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Francois Truffaut once described british cinema as a contradiction in terms, something I generally agree with. But I would rather have the intriguing allusions/pretensions of TLGF than anything from the chronicly limited three bases most british cinema seems to stem from, namely Merchant Ivory-type tedium/Mike Leigh-type tedium/quirky 'eccentric' comedy-type tedium (currently those stripping bints). We've really pissed it up the wall, haven't we.

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"Let's do it..."

I've never seen the Long Good Friday myself but the British Actress Nude Scenes Library has 4 pics of a topless babe called Mary Sheen taken from the film.

Thats her Angus, with Denzil from Only Fools and Horses not quite on his glory stroke on top of her. nice link btw

and i know you know this .......

The Long good friday would not of been made if it was not for ...

A : Beatlemania (A scouse thing)
(which you might still think was phoney ! so what films did punk produce that was so great Rude boy ....lol or perhaps Jubilee .....lol...lol)

B : George Harrison ( A scouser )
who started Handmade films with money made from Phoney Beatlemania !
a company that single handedly (mind the pun) saved the british film industry during the 80's

The guitarist is even said to have mortgaged his own house to come up with the money.
Handmade Films, the independent film company which Harrison set up, went on to produce a great many films during the eighties.

?He remained heavily involved in Handmade Films? said former Monty Python star Michael Palin. and liked the hands-on way of doing things. He didn't like big business very much, didn't like the way the press treated him and was mistrustful of them. "

Handmade Films were responsible for the London underworld film called The Long Good Friday (1980), which starred Bob Hoskins. Hoskins was later to turn up in another Handmade film, again with a seedy London underworld theme. This time his performance won the 1986 Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival where the film, Mona Lisa (1986), was an official British entry.

In between Handmade produced another film from one of the Monty Python team. Time Bandits (1981), directed by Terry Gilliam, was a fantasy adventure. Harrison contributed to the production by also writing the music and lyrics with Mike Moran.

The most successful of Handmade's films was probably the cult classic Withnail and I (1987), which starred Richard E Grant and Paul McGann.

Or could it be that you secretly want to be a Scouser ?

Actually, Handmade(HMF) did not rescue the British Film Industry. The sucess of Chariots of Fire and Ghandi showed that we were still a force. HMF did produce excellent films on a small budget before being made almost bankrupt by Adventures of Baron Muchansen(?) in 1989/90.
Harrison did donate a LOT of money to this fledgling company, but didn't want to know when they suffered major financial losses over the film mentioned.
I also mentioned Mona Lisa on an earlier post on this thread.
Beatlemania IS phoney....end of story
True, Rude Boy is a mess, I have it purely for the live performances of The Clash. Jubilee was also iffy at best. Breaking Glass WAS a good film that captured the generation at the time, something Rude Boy 'tried' to do, but didn't achieve.
As for secretly wanting to be a Scouser? Hmmmmmmmm

Handmade & Baron M. - are you sure?

True, Handmade didn't save the British Film Industry, but did set a good example, especially in the importance of home funding (as opposed to The Full Monty, for example, which was entirely US funded, and so the $160m or so it eventually gathered went to their industry, not ours). Sadly, HMF were hopeless at playing the Hollywood game and suffered accordingly (Porky's Revenge/Shanghai Suprise). Harrison stopped investing in '90 and eventually sold Handmade for a peasly $8.5m in '94. Shame.

Anyway, thanks for reminding me. Gandhi & Chariots, that was the way forward - i.e. look backwards. The good bit: blokes running on beach to anachronistic music. Later, C. Welland (clutching osc.) "The British are coming!"

Oh, how we laughed.

--
"Let's do it..."

Weren't they the days before Hollywood killed the golden goose

Its sad that films are seen as nothing more than ways of generating massive profits than presenting a story worthy of being seen

A real shame that it took a Private Investor like George Harrison to show those in power that films are just as valuable to society as the HIGHER arts

We used to have a goverment funded film corporation that produced such
acclaimed productions as Breaker Morant,Gallipoli,Sunday To far away,Picnic at Hanging Rock & Storm Boy in a 6 year period from 1975-1980

Resurrected in 1994 but never the same...a great chance lost IMHO



We still have tourists visiting where the films were made 20 odd years after the filming

cheers
B....OZ

I hear Bollywood in India has remained the same throughout