The 1973 thriller Don’t Look Now starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie has been named Best British Film in a list compiled by Time Out magazine.
The film, directed by Nicolas Roeg, is set in Venice and follows a couple grieving the death of their young daughter. It features an infamous sex scene with the two main characters and a chilling twist at the end.
The full list of 100 movies was chosen by a panel of 150 actors, critics and filmmakers including Sam Mendes, Mike Leigh, Sally Hawkins, Wes Anderson and Terence Davies.
The oldest film in the list is Powell and Pressburger’s 1946 wartime fantasy A Matter of Life and Death, starring David Niven, while Trainspotting, directed by Danny Boyle in 1996, was the only movie from the past 15 years to feature.
The film editor of Time Out, Dave Calhoun, said “this once-in-a-decade poll throws new light on the films which inspire our current actors, directors and writers. In the same week that the BAFTA winners are announced, and as the British film funding landscape remains in flux, now seems as good a time as ever to think about British cinema in the context of over 100 years.”
The Top Ten films were as follows:
1. Don’t Look Now (1973)
2. The Third Man (1949)
3. Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988)
4. Kes (1969)
5. The Red Shoes (1948)
6. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
7. Performance (1970)
8. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
9. If… (1968)
10. Trainspotting (1996)
What would be your pick for number one?
Originally published February 9, 2011. Updated November 6, 2019.
