Billy Liar (DVD)

From John Schlesinger, the acclaimed director of Darling, Midnight Cowboy, Sunday Bloody Sunday, The Day of the Locust, Marathon Man and The Falcon and the Snowman, comes this British New Wave comedy-drama starring Tom Courtenay (The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, The Dresser) and Julie Christie (Doctor Zhivago, Fahrenheit 451). Courtenay gives a flawlessly nuanced performance as Billy Fisher, the underachieving undertaker’s assistant whose constant daydreams and truth-deficient stories earn him the nickname “Billy Liar.” Julie Christie is the handbag-swinging charmer whose free spirit just might inspire Billy to finally move out of his parents’ house. Deftly veering from gritty realism to flamboyant fantasy, Billy Liar is a dazzling and uproarious classic, beautifully shot in black-and-white CinemaScope by Denys N. Coop (The Mind Benders, Rosebud).