Edgar Wright shares Martin Scorsese’s list of the 50 best British films

It comes after the 'Baby Driver' director wrote the legendary filmmaker a note thanking him for his services to cinema

Edgar Wright has shared a list of the 50 best British films, compiled by Martin Scorsese.

Speaking during a recent three-hour special of the Empire podcast, Wright, who co-presented the episode with Quentin Tarantino, revealed that he has a master list of films he hasn’t seen yet.

Wright’s list was started based on a list that Scorsese gave to a fan several years ago, detailing his favourite international films, because the fan wanted to get into world cinema.

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Wright, responsible for films like Shaun Of The Dead, Baby Driver and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, said he sent the legendary director a thank you note for all he’s done for cinema over the years.

“I think Martin Scorsese writes and talks about British film, better than most British filmmakers and critics,” Wright said, “and sometimes, you need someone like Scorsese, to tell their own country what’s great.”

At the bottom of the note, Wright wrote: “By the way, what are your favourite British films when you were growing up? You spoke a lot about Powell & Pressburger, Hitchcock, and David Lean, what are some other ones?”

Scorsese replied with a massive list that his assistant emailed it to Wright. “Martin Scorsese assumes I know the famous Hammer [films] and assumes I know the Ealing [Studios] comedies,” Wright joked after receiving the list.

See Martin Scorses’s list of ‘British Cinema You Need To See (Before You Die)’ below:

Station Six Sahara (1963) – dir. Seth Holt
Brief Ecstasy (1937) – dir. Edmond Gréville (also known as Dangerous Secrets in the US)
The Halfway House (1944) – dir. Basil Dearden
Went the Day Well? (1942) – dir. Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti
Nowhere To Go (1958) – dir. Seth Holt
The Nanny (1965) – dir. Seth Holt

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Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) – dir. Arthur Crabtree
The Man in Grey (1943) – dir. Leslie Arliss
So Long at the Fair (1950) – dir. Terence Fisher (known as The Black Curse in the US sometimes)
Stolen Face (1952) – dir. Terence Fisher
Four Sided Triangle (1953) – dir. Terence Fisher
The Sound Barrier (1952) – dir. David Lean
This Happy Breed (1944) – dir. David Lean
Guns at Batasi (1964) – dir. John Guillermin
Green for Danger (1946) – dir. Sidney Gilliat
The Mind Benders (1963) – dir. Basil Dearden
To the Public Danger (1948) – dir. Terence Fisher
It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) – dir. Robert Hamer

 

A High Wind in Jamaica (1965) – dir. Alexander Mackendrick
The Queen of Spades (1949) – dir. Thorold Dickinson
Hue and Cry (1947) – dir. Charles Crichton
Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945) – dir. Robert Hamer
The Blue Lamp (1950) – dir. Basil Dearden.
The Good Die Young (1954) – dir. Lewis Gilbert
Mandy (1952) – dir. Alexander Mackendrick
Vampyres (1974) – José Ramón Larraz
Uncle Silas (1947) – (known as The Inheritance in the US)
The Legend of Hell House (1973) – John Hough
Burn, Witch, Burn (1962) – Sidney Hayers (Night of the Eagle, UK title)
Flesh of the Fiends (1969) – dir. John Gilling
The Snorkel (1957) – dir. Guy Green
Scream of Fear (1960) – dir. Seth Holt (Taste of Fear, UK title)
These Are The Damned (1963) – dir. Joseph Losey
Plague Of The Zombies (1966) – dir. John Gilling
Quatermass and the Pit (1967) – dir. Roy Ward Baker
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde – dir. Roy Ward Baker

The Devil Rides Out (1968) dir. – Terence Fisher
The Asphyx (1972) – dir. Peter Newbrook
Underground (1928) – dir. Anthony Asquith
Shooting Stars (1927) – dir. Anthony Asquith
Sapphire (1959)- dir. Basil Dearden.
Whistle And I’ll Come To You (1968) dir. – Jonathan Miller
Dead of Night (1945) – dir. Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Robert Hamer, Basil Dearden (anthology film)
The Enfield Haunting (2015) dir. – Kristoffer Nyholm
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987) – dir. Jack Clayton
The Pumpkin Eater (1964) – dir. Jack Clayton
The Innocents (1961) – dir. Jack Clayton
The Seventh Veil (1945) dir. – Compton Bennett
Yield To The Night (1956) dir. – J. Lee Thompson

Meanwhile, Tilda Swinton is set to star in a Martin Scorsese-produced ghost story called The Eternal Daughter.

According to Deadline, the film, which was shot in secret in Wales during lockdown, is a “mystery drama” and will follow the story of “a middle-aged daughter and her elderly mother who must confront long-buried secrets when they return to their former family home.”

The home is described as being “a once-grand manor that has become a nearly vacant hotel brimming with mystery.”

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