The Best British New Wave Films
“What are the best British New Wave movies?” We looked at 43 of the top British New Wave films, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 23 films, all appearing on 2 or more “Best British New Wave” movie lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 20 movies, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
Top 23 British New Wave Movies
23 .) Alfie (1966) directed by Lewis Gilbert
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- IMDB
The film tells the story of a young man who leads a promiscuous lifestyle until several life reversals make him rethink his purposes and goals in life.
22 .) Georgy Girl (1966) directed by Silvio Narizzano
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- IMDB
Georgy has resigned herself to being one of life’s accidents. She disapproves somewhat of her father’s butlering James Leamington. She’s tall, plump, sloppy and wistfully envious of what she conceives to be the life led by her beautiful, but icy roommate. Where her roommate, Meredith, is cool and calculating, Georgy gets so involved with the people around her she behaves like an affectionate puppy. Most of all she burns to be a mother. But it is Meredith that is in the hospital having an unwanted child.
21 .) Séance on a Wet Afternoon directed by Bryan Forbes
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- Flickchart
Bill Savage is struggling to maintain his marriage to his increasingly unbalanced wife, Myra, who believes she is a medium. She plans a scheme that will make her famous, involving kidnapping then “psychically” locating a little girl.
20 .) The Innocents (1961) directed by Jack Clayton
Lists It Appears On:
- Flickchart
- IMDB
A young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.
19 .) The Leather Boys (1964) directed by Sidney J. Furie
Lists It Appears On:
- I Am Hist
- IMDB
The Leather Boys is a 1964 British drama film about the rocker subculture in London featuring a gay motorcyclist. This film is notable as an early example of a film that violated the Hollywood production code, yet was still shown in the United States, as well as an important film in the genre of queer cinema. An example of British kitchen sink realism, it was considered daring in 1964 as it touched upon homosexuality, however obliquely.
18 .) The Pumpkin Eater (1964) directed by Jack Clayton
Lists It Appears On:
- Flickchart
- IMDB
The study of a marriage. Jo has five children and husband number two when she meets writer Jake Armitage. She leaves this husband to marry Jake, and his career takes off. A few years and at least one child later, Jo is deeply depressed, breaking down in the middle of Harrods. After psychiatric care and the prospect of a new house in the country, she gets better; then, she is pregnant again, and this time Jake objects. Jo consents to an abortion and sterilization in the belief it will make her marriage happy again, but afterwards she learns ugly truths about Jake.
17 .) A Hard Day’s Night (1964) directed by Richard Lester
Lists It Appears On:
- Filmstruck
- Flickchart
- IMDB
Capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their electrifying element, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ is a wildly irreverent journey through this pastiche of a day in the life of The Beatles during 1964. The band have to use all their guile and wit to avoid the pursuing fans and press to reach their scheduled television performance, in spite of Paul’s troublemaking grandfather and Ringo’s arrest.
16 .) Darling (1965) directed by John Schlesinger
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- Flickchart
- IMDB
A beautiful but amoral model sleeps her way to the top of the London fashion scene at the height of the Swinging Sixties.
15 .) If… directed by Lindsay Anderson
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- IMDB
- Taste Of Cinema
Satire about a traditional English boys’ boarding school, where social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects in the Upper Sixth. But three Lower Sixth students, leader Mick Travis, Wallace and Johnny decide on a shocking course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and for all.
14 .) Kes (1969) directed by Ken Loach
Lists It Appears On:
- Flickchart
- IMDB
- Taste Of Cinema
A young, English working-class boy spends his free time caring for and training his pet falcon.
13 .) The Servant (1963) directed by Joseph Losey
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- Flickchart
- IMDB
A decadent London aristocrat hires a man-servant to attend to his needs. However, the balance of power starts to shift…
12 .) Tom Jones (1963) directed by Tony Richardson
Lists It Appears On:
- Filmstruck
- Flickchart
- IMDB
Tom loves Sophie and Sophie loves Tom. But Tom and Sophie are of differering classes. Can they find a way through the mayhem to be true to love?
11 .) A Kind of Loving (1962) directed by John Schlesinger
Lists It Appears On:
- British 60s Cinema
- Flickchart
- IMDB
- Revolvy
After his girlfriend’s pregnancy forces him to marry her, a young man must adjust to his new life and contend with his domineering mother-in-law.
10 .) The Entertainer (1960) directed by Tony Richardson
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- Flickchart
- IMDB
- Revolvy
Archie Rice, an old-time British vaudeville performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business.
9 .) The Knack…And How To Get It directed by Richard Lester
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- Filmstruck
- Flickchart
- IMDB
In England, the times are a changing: it’s mods and rockers. On the day Nancy gets off the London train, cases in hand, looking for the YWCA, Colin has had enough of missing out on the sexual revolution. He begs his smooth (and misogynistic) pal Tolen to teach him ‘the knack’ – how to score with women. Serendipitously, Colin and his new lodger Tom meet up with Nancy while Colin’s buying a bed larger than Tolen’s. The three hit it off, but their simple fun ends when Tolen meets Nancy. Colin is jealous but impotent, and Tolen both attracts and repels her. She swoons, wonders what happened, and cries ‘rape.’ Impish serendipity rubs against unsettling ambiguity.
8 .) The L-Shaped Room (1962) directed by Bryan Forbes
Lists It Appears On:
- Flickchart
- IMDB
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
Leslie Caron plays a young, pregnant, unmarried Frenchwoman who takes a room in a seedy boarding house in London. She soon makes friends with Toby, a struggling writer who lives downstairs, and eventually gets to accept her room and the strange characters in the house. But what to do about her baby? And what to do about Toby?
7 .) Billy Liar (1963) directed by John Schlesinger
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- Flickchart
- IMDB
- Revolvy
- Screen Online
- Taste Of Cinema
- Way Too Indie
A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker’s assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.
6 .) Look Back in Anger (1959) directed by Tony Richardson
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- Filmstruck
- Flickchart
- IMDB
- Revolvy
- Screen Online
- Taste Of Cinema
A disillusioned, angry university graduate comes to terms with his grudge against middle-class life and values.
5 .) A Taste of Honey (1961) directed by Tony Richardson
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- British 60s Cinema
- Filmstruck
- Flickchart
- IMDB
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
- Way Too Indie
Focuses on a working class girl who is struggling to create a life for herself with her gay co-worker after becoming pregnant from a one-night stand with a black sailor.
4 .) Room at the Top (1959) directed by Jack Clayton
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- British 60s Cinema
- Curn Blog
- Filmstruck
- Flickchart
- IMDB
- Revolvy
- Screen Online
- Taste Of Cinema
In late 1940s Yorkshire, England, ambitious young man Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey), who has just moved from the dreary factory town of Dufton, arrives in Warnley, to assume a secure, but poorly-paid, post in the Borough Treasurer’s Department. Determined to succeed, and ignoring the warnings of a colleague, Soames (Donald Houston), he is drawn to Susan Brown (Heather Sears), daughter of the local industrial magnate, Mr. Brown (Donald Wolfit). He deals with Joe’s social climbing by sending Susan abroad; Joe turns for solace to Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret), an unhappily married older woman who falls in love with him.
3 .) The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) directed by Tony Richardson
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- British 60s Cinema
- Curn Blog
- Filmstruck
- Flickchart
- IMDB
- Revolvy
- Taste Of Cinema
- Way Too Indie
A rebellious youth, sentenced to a boy’s reformatory for robbing a bakery, rises through the ranks of the institution through his prowess as a long distance runner. During his solitary runs, reveries of his life and times before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his privileged status as the Governor’s prize runner.
2 .) Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) directed by Karel Reisz
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- British 60s Cinema
- Curn Blog
- Filmstruck
- Flickchart
- IMDB
- Revolvy
- Screen Online
- Taste Of Cinema
- Way Too Indie
A 22-year-old factory worker lets loose on the weekends: drinking, brawling, and dating two women, one of whom is older and married.
1 .) This Sporting Life (1963) directed by Lindsay Anderson
Lists It Appears On:
- Bampfa
- British 60s Cinema
- Curn Blog
- Filmstruck
- Flickchart
- IMDB
- Revolvy
- Screen Online
- Taste Of Cinema
- Way Too Indie
In Northern England in the early 1960s, Frank Machin is mean, tough and ambitious enough to become an immediate star in the rugby league team run by local employer Weaver.
The 20 Additional Best British New-Wave Movies
| # | Movies | Directors | Lists |
| 24 | Bedazzled | Bampfa | |
| 25 | Girl with Green Eyes (1964) | Desmond Davis | IMDB |
| 26 | Hell Is a City (1960) | Val Guest | IMDB |
| 27 | Kind of Loving, A (1962) |
Screen Online
|
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| 28 | L-Shaped Room, The (1962) |
Screen Online
|
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| 29 |
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, The (1962)
|
Screen Online
|
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| 30 | O Lucky Man! (1973) | Lindsay Anderson | IMDB |
| 31 | Poor Cow (1967) | Ken Loach | IMDB |
| 32 | Quadrophenia (1979) | Franc Roddam | IMDB |
| 33 | Spring and Port Wine (1970) | Peter Hammond | IMDB |
| 34 | Taste of Honey, A (1961) |
Screen Online
|
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| 35 | That Kind of Girl | I Am Hist | |
| 36 | That’ll Be the Day (1973) | Claude Whatham | IMDB |
| 37 | The Angry Silence | Flickchart | |
| 38 | The Family Way | I Am Hist | |
| 39 | The Little Ones | I Am Hist | |
| 40 | This is My Street | I Am Hist | |
| 41 |
Three Short Films by Lindsay Anderson (Free Screening!)
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Bampfa | |
| 42 | Up the Junction (1968) | Peter Collinson | IMDB |
| 43 | Woman In A Dressing Gown (1957) | Curn Blog |
11 Best British New Wave Film Sources/Lists
| Source | Article |
| Bampfa | Look Back at England: The British New Wave |
| British 60s Cinema | British 60s cinema |
| Curn Blog | The British New Wave: 5 Movies About Gritty Brits |
| Filmstruck | Angry Cinema: The British New Wave |
| Flickchart | The Best British New Wave Movies of All Time |
| I Am Hist | British New Wave Film | |
| IMDB | British New Wave/ Kitchen Sink Realism |
| Revolvy | British New Wave |
| Screen Online | BFI Screenonline: British New Wave |
| Taste Of Cinema | 10 Essential Films For An Introduction To The British New Wave |
| Way Too Indie | 5 Essential British New Wave Movies Features |
