ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

Re-released in a new digital print, John Schlesinger's Billy Liar represents the smiling face of the British New Wave. Tom Courtenay is the eponymous hero, an undertaker's clerk desperate to escape his stultifying existence in the provincial north. Lumbered with two girlfriends, a demanding father and 300 calendars he forgot to post, he takes refuge in a fantasy land where he is feted and adored. Reality, alas, has a habit of intruding in this timeless tale of a daydream believer.

Worn down by his life yet terrified of seeking a better one, Courtenay's William Fisher embodies the passivity of a post-war generation bewildered by the wealth of opportunity that had been denied their parents. The flipside to his timidity - his homecoming queen, if you will - is Julie Christie's Liz, a radiant free spirit eager to discover what the world has to offer. With chickens coming home to roost left, right and centre, the chance to run away to London looks too good to miss. When push comes to shove, though, does Billy have the balls to take the plunge?

"POIGNANCY, MISCHIEF AND SPIKY WIT"

Beautifully performed and elegantly shot, with mock-heroic dream sequences offering a rich contrast to the story's kitchen-sink miserabilism, Billy Liar is a blast from the past that has lost none of its mischief, poignancy and spiky wit. Having understudied Albert Finney in the stage version, Courtenay doesn't so much play his Mittyesque malcontent as become him. In the first of three collaborations with Schlesinger, meanwhile, Christie is little short of magical.

Billy Liar is out in the UK on 14th August 2007 for one day only.