only confronting him with her suspicions whenever evidence presents itself. And Jo's psychiatrist believes that Jo uses childbirth as a rationale for sex, which he believes she finds vulgar. These issues in combination have placed Jo in a fragile mental state. They both state that they love the other, but neither really seems to like the other much. As Jake and Jo prepare to move back to the English countryside in a new house within sight of Jo's old barn, both Jo and Jake come to their own unspoken individual conclusions of whether their marriage can withstand these strains, and if so what type of marriage it is destined to be.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: marriage, party, large family, husband wife relationship, funeral, flashback, ex husband ex wife relationship ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Hysterical panic has engulfed the world after the United States and the Soviet Union simultaneously detonate nuclear devices causing a change to the nutation (axis of rotation) of the Earth.—Fernando <diamond@argenet.com.ar>
Plot Keywords: newspaper, disaster film, newsroom, nuclear bomb, journalist, reporter, snow ...
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