INTERACTION

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/ ... s-25-years

Mostly, it's a list of very boring stuff...

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Pigasus Press | VideoVista | The ZONE

There are six of the twenty-five I haven't seen (though three of those are in an embarrassingly large to-be-watched DVD pile).

I know you're not a Mike Leigh fan, Tony, so I don't expect you to agree that Secrets & Lies and Naked should definitely both be there.

I'd put Brazil in there (it just qualifies, being a 1984 release). It's as much a British film as The English Patient, which looks stunning but left me completely cold.

I'm also delighted to see Hope and Glory in there - one of John Boorman's most entertaining films and one that seems to have been neglected of late.

Putting two Shane Meadows films in is overdoing it, though I'd certainly include one of them (This Is England or Dead Man's Shoes). Also, there are so many Michael Winterbottom films that coming up with just one is difficult - I'd have gone for Wonderland, but I'm fine with 24 Hour Party People being on the list.

I also don't disagree with Four Weddings being on there - one of the biggest box office successes of the period and the best film Richard Curtis has been involved with. He's gone on record as giving Mike Newell a lot of credit for taking what was on paper a series of sketches and making it look like a film. It's a pity that Curtis thinks he can direct now - on the evidence of Love, Actually and The Boat That Rocked he can't.

Yes, it's bloody criminal to have overlooked that!


Hope and Glory - not sure about that one, as I've only seen it once... and liked bits of it, but wasn't very impressed, overall.

Four Weddings... (argh, puke-worthy bad, if you ask me)... If we must have a rom-com let's have the goofy Shooting Fish, please.

Oh, and Trainspotting... I'd swap that for Shopping (a lot more fun!).

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Pigasus Press | VideoVista | The ZONE

The worst one on the list that I've seen is Sexy Beast - didn't do anything for me at all. If you've got to have a Brit gangster film, Face was far better, IMO. I was a bit nonplussed by Nil by Mouth too.

I like Mike Leigh's work on the whole, but I didn't think Naked was as good as people made out. Secrets and Lies was much better, one of my favourite films.

24 hour party people was fun (and superb music of course), but I found Coogan's Tony Wilson far too close to Alan Partridge to be credible.

Nice to see Touching the Void in there - I thought this was superb.

Withnail & I - Great! I never tire of it.

There must be some good films missing from the list. Mona Lisa is one that springs to mind. Dance with a Stranger? Not much art-house in here, is there? No Derek Jarman, no Peter Greenaway.

I'm not sure if Merchant-Ivory films count as British or not, but if so you'd expect to see them in with a shout - A Room with a View, Howard's End (which would be my pick), Remains of the Day.

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