Billy Liar
Synopsis
Billy Fisher is a lazy, irresponsible, underachieving undertaker’s assistant in provincial Northern England. His constant daydreams and truth-deficient stories are the cause of his emotionally immature decisions which alienate friends and family, earning him the nickname “Billy Liar.”
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Awards & Festivals
Venice Film Festival
1963
BAFTA Awards
1964 | 6 nominations including: Best British Actor
Critics reviews
John Schlesinger’s comic-strip direction is so bad it is almost nostalgic. This is only Schlesinger’s second film, but the vulgarity of his first—A Kind of Loving—has been almost effortlessly surpassed. Schlesinger is obviously a man to watch for future awards. Everything he does is so wrong that the accumulation of errors resembles a personal style. Yet even if Schlesinger had more talent, the central theme of Billy Liar would remain a dubious one for the movies.
Andrew Sarris
December 19, 1963
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