Biography for
Barry Norman (II) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

21 August 1933, London, England, UK

Birth Name

Barry Leslie Norman

Height

6' (1.83 m)

Spouse

Diana Narracott

(1957 - 27 January 2011) (her death) 2 children

Trivia

Son of director/producer Leslie Norman.

Awarded CBE for services to broadcasting.

One-time writer of "Flook" strip cartoon in 'The Daily Mail'.

The best known film critic in Britain for over 25 years until he was replaced by Jonathan Ross as host of the BBC series "Film '72" (1972).

He is a staunch supporter of the British monarchy over the possibility of a republican alternative. He once stated a reason for this was that he would have hated to have seen President Thatcher.

Cricket fan

Father of Samantha Norman and Emma Norman.

He was a supporter of the British Labour Party until the formation of the Social Democratic Party in 1981. The SDP later merged with the Liberal Party to become the Liberal Democrats.

His top ten films of all time are: Battleship Potemkin (1925), Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Rules of the Game (1939), Citizen Kane (1941), Rashomon (1950), Singin' in the Rain (1952), The Searchers (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), The Seventh Seal (1957) and Some Like It Hot (1959).

He considers They Came from Within (1975) to be the worst film he has ever seen.

His late wife Diana was an author of several historical thrillers. She wrote these novels using the pseudonym of Ariana Franklin.

He compiled a list of his "Top 100 films" for the "Radio Times" magazine in January of 2012 which quickly became notorious among film buffs for including only three films - "Shoah", "The Seven Samurai" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" - which were not either British or American. He entirely excluded any films directed by Jean Renoir, Charles Chaplin, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Sergei Eisenstein, D.W. Griffith, Michelangelo Antonioni, Yasujiro Ozu, Francois Truffaut, John Huston, Preston Sturges, Fritz Lang, Claude Chabrol, Alexander Mackendrick, Luis Bunuel, Vittorio De Sica, F.W. Murnau, Josef Von Sternberg, Nicolas Roeg, Jean-Luc Godard, Kenji Mizoguchi, Erich Von Stroheim or Alain Resnais.

When reviewing David Fincher's film "Se7en" on his TV program "Film '96", he singled out for high praise the acting of Kevin Pollak. Unfortunately, Kevin Pollak is not in this film - presumably Norman meant Kevin Spacey, who is. However, he did not correct or apologize for this mistake.

Personal Quotes

[speaking in 2004] I believe the best films today are as good as, and technically far better than, any that have gone before, but generally speaking it's no good looking to Hollywood for such films, because it does not want the new and daring but the tried and trusted - revamped versions of what has proved popular before and might therefore appeal to a current, younger audience that never saw the originals.

Schwarzenegger (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is not an actor, he's a human special effect.

It doesn't exactly glorify crime but it certainly romanticizes it. There are moments when you get the impression that were it not for their trifling oversight in omitting to distribute their ill-gotten gains among the deserving poor, the train robbers were just like Robin Hood and his Merry Men, and Buster and June emerge ever so sweet and touching, only a pair of tarnished innocents really. But fair do's, though the film itself may be amoral and even deplorable in its neglect of the act of violence, the performances are very good. In particular, Phil Collins and Julie Walters are so good that with a better script they might have made you wonder what all the fuss was about. As it is, I think the fuss was really justified. (On Buster (1988))

I've never understood why Cathy Tyson didn't have a much better movie career. Here on her screen debut in Neil Jordan's scarily tense thriller she gives a terrific performance as a high-priced call girl to whom gang boss Michael Caine appoints ex-con Bob Hoskins as driver and minder ... Hoskins and the coldly sinister Caine are on top form. Tyson is just as good. In Hollywood, she'd have become a star. Here, sadly, she didn't. (On Mona Lisa (1986))

Of all the Ealing comedies, this is among the best. The Oscar-winning screenplay by T.E.B. Clarke does what all good farces must do - it takes the possible and stretches it, with seeming logic, into the wildly improbable and we, the audience, are swept along, desperately wanting the mob to get away with it. At the heart of it all is the funny, oddly touching relationship between Guinness (Alec Guinness) and Holloway (Stanley Holloway) - two mild, courteous, inoffensive middle-aged men dreaming a wild and naughty dream and having the initiative to seize the day and make it happen. When it finishes back in Rio, you may well decide that comedy crime capers don't come much better than this. (On The Lavender Hill Mob (1951))

I think what really depresses me about that film is that it's so utterly unhealthy. It's not going to corrupt anybody but equally it's not going to do anybody any good. Its after-effect is to leave you with a memory of obscene and ugly images - and who needs that? (On They Came from Within (1975))

Ridley Scott released five versions of Blade Runner (1982) before he was finally satisfied with it. But all the tinkering was justified. It was a fine film to begin with; now it's a classic of the sci-fi genre ... A visually stunning movie whose interesting storyline and overwhelming special effects combine to make it a remarkable cinematic experience.

Ford (John Ford) was the master of the western, much as Hitchcock (Alