I'm holding out for an Olivier anyway

Some interesting stuff in today’s Observer, notably Mark Kermode’s take on the latest British offerings to make it into the Oscar nominations. And I thought I’d take up his challenge to identify my five top British films and check how many Oscars they got between them.

More difficult than it sounds in that I’m never entirely sure what constitutes a British film: Is it the cast? The director? The funding? Where it was set or filmed? Does Batman Begins count as a British film, given that it has a largely British cast and crew, and was largely filmed in London but has American money behind it?

Anyway, I’m listing the top five that my first instincts tell me are British, and feel free to disagree or rip my assumptions to shred. Incidentally, I'm not putting these in order of preference; that will vary depending on my mood at any given moment...

1 - Perhaps predicatably, given what I said above, I'm plumping for Batman Begins. 1 Oscar nomination.

2 - The Devils, directed by Ken Russell.

3 - The Italian Job, directed by Peter Collinson.

4 - The Three Musketeers, directed by Richard Lester.

5 - Alfie, directed by Lewis Gilbert. 5 Oscar nominations.

And just in case there's a rush of people who take issue with Batman's validity, I have to include Nuns on the Run, directed by Jonothan Lynn.

Actually in the course of putting this blog up I've run accross a number of others that probably deserve to be here, some by Hammer, some by the Pythons, but I'll await any contributions from the blog world. But check out the list above: Mark's right, if you want Oscars you're probably better off being stereo-tpyical than gritty or funny.