BFI Flipside
Movies in the BFI Flipside collection - 'the untold story of British film' - ranked in descending order of whether you should bother watching them.
List activity
998 views
• 1 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
25 titles
- DirectorChristopher MongerStarsIan McNeiceBish NethercoteJohn CassadyA sheltered late night radio show host who offers escapism to his audience via his narrations of his 19th century romance novels, finds a brutalized young woman and takes her in to take care of her, which makes his psyche start to crack.A real lost masterpiece - art v commerce, romanticism v modernism, teamwork v individuality, the whole piece. And it only survives through a stroke of luck - seek it out.
- DirectorJerzy SkolimowskiStarsJane AsherJohn Moulder-BrownKarl Michael Vogler15-year-old dropout Mike takes a job at Newford Baths, where inappropriate sexual behaviour abounds, and becomes obsessed with his coworker Susan.A beautiful piece of work about youth and desire. The connoisseur's choice for the best film of 1970, seriously.
- DirectorBarney Platts-MillsStarsSusan PenhaligonBruce RobinsonMichael FeastLove story between a young depressive girl and a talented young writer and the first steps into their adult life.A great work, featuring a rare performance from Bruce Robinson alongside unsung hero Michael Feast. Manages to both embrace and dodge swinging London exploitation cliches.
- DirectorIan MerrickStarsDonald SumpterDebbie FarringtonMarjorie YatesA gung-ho ex-military man pursues a secret life of crime, culminating in the kidnapping of a teenage heiress.Impressive, controversial true-life crime drama with a mesmerising central performance from Donald Sumpter.
- DirectorB.S. JohnsonStarsWilliam HoylandBarry ColeGordon GridleyWilliam Hoyland stars in this legendary, multi award-winning short film directed by the modernist writer and film-maker BS Johnson. You're Human Like the Rest of Them is an adaptation of Johnson's decasyllabic poem about mortality. A teacher recites the poems lines first in a hospital surrounded by aging pensioners and then at work in a classroom, and finally in the school staff room. This title is also available on the DVD/Blu-ray 'You're Human Like the Rest of Them: The films of BS Johnson' in the BFI Flipside collection.Collection of the sublime BS Johnson's short subjects from a lost era of films for television.
- DirectorBarney Platts-MillsStarsDel WalkerAnne GoodingSam ShepherdDel and his friends agree to take part in a robbery with a boy fresh from the borstal. When Del falls in love with Irene they decide to run away from their nagging parents - and the law.Fine piece of work with some good performances from non-pro or very young actors; with this and Private Road it's odd the director disappeared.
- DirectorDon LevyStarsMichael GothardGabriella LicudiPeter StephensWhen young poet Max (Michael Gothard) hires a marketing company to turn his suicide-by-jumping into a mass-media spectacle, he finds that his subversive intentions are quickly diluted into a reactionary gesture, and his motivations are revealed as a desperate attempt to seek attention through celebrity.I would watch literally anything with Michael Gothard in and this has the bonus of being a good film in its own right, if a bit pretentious.
- DirectorGuy HamiltonStarsOliver ReedClifford DavidAnn LynnAn American businessman visits London and is horrified to discover his nubile teenage daughter has become involved with a gang of thuggish "beatniks". Her involvement leads to wild parties, sex, death and necrophilia.Enjoyably nasty 'youth' picture, with Oliver Reed burning the screen down.
- DirectorPeter WatkinsStarsPaul JonesJean ShrimptonMark LondonBritain's biggest pop singer, Steven Shorter (Paul Jones), receives unwavering adulation and possesses total control over his rabid fans, which includes nearly the entire population. Yet Shorter is not an autonomous performer -- he is little more than a puppet for the government, promoting whatever agenda they see fit. When a beautiful artist, Vanessa Ritchie (Jean Shrimpton), is commissioned to paint his portrait, she pushes Shorter to question his obedience to his manipulative handlers.Peter Watkins movie (in between The War Game and Punishment Park) with Paul Jones from Manfred Mann as pop idol/Jesus/tool of fascist oppression. Sort of a musical. Extremely odd and possibly has to be seen.
- DirectorStuart CooperStarsJohn HurtJohn McEneryDavid WarnerAn art student is thrown out of college. Depressed, he comes up with the Party of Dynamic Erection, a near-fascist "party" that promotes male sexual dominance, and which attracts a couple of other unsavory confused characters.Dated but entertaining - and occasionally troubling - film about the space where fear and rebellion intersect. John Hurt!
- DirectorSaxon LoganStarsJoanna DavidNickolas GraceHeather PageRich couple Angela & Richard travel to the home of brother and sister Alex and Marion for dinner but end up clashing with their hosts over their different views. And when a destructive storm ruins their dinner plans they go out to a restaurant where they meet strange owner (Fulton MacKay) and his employee, As the foursome continue to argue the tension rises and the night takes a bloody turn for the worst.Short but powerful British giallo-cum-political satire.
