Summer Reading Challenge: Billy Liar

 John Schlesinger's 1963 film version of Billy Liar is a largely faithful adaptation of Keith Waterhouse's 1959 novel. The changes are minor, often done for the sake of condensing the narrative and adding moments that are alluded too in the novel but are filled out in the film. 

The major difference (spoilers!) is that in the novel Liz encourages Billy to go to London, but she herself is going to Doncaster.
The film does a wonderful job of capturing the atmosphere of the novel, the black and white cinematography perfectly highlights the bleakness of Billy's Yorkshire home, with its grim industrial town and its windswept moors.

Despite his incessant lying, Billy's fantasies and desire to escape from the mundanity of his life are  relatable, and the confusion his stories cause also create some rather humorous moments.

The youth of Billy and his friends, especially Liz, is contrasted by the overreaching hand of death that plays a subtle but prominent part in the story. Billy works at a funeral parlour, his fantasies about Ambrosia often involve wars, his Grandmother is ill, and passes away, even the songs sung at the pub are about dying. In contrast Billy plans peaceful futures with both Barbara and Liz, as all the while their Yorkshire home is being pulled down and modernised. The future is encroaching and Billy seems torn between longing for change and living in fear of it.

Both novel and film present Britain on the edge of this change. The free spirited 1960s are just around the corner. Julie Christie's portrayal of Liz in particular came to represent the 'it' girl of the moment, and Billy is like many young people of the time, torn between his desire for a more exciting life and his duties towards his family. The story also highlights an issue that would become more prominent as the decade went on-the generation gap. The continuous struggles, differences and alienation felt between the young towards their parents and vice versa. In a general sense the young embrace change but the older generation are resistant to it.
As the novel closes it is hard not to want Billy to make his escape, but realistically we know he has to sort out his problems. His final decision is sensible, if disappointing to our sense of adventure, though it is somehow heartening to know that he retains his vivid imagination.
Billy Liar is a humorous and poignant story, and I really recommend both novel and film.

"I had a feeling, one that I wanted to keep. It was a feeling of peace and melancholy" p. 93

"I was amazed and intrigued that they should all be content to be nobody but themselves" p. 112

"I wish it was something you could tear up and start again. Life I mean. You know like starting a new page in an exercise book." p. 144

"What I'd like is to be invisible...You know, to do everything without people knowing, and not having to worry about them, not having to explain all the time." p. 151

Julie Christie in Billy Liar

I recently watched Billy Liar, and whilst I loved the whole film, I was most taken with Julie Christie and the character she played, Liz.

Billy Liar was the film that made Christie and star, and despite her short amount of screen time, she is both captivating and important to the overall plot.

Liz is the first of the 1960s free spirits. Billy loves her but he also wants to be like her. The audience feels much the same, Liz is similar to Billy, but she is able to break away from her home something that Billy ultimately fails to do.

The scene in which Liz first appears is a breath of fresh air. The music becomes more upbeat as we watch her stroll through the streets, enjoying what she sees, her emotions perfectly expressed on her face.

Importantly Liz is completely different from Billy’s other girlfriends. Superficially her hair-do is more natural, more playful. She truly loves Billy because she understands him, she understands the need to escape, she accepts his dream world and she knows he is a liar. But she is able to bring the truth out of him, she is the only person Billy is able to be himself with. Even at the end when he doesn’t get on the train, Liz’s expression tells us that she knew-she expected that outcome, even if she is disappointed (perhaps because it has happened before-earlier we learn that Liz wanted Billy to go to France with her).

Free spirited Liz was one of the first of her kind in British cinema. She paved the way for young woman, showing them that they didn’t have to be miniature versions of their mothers. They could be young, girlish, and adventurous. Liz wants to marry Billy but she isn’t overly concerned if they don’t, she simply wants to live life, unlike Billy’s other girls, Barbara and Rita.

Here is Liz's first appearance in the film. I love Christies naturalness, especially the part when she's crossing the road.  

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/1330955/Billy-Liar-Movie-Clip-She-s-Been-All-Over.html