tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

In Part 2 of tMF's 50 Essential Foreign Films, we're listing down our UK Top 10. This means the list is not limited to English films and include movies which essentially are either about the whole United Kingdom or predominantly so or about someone from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast or from any other places in the UK.

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Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:

... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera? Sort of... In truth we resisted hard-and-fast criteria (we're in good company; check out the website of the UK Film Council, which explains how films can be arranged according to different degrees of Britishness). Instead we followed a loose cultural test - did the film feel British?

Since this list covers films from 2000-2008, you might missed a lot of your favorites like Trainspotting, Four Weddings and a Funeral or The English Patient. There are also a few movies, which seem so obvious already, that were not included - The Queen and Billy Elliot, among others. However, take a look at the calibre of the movies on this list - not only are they quite representative of the social, cultural and political diversity of the UK, but the list also put the spotlight on its best talents. As in Part 1 (Spotlight on French Cinema), the list is in random order...
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1. This is England - 2006 - Directed by Shane Meadows, featuring the outstanding performance of young British actor, Thomas Turgoose.

About the Movie: After the success of 'Dead Man's Shoes' local filmmaker Shane Meadows returns with 'This is England' a story of absence and isolation, belonging and the power of persuasion. Set in 1983 with a backdrop of the war in the Falklands, the film opens with a montage of relevant images everything from Maggie Thatcher to Knight Rider that really take you back and put you in the right space to meet Shaun. Shaun the films central character (played superbly by newcomer Thomas Turgoose) is a typical eighties kid, riding round on his griffter, washing neighbours cars for cash to buy a catapult and being constantly picked on for being different. When we first meet him we quickly learn that his father was a victim of the war raging at Maggie's command. Enter the gang Woody, Milky, Pukey, et all, a rag tag bunch of mods and skinheads complete with crimped haired girlfriends, with the absence of his father and any real sense of being part of something Shaun is quickly welcomed into the group and takes up not just the mannerisms or clothes but drinking, smoking and growing up to quickly. Things go OK for a while until Combo arrives on the scene. Straight out of prison and a British blooded skinhead through to his core you can sense trouble on the horizon. Soon the gang becomes segmented because of differences of opinion and fuelled by the war and the council estate mentality of accepting foreigners' things start to spiral out of control and Shaun finds himself in way above his head.

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Related Buzz: The movie won major acclaims at both the BAFTA and the British Independent Film Awards, with Thomas Turgoose grabbing a Best Newcomer trophy.

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2. London to Brighton - 2006 - From Paul Andrew Williams, a newcomer who won acclaim for this movie at various Festivals. This is probably one of the best crime-drama I have seen in many years - absorbing, tension-filled drama and suspense - with an 'in-your-face' look at the crime underworld.

About the Movie: In London, Derek, a pimp, assigns Kelly (who is a prostitute) to find a young girl on the streets to service Duncan, a powerful mobster. Kelly finds a twelve year-old runaway named Joanne in the train station and Derek proposes one hundred pounds for the service and Joanne accepts. Kelly befriends Joanne and takes her to Duncan's mansion. When Joanne cries in the bedroom where she is with Duncan, Kelly runs and defends the girl. At 3:07 AM, the bruised Kelly and the tearful Joanne lock themselves in a public toilet. Kelly asks Joanne to stay there because she will raise some money for them to travel to Brighton. Meanwhile, Duncan's son Stuart Allen calls Derek and asks him to meet him in a night-club. When Derek arrives, Stuart tells that his father is dead and he wants the responsible; further, he cuts his knee sinew to prove that he is not kidding. Derek calls his associate Chum and they begin to chase the girls.

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Featured review by Peter Bradshaw at the Guardian:

With little in the way of money, with a partly non-professional cast and with plenty of chutzpah, the young British film-maker Paul Andrew Williams has written and directed a cracking debut feature with enough clout to kick the door in. It's a cold-sweat gangland thriller with a twist of social realism, which pays intelligent homage to Mike Hodges and Ken Loach. By accident or design, traces of both Get Carter and Cathy Come Home are discernible. There are London criminals here, wielding shotguns, but the film has none of the mockney geezer nonsense that we've come to expect from British films. It's a fast, fluent, picture that grasps a horrible truth which has never much interested Guy Ritchie or Matthew Vaughn - its violent criminal men, no matter how high up the food chain, are unglamorous inadequates, all afraid and ashamed of something. It is a world of insects feeding off smaller insects, and abuse victims becoming abusers but deserving zero sympathy in the process. [ read more ]

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3. Control - 2007 - Directed by Anton Corbijn, featuring Sam Riley as Ian Curtis with Samantha Morton as his wife. Says Peter Travers at Rolling Stones:

Rock photo guru Anton Corbijn hits all the right notes in his remarkable feature-directing debut. His muse is Ian Curtis (a knockout Sam Riley), the epileptic lead singer of the Brit punk band Joy Division, who hanged himself in 1980 at twenty-three. Samantha Morton plays the wife who helped him fight his demons, and Tony Kebbell excels as the band manager. But it's Corbijn, shooting with a poet's eye in a harshly stunning black-and-white, who cuts to the soul of Ian's life and music. You don't watch this movie, you live it.

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About the Movie: Ian Curtis is a quiet and rather sad lad who works for an employment agency and sings in a band called Warsaw. He meets a girl named Debbie whom he promptly marries and his band, of which the name in the meantime has been changed to Joy Division, gets more and more successful. Even though Debbie and he become parents, their relationship is going downhill rapidly and Ian starts an affair with Belgium Annik whom he met after one of the gigs and he's almost never at home. Ian also suffers from epilepsy and has no-good medication for it. He doesn't know how to handle the feelings he has for Debbie and Annik and the pressure the popularity of Joy Division and the energy performing costs him.

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4. Red Road - 2006 - From acclaimed director Andrea Arnold, Red Road is an intelligent, sophisticated suspense thriller about a CCTV surveilance operator and her confrontation with a man she wished she'll never see again. You'll be surprised that it was made with such a low budget yet the film looks so professionally done.

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About the Movie: Danny Leigh at the Guardian wrote this profile of Arnold and includes a description of the film:

At 45, her film-making is now getting attention, with her debut, Red Road, cementing her status as one of British cinema's brightest new lights, particularly after winning the Jury Prize at this year's Cannes. A startling Glasgow-set drama of obsession and revenge, Red Road centres on an operator of the city's myriad CCTV cameras - emotionally disconnected until a face from the past appears on her screens. Thereafter, her life spirals into a welter of illicit surveillance that finally leads her to Red Road, the grimly iconic clump of tower blocks on Glasgow's northern frontier, scheduled for demolition but still, for now, a brutalist monster on the skyline. With its jittery images and free-floating paranoia, the film could have simply been a techno retread of Rear Window. But, among the eerie freeze-frames and grainy knee-tremblers, something far more original emerges - infused with the tension of a thriller, but also depth and complexity. [ read more ]

Related Buzz: Andrea Arnold is also the director of Fish Tank, her latest, and just like Red Road has received raving reviews from critics worldwide.

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5. My Summer of Love - 2004 - From filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski, featuring Natalie Press and Emily Blunt in the lead roles.

About the Movie: A tale of obsession and deception, and the struggle for love and faith in a world where both seem impossible. The film charts the emotional and physical hothouse effects that bloom one summer for two young women: Mona, behind a spiky exterior, hides an untapped intelligence and a yearning for something beyond the emptiness of her daily life; Tamsin is well-educated, spoiled and cynical. Complete opposites, each is wary of the other's differences when they first meet, but this coolness soon melts into mutual fascination, amusement and attraction. Adding volatility is Mona's older brother Phil, who has renounced his criminal past for religious fervor - which he tries to impose upon his sister. Mona, however, is experiencing her own rapture. "We must never be parted," Tamsin intones to Mona but can Mona completely trust her?

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Related Buzz: The film was met with almost universal acclaim, with most critics describing it as a 'moody and bittersweet' love story, and lauding the performances of Emily Blunt and Natalie Press as the film's lead characters. Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times, who gave it 3/4 stars, described it as 'a movie that is more about being an age, than coming-of-age', while A.O. Scott of The New York Times termed it 'a triumph of mood and implication', and James Berardinelli of ReelViews, called it a 'gem' lost in the 'hype' of Hollywood blockbusters.

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6. The Wind That Shakes The Barley - 2007 - Ken Loach with Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney as the two brothers.

About the Movie: Ireland, 1920. Damien and Teddy are brothers. But while the latter is already the leader of a guerrilla squad fighting for the independence of his motherland, Damien, a medical graduate of University College, would rather further his training at the London hospital where he has found a place. However, shortly before his departure, he happens to witness atrocities committed by the ferocious Black and Tans and finally decides to join the resistance group led by Teddy. The two brothers fight side by side until a truce is signed. But peace is short-lived and when one faction of the freedom-fighters accepts a treaty with the British that is regarded as unfair by the other faction, a civil war ensues, pitting Irishmen against Irishmen, brothers against brothers, Teddy against Damien...

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Related Buzz: Widely praised, the film won the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Loach's biggest box office success to date, the film did well around the world and set a record in Ireland as the highest-grossing Irish-made independent film ever

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7. Hallam Foe - 2007 - From David McKenzie with a cast including Jamie Bell and Sophie Myles.

About the Movie: Seventeen year-old Hallam Foe is a weird teenager missing his mother, who committed suicide, drowning in a lake near their house in Edinburgh after an overdose of sleeping pills. Hallam spends his spare time peeping at the locals and blames his stepmother Verity Foe, accusing her of killing his mother. After a discussion with his father Julius Foe, Hallam sneaks out from his house and travels to Edinburgh, where he sees Kate Breck and becomes obsessed with her because of her resemblance to his mother. Kate hires Hallam to work in the kitchen of the hotel where she works and they have a strange romance.

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Featured review by Boyd  Van Hoeij @European-Films:

Scottish director David McKenzie (Young Adam) dives into the psyche of a disturbed teenager in the effective yet light psychological drama Hallam Foe. The adaptation of the Peter Jinks novel might have a few too many music-and-montage pieces and an ending that states the obvious, it is also undeniable that the adolescent peeping Tom is a fascinating character, brought to thrilling life by young Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, Dear Wendy) in yet another extraordinary performance. This prime example of European arthouse light comes with a hip soundtrack and a sweet yet believable romance and will travel far and wide. It will also cement the status of both Bell and McKenzie as important names to watch in British cinema. [ read more ]

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8. Boy A - 2007 - From director John Crowley. Ruthe Stein at the SF Chronicles provide a lot of insights in a review:

Even with Redford, Cruise and Streep on the marquee, "Lions for Lambs" was forgettable - save for the performance of Andrew Garfield as a spoiled rich kid. Garfield's abundant talent is on display again as the title character in "Boy A." This deeply affecting British drama begins with a christening of sorts. Garfield's troubled young man - labeled Boy A because he was underage at the time he stood trial for a monstrous crime - has just been released from juvenile prison after 14 years and is put in a criminal protection program. His caring caseworker Terry (Peter Mullan) tells him that his new name is Jack Burridge and that he must never reveal anything about his past. Terry presents him with a pair of sneakers, a gift rife with symbolism. Like the Jonathan Trigell novel on which it is based, the movie poses moral questions about the possibility of getting a new chance in life and how badly you have to have botched things up to no longer be worthy of one. [ read more ]

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About the Movie: A young man is released from prison after many years and given a new identity in a new town. Aided by a supervisor who becomes like a father to him he finds a job and friends and hesitantly starts a relationship with a compassionate girl. But the secret of the heinous crime he committed as a boy weighs down on him, and he learns that it is not so easy to escape your past.

Related Buzz: Andrew Garfield won Best Actor at the BAFTA for this film.

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9. Dirty Pretty Things - 2002 -  As with the French hitlist, there is a particular British filmmaker whose work remains outstanding and that its power, beauty and delivery has stand the test of time - Stephen Frears. Nominated at the Oscars and a big winner at the British Independent Film Awards in 2003, this Stephen Frears movie is probably the one I remember the most, and only when you've seen it that you'll understand why.

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About the Movie: Okwe, a kind-hearted Nigerian doctor, and Senay, a Turkish chambermaid, work at the same West London hotel. The hotel is run by Senor Sneaky and is the sort of place where dirty business like drug dealing and prostitution takes place. However, when Okwe finds a human heart in one of the toilets, he uncovers something far more sinister than just a common crime.

Featured review: Peter Bradshaw at the Guardian says:

... a very entertaining, intelligent thriller from director Stephen Frears and scripted by Stephen Knight, the prolific TV writer who brought us, of all things, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Knight's unusual script is an engrossing noir romance, couched in the language of both thriller and urban myth, and brought to life by three actors whose expertise is a joy to watch: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Audrey Tautou and Sergi Lopez. Ejiofor plays Okwe, a Nigerian "illegal" in London, hotel-portering by night, minicabbing by day, and all the time chewing dodgy herbal leaves to keep himself alert. Audrey Tautou is Senay, a young Turkish woman, also illegal, earning a pittance as a maid in the hotel where Okwe works, and the incomparably sinister Sergi Lopez is the hotel manager, who tells his employees that London hotels are places where strangers come to keep secrets, and wise people look the other way. One morning, Okwe is brusquely instructed to clean up a room where a guest has been with a prostitute, and has to unblock a lavatory overflowing with blood - a gripping scene in which nausea gives way to astonishment, then fear as Okwe realises that the obstruction is caused by a human heart. That's a metaphor which encapsulates the film's unusual willingness to function both as horror story and love story. It's all heart. [ read more ]

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10. In Bruges - 2008 - From writer-director Martin McDonald, featuring Colin Farrel, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Jeremie Renier.

About the Movie: Bruges, the most well-preserved medieval city in the whole of Belgium, is a welcoming destination for travellers from all over the world. But for hit men Ray and Ken, it could be their final destination; a difficult job has resulted in the pair being ordered right before Christmas by their London boss Harry to go and cool their heels in the storybook Flemish city for a couple of weeks. Very much out of place amidst the gothic architecture, canals, and cobbled streets, the two hit men fill their days living the lives of tourists. Ray, still haunted by the bloodshed in London, hates the place, while Ken, even as he keeps a fatherly eye on Ray's often profanely funny exploits, finds his mind and soul being expanded by the beauty and serenity of the city. But the longer they stay waiting for Harry's call, the more surreal their experience becomes, as they find themselves in weird encounters with locals, tourists, violent medieval art, a dwarf American actor shooting a European art film, Dutch prostitutes, and a potential romance for Ray in the form of Chloë, who may have some dark secrets of her own. And when the call from Harry does finally come, Ken and Ray's vacation becomes a life-and-death struggle of darkly comic proportions and surprisingly emotional consequences.

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Featured review by Mick LaSalle at SF Chronicle:

With "In Bruges," writer-director Martin McDonagh has made the movie that Guy Ritchie kept trying to make a few years ago. It's a story of criminals, with lots of working-class Irish banter, colorful characters, absurd situations and an intricate and irresistible plotline. Ritchie never succeeded. His dialogue was never clever enough; his characters never got off the page, and his plots were impenetrable. But McDonagh has done it with enviable ease, right out of the starting gate with his first feature. But then McDonagh is a very talented guy. In his other life, he's a playwright, with a string of Broadway and West End hits to his credit, including "The Pillowman," which is one of the best plays of recent years. "In Bruges" is not an achievement on that scale, nowhere near it. At the same time, compared with most movies, this is something very fine - not just witty and lively, but with a soul to it, as well. That soul comes out in three complicated comic performances and in the conscience that informs and underlies the story. The film represents one of the few completely successful comic treatments of hit men in movies, usually a sour subject. [ read more ]

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What's on your mind? Are you a fan of movies from the UK? Are there movies you think would be good candidates for the list above? Let us know what you think!
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