- DirectorGerry O'HaraStarsFrancesca AnnisAnneke WillsTony TannerA beautiful young girl arrives in London to pursue a modeling career, and finds herself caught up in the whole "swinging '60s" scene.Mediocre tale with some nice-looking black and white photography, Ian McShane and Klaus Kinski. One of the very few BFI Flipside exploitation releases that has an even vaguely sensible moral compass.
- DirectorLindsay ShonteffStarsMaggie StrideGay SingletonGilbert WynneSuzy arrives in London with nowhere to stay and meets Fiona, a groupie who has settled into a relationship with Lee, a singer/bassist in a rock band.Spectacularly grubby groupie movie with actual band Forever More (had they read the script?). Its unmoved depiction of nihilism is preferable to the tedious moralising in some releases lower down the list, if not actually much fun.
- DirectorGerry O'HaraStarsTom BellJudy CarneEdward HigginsA married theatre lighting technician with two small children has an affair with a teenage actress.Kitchen sink drama; feels like an extended Play For Today and is probably a bit exploitative, but also quite charming and Tom Bell is always worth watching.
- DirectorJames HillStarsShirley Anne FieldRobert StephensKay WalshThe relationship and possible affair between a young designer and a married executive plays out over a series of lunch hours.Rum chamber piece that screams stage, the second half of which is essentially one long unfunny joke. But see it for the always delicious Robert Stephens and an almost unbelievably luminous Shirley Anne Field.
- DirectorDavid GladwellStarsRoger BurroughesThe idyllic, rural past of a Suffolk village comes to life through the memories of an old man who tends a country graveyard, in this extraordinary film directed by David Gladwell. Although best known for his celebrated work as editor on Lindsay Anderson's If. - and O Lucky Man!, Gladwell has, until now, rarely been recognised as the director of a number of ground-breaking films. This title is also available on DVD / Blu-ray in the BFI's Flipside collection.Overrated pastoral fantasia with some interesting imagery but a fairly objectionable worldview.
- DirectorJohn KrishStarsAnthony Farrar-HockleyWilfrid BrambellRay BrooksDocudrama, made for Military Intelligence, about what it was like to be a British prisoner of the North Koreans in the 1950-1953 war.British Army training film of largely historical interest only, although the acting is worth catching.
- DirectorAndy MilliganStarsJulie ShawBerwick KalerElaine ShoreWhile living rough on the streets of London's East End, a young man, Dink encounters the mysterious Dee and they begin a relationship. When tenderness gives way to cruelty they become consumed by darkness.Stagey but affecting British New Wave drama, unbelievably directed by Andy Milligan, the 1970s Ed Wood.
- DirectorNorman J. WarrenStarsLucia ModugnoTerence SkeltonDaniel OllierA young Italian girl comes to London and is tricked into posing nude for risqué magazines.Tame exploitation drama (unless you find shoulder blades very arousing) with good acting but a lousy script.
- DirectorPete WalkerStarsMichael LatimerLuan PetersDerek AylwardA mercenary joins forces with 2 crooked cops in an attempt to steal a fortune in gold bullion from a corrupt Arab country.Mod-gangster-thriller sounds amazing but is unfortunately a bit rubbish; directed by Pete Walker but does not include any elderly judges being chastised.
- DirectorGerry O'HaraStarsMargaret Rose KeilLinda MarloweDavid WestonLondon is in full '60s swing in "That Kind of Girl," a shamelessly entertaining exploitation film that revels in sexual titillation while moralizing about the dangers of STDs.STD public information film pretending to drama for which very little can be said.
- DirectorRichard LesterStarsRita TushinghamRalph RichardsonPeter CookIn post-nuclear-holocaust England, a handful of bizarre characters struggles on with their lives in the ruins, among endless heaps of ash, piles of broken crockery and brick, muddy plains, and heaps of dentures and old boots. Patriotically singing "God Save Mrs. Ethel Shroake, Long Live Mrs. Ethel Shroake", they wander through this surrealistic landscape, forever being warned by the police to "keep moving", and prone to the occasional mutation into a parrot, cupboard, or even--yes, a bed-sitting room with "No Wogs" scrawled in the grime on its windows. In particular, this story revolves around the odd "love story" of a girl who lives with her parents in one compartment of a London Underground train, the commuter in the next compartment, and the doctor they meet after returning above ground in search of a nurse for the heavily-pregnant girl.One joke carried to excruciating length.
- DirectorClive DonnerStarsBarry EvansJudy GeesonAngela ScoularA high-school dropout, obsessed with sex, is determined to lose his virginity.Absolute trash, filmed in the resolutely unswinging Stevenage, and a horrible precursor of 70s British Confessions cinema.
- DirectorJoseph DespinsWilliam DumaresqStarsKit GleaveErna MayWilliam DumaresqAn intense and bizarre study of obsession that is by turns lyrical and disconcerting, Duffer tells the deranged story of a teenage boy torn between the womanly charms of a kindly prostitute, and the relentless, sadistic attentions of an older man.Art film made for two bob, unwatchable except for Thames Embankment enthusiasts.
- DirectorMichael SarneStarsGeneviève WaïteChristian DoermerCalvin LockhartA provincial girl is entangled in the mod morality of London.Dismal rubbish from Mike Sarne, warming up for the even more dismal rubbish to come.