The 50 British Movies You Must See Before You Die, According To Martin Scorsese

The director of Taxi Driver sent Edgar Wright a list of UK movies everyone should see.

Martin Scorsese directed his first film in 1967 and has over 69 credits as a director and 79 as a producer, has earned 14 Oscar nominations and has a win for best director, and has worked with some of the best actors in Hollywood , so we can rest assured that he is an expert when he talks about movies and that among his favorites are undoubtedly a few gems that every movie fan should see at some point in their life.

And the great Martin Scorsese (who premiered a very good documentary on Netflix with Fran Lebowitz where they poetize about New York) is not selfish when it comes to sharing great movies. In fact, it was director Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Scott Pilgrim, Shaunof the Dead) who told Quentin Tarantino during a panel discussion that the director of Taxi Driver and Goodfellas once sent him a list mentioning the British films that for him are the best and that you have to see in order to die in peace.

Scorsese’s recommendations include movies from the 1940s to the 1960s, ranging from horror to drama to a bit of comedy. Among the highlights Scorsese mentions horror classics such as The Legend of Hell’s House, The Mind Benders and The Taste of Fear (Scream of Fear), in addition to films that have already passed into oblivion such as Stolen Face, Green is danger and Whistle And I’ll Come To You , of course, there are many more recent films missing from the list, but it is a good starting point to begin to appreciate British cinema and learn a little more about its history.

What is certain is that Martin Scorsese clearly does not recommend bad films and it seems that Edgar Wright had a very good time watching these films, so you can start a marathon (which will probably last more than a day) with the peace of mind that you’re not going to end up bored.

And to complement Scorsese’s list with more recent productions, here we recommend 5 movies that you definitely need to have on your to-do list:

20 Days Later, 2002

Director: Danny Boyle

Boyle directed one of the best zombie movies of the modern era. This one stars Cillian Murphy , who plays a man who wakes up in the hospital, after a coma, to discover that the world is destroyed and that there are bloodthirsty undead chasing the survivors.

Trainspotting, 1996

Director: Danny Boyle

Ewan McGregor stars in this classic that tells the story of Renton, a man immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene who tries to clean up and go out, while his friends and temptations motivate him to stay.

Ratcatcher, 1999

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Ramsey’s first film as a director is a dramatic and poetic story that follows a boy wandering the streets of Glasgow in the 1970s, exploring the effects and consequences of poverty on young people at the time.

Hunger, 2008

Director: Steve McQueen

Michael Fassbender stars in this film that tells the story of Irish Republican Bobby Sands, who leads inmates in a Northern Ireland prison on a hunger strike to protest against ill-treatment. The film won the Camera d’Or award at Cannes.

Wonderland, 1999

Director: Michael Winterbottom

This film tells the stories of Bill, Eileen, and their three daughters, all with complicated lives. Nadia is a waitress at a cafe and places ads looking for love, Debbie is a dedicated single mother who uses her hair salon to have sex for money, Molly is expecting her first baby and the father does not know how to deal with responsibilities, Eileen is bitter and lives complaining about everything, and none of them know how to survive in the world.

The 50 British movies you can’t miss, according to Martin Scorsese
1. Station Six-Sahara (Seth Holt, 1963)

2. fleeting Ecstasy (Edmond Gréville, 1937)

3 The Halfway House (Basil Dearden, 1944)

4 Went the Day Well? (Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti, 1942)

5 Nowhere To Go (Seth Holt, 1958)

6 At the mercy of hatred (Seth Holt, 1965)

7 The Madonna of the Seven Moons (Arthur Crabtree, 1945)

8 Perfidy (Leslie Arliss, 1943)

9 Strange Happening (Terence Fisher, 1950)

10 Stolen Face (Terence Fisher, 1952)

11 elevenFour Sided Triangle (Terence Fisher, 1953)

12 The Sound Barrier (David Lean, 1952)

13 Life rules (David Lean, 1944)

14 Cannons at Batasi (John Guillermin, 1964)

fifteen Green is the danger (Sidney Gilliat, 1946)

16 The Mind Benders (Basil Dearden, 1963)

17 To the Public Danger (Terence Fisher, 1948)

18 It always rains on Sunday (Robert Hamer, 1947)

19 Wind in the Sails (Alexander Mackendrick, 1965)

twenty The Queen of Spades (Thorold Dickinson, 1949)

21 Cry of outrage (Charles Crichton, 1947)

22 Pink String and Sealing Wax (Robert Hamer, 1945)

23 The Blue Lighthouse (Basil Dearden, 1950)

24 The Good Die Young (Lewis Gilbert, 1954)

25 Mandy (Alexander Mackendrick, 1952)

26 The daughters of Dracula (José Ramón Larraz, 1974)

27 Uncle Silas (Charles Frank, 1947)

28 The Legend of Hell’s House (John Hough, 1973)

29 Burn, Witch, Burn (Sidney Hayers, 1962)

30 Flesh of the Fiends (John Gilling, 1969)

31 The Underwater Mask (Guy Green, 1957)

32 The Taste of Fear (Seth Holt, 1960)

33 These are the damned (Joseph Losey, 1963)

34 The Curse of the Zombies (John Gilling, 1966)

35 What happened then? (Roy Ward Baker, 1967)

36 Dr. Jekyll and his sister Hyde (Roy Ward Baker, 1971)

37 The Devil’s Bride (The Battle of Satan) (Terence Fisher, 1968)

38 Choking (Peter Newbrook, 1972)

39 Underground (Anthony Asquith, 1928)

40 Shooting Stars (Anthony Asquith, 1927)

41 Crime at Sunset (Basil Dearden, 1959)

42 Whistle And I’ll Come To You (Jonathan Miller, 1968)

43 When the night died (anthology, 1945)

44 The Enfield case (Kristoffer Nyholm, 2015)

45 The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (Jack Clayton, 1987)

46 I’m always alone (Jack Clayton, 1964)

47 Suspense (Jack Clayton, 1961)

48 The Seventh Veil (Compton Bennett, 1945)

49 Yield To The Night (J. Lee Thompson, 1956)