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Vera Drake (2004)
The Film: Imelda Staunton stars as Vera – a working-class London mum in the ’50s who cleans houses, looks after her family and performs illegal abortions. When the police find out what she’s doing, she ends up in court and her whole world gets ripped apart. Wrenching to watch, but lifted by Staunton’s incredible performance, director Mike Leigh fills the screen with heart and soul.
The Best Brit Bit: Rosy-cheeked, big-hearted Vera is one of British cinema’s most loveable characters – making her final breakdown all the more difficult to watch. Surrounded by her family as the judge forces her into the stand, Staunton’s gut-wrenching defense is a staggeringly emotional tour de force.
Why It Couldn’t Be Made Anywhere Else : It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Mike Leigh, who grew up the son of a midwife, making a film this personal.
Saturday Night And Sunday Morning (1960)
The Film: The seminal film of the British New Wave, Karel Reisz’ vital, angry, kitchen-sinker follows 24-hours in the life of a Nottingham factory worker (Albert Finney, in his breakthrough role). Hating his job, his house, his girlfriend and his whole life, Finney trudges from the lathe to the pub – juggling an affair with another woman along the way, just for the hell of it.
The Best Brit Bit: Waking up in a haze, Finney stares blankly out of the window whilst a voice-over narration speaks the immortal line of the film and the generation (not to mention the Arctic Monkeys’ first album): “Whatever people say that I am, that’s what I’m not”.
Why It Couldn’t Be Made Anywhere Else: Take the angry young men out of England and they might not have been so angry…
Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975)
The Film: King Arthur and his noble Knights of the Round Table embark on a quest to find the cup of Christ. Along the way they get insulted by a couple of Frenchman, sneak into a castle inside a Trojan rabbit, build a shrubbery for the Knights Who Say Ni and fend off the legendary Black Beast Of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh.
The Best Brit Bit: No one gets past the Black Knight. Except King Arthur, of course, who bests him in cinema’s greatest swordfight – hacking off one arm (“it’s only a flesh wound!”) then another (“right, I’ll do you for that!”), his left leg (“Come on you pansy!”) and his right (“all right, we’ll call it a draw.”).
Why It Couldn’t Be Made Anywhere Else: Americans call it Monty Pie-thon.
Sexy Beast (2000)
The Film: By the time Jonathan Glazer made his debut, British cinema was already drowning in rubbish gangster films trying to be the next Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. Taking a sideways look at the genre, Glazer takes a generic story (a cockney crook retires to Spain before his psycho ex boss drags him back to London for “one last job”) and turns it into something else – a savage, funny, sparkling two-hander between Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley on explosive form.
The Best Brit Bit: It’s impossible to take your eyes off of Ben Kingsley's Rottweiler mob boss whenever he’s on screen – especially after his first deranged, barking outburst (now the stuff of meme legend): “NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!”
Why It Couldn’t Be Made Anywhere Else: Who else but Gandhi to play cinema’s most aggressive hard-arse?
Shaun Of The Dead (2004)
The Film: The first part of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy, the zombie genre takes a cricket bat to the head – and the zom-com is born. Shaun and Ed (Pegg and Frost) are a couple of slackers who fend off the zombie apocalypse by hiding out in their local pub.
The Best Brit Bit: With a drooling zombie getting dangerously close, Shaun and Ed frantically look around the room for anything to throw at it. Finding their record collection, they quickly sort out the LPs worth smashing to try and save their lives:
“Stone Roses?”
“No.”
“Second Coming?”
“I like it…”
“The Batman soundtrack?”
“Throw it!”
Why It Couldn’t Be Made Anywhere Else: Where else but a British pub would you find a handy set of darts to defend yourself from a zombie?
Tyrannosaur (2011)
The Film: Joe (Peter Mullan) is a hard-drinking, volatile, violent widower. Hannah (Olivia Colman) is a shy, church-going charity shop worker. Coming together for one of cinema’s most unexpected and most exceptional love stories – its sweet heart toughened by a director Paddy Considine’s unflinching, deeply personal portrait of abuse on a Midland’s council estate.
The Best Brit Bit: We’ve already been introduced to Joe (beating a dog to death) when he stumbles into Hannah’s shop. The angry / tender first few moments between them – and Mullan and Colman’s extraordinary performances – suddenly twist the tone, setting Considine’s along the fine line between tragedy and hope.
Why It Couldn’t Be Made Anywhere Else: Although it’s not autobiographical, Considine’s directorial debut is based on his own experiences growing up in Burton upon Trent.
Dead Man's Shoes (2004)
The Film: A shell-shocked British soldier (Paddy Considine) returns to his home in the Midlands to exact revenge on the thugs who bullied his handicapped brother. Shane Meadows’ grisly masterpiece follows in the footsteps of Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs – meditating on the nature of violence, drilling into its character’s broken brains and absolutely refusing to pull its punches.
The Best Brit Bit: Often described as the British Taxi Driver – the differences are clearest in the poolroom scene. “Are you looking at me?”
Why It Couldn’t Be Made Anywhere Else: Scorsese has New York. Fellini has Rome. Shane Meadows has the Midlands.
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
The Film: Set against a backdrop of war and revolution, David Lean’s sweeping Russian romance is the very definition of a big screen epic. Omar Sharif stars as the lovelorn Doctor caught up in the events of the early twentieth century – separated from his wife (Julie Christie) by several cruel twists of fate.
The Best Brit Bit: Set to Maurice Jarre’s heart achingly beautiful love theme and framed by dazzling widescreen shots of the snowy steppes, the moment Zhivago (Sharif) has to send Lara (Christie) away after their first brief reunion is one of the most stirring moments in film history – a slice of pure cinematic magic.
Why It Couldn’t Be Made Anywhere Else: For one thing, it couldn’t have been made in Russia – The Soviet Union banned the film (and the book) for years.
Secrets And Lies (1996)
The Film: Mike Leigh’s finest film is his funniest and his most painful. A polaroid snap-shot of life behind the doors of a maybe not-so-ordinary British family: Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is struggling to look for her missing birth-mother; Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is struggling to stay afloat; and Maurice (Timothy Spall) is struggling with his nagging wife (Phyllis Logan).
The Best Brit Bit: Hortense meets up with Cynthia in an empty café for the film’s big reveal – with Blethyn’s dumbstruck/angry/emotional/loving reaction running the full gamut over a beautifully played long shot.
Why It Couldn’t Be Made Anywhere Else: Nothing warms up the emotions quite like a nice cup of tea.
Brighton Rock (1947)
The Film: Graham Greene’s salty crime classic makes for one of Britain’s finest film noirs. A young Richard Attenborough plays the baby-faced Brighton gangster who reluctantly befriends a lovestruck waitress (Carol Marsh) after she witnesses a murder.
The Best Brit Bit: With Rose (Marsh) absolutely smitten with Pinkie (Attenborough), she follows him onto the Brighton Pier and convinces him to record a secret love message for her in a novelty booth. When he gets inside, he smiles as he spits venom into the microphone – whilst she looks longingly through the glass partition. Chilling.
Why It Couldn’t Be Made Anywhere Else: Nothing warms up the emotions quite like a nice cup of tea.
