Priority booking now open for Cinema Rediscovered passholders and Club Shed members.
General sale opens on Mon 1 June at 10:00.
One of the cornerstones of the 1960 British new wave, Billy Lair, like Whistle Down the Wind (which screens on Sun 26 July 10:30) put Northern working life on screen capturing its dramas and dialects. The original book by Keith Waterhouse had a successful stage adaptation starring Albert Finney.
Schlesinger cast Finney’s understudy Tom Courtney in what would become a defining performance as the day-dreaming disillusioned Yorkshire undertaker’s clerk Billy Fisher. To escape the mundanities of working life, Billy creates the fictionalised world Ambrosia where he is the hero and can escape the emotional complications of his two fiancés!
Whilst the British New Wave films of the late 50s and early 60s celebrated Northern life, Billy Liar - made in 1963 - is very much aware of the imminent arrival of the swinging sixties embodied here by a luminous Julie Christie who plays Billy’s former girlfriend Liz. Her entrance in the film is one of the many high points of this heartbreakingly hilarious classic shown here newly restored to mark John Schlesinger’s centenary.
A 4K restoration c/o STUDIOCANAL and presented as part of Rip it Up, a BFI FAN UK-wide season.
With an introduction by actress, writer, director, and comedian Alice Lowe.
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Special offers:
Booking for more than 10 events/screenings?
Buy a Cinema Rediscovered Festival Pass (£130 full / £100 concessions / £80 24 and under) and select your tickets for as many of the 60+ screenings and events during the festival as you want.
Booking for between 4 to 10 events/screenings?
Multi-Ticket Package Offer: get 15% off the regular ticket price when you book 4-10 Cinema Rediscovered screenings and/or events. The discount will automatically apply when you add the tickets to your basket.
Club Shed members get 15% off all individual Cinema Rediscovered tickets.