Julie Christie Screen Icons (DVD)

The divine Julie Christie brings her glamorous presence to this superb box set containing 5 of her finest films. Billy Liar (1963): Scripted by Keith Waterhouse from his own novel, Billy Liar is a warm and sensitive work from John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) that undoubtedly remains one of the finest British films of the 60s. Oozing a blend of immaturity, intelligence and good intent, Tom Courtenay (Last Orders) delivers a star-making turn as William Terrence Fisher, an undertaker's assistant in a drab Northern town who escapes his humdrum existence by escaping, Walter-Mitty-like into a world of fantasy. Fisher's parents despair of his antics, but could Liz (an early, charismatic turn from Julie Christie), with her dreams of a life in London offer hope of genuine excitement and escape? Gently subversive, the film marries visual and verbal wit and a genuine capacity to entertain with a rather poignant rumination on the futility of dreams. Darling (1965): Julie Christie plays Diana Scott, a beautiful and charming model, who enjoys the new freedoms of 1960's Swinging London society more than most. Alongside her goodtime girl attitude lays a propensity to discard people and relationships as soon as she gets bored and as frequently as she might the latest fashion, for example. Abandoning her young, immature husband, she runs off with the older, more sophisticated Robert (Dirk Bogarde) who in turn has left his wife and family so they can set up house together. It isn't long before Diana is restless again, but this time has she got herself into a situation that she may not be able to so easily escape from? Far From The Madding Crowd (1967): Based on the novel by Thomas Hardy, Far From The Madding Crowd was the third film (after Billy Liar and Darling) that paired Julie Christie and director John Schlesinger, and sees Christie as Bathsheba, a headstrong young woman living in Dorset in late rural Victorian times who finds herself being courted by three very different suitors: dashing soldier Sgt Troy (Terence Stamp), stuffy landowner Willian Boldwood (Peter Finch) and poor farmer Gabriel Oaks (Alan Bates). The Go-Between (1970): Christie stars as Marian, sister to Marcus and about to be engaged to Hugh (Edward Fox), a good-natured Viscount and her perfect match. During the course of Summer, 1900, 13-year-old Leo comes to stay at the Norfolk stately home of his classmate Marcus, and is soon befriended by Marian. Initially ignorant of the implications, Leo agrees to carry messages between Marian and her neighbour, the eminently unsuitable local farmer Ted Burgess (Alan Bates). As the oppressive heat intensifies, so do Leo's questions about the laws of attraction and love - and as his childhood innocence is threatened, so is the fragile web of relationships so recently forged over the course of this summer's passions, deceptions and revelations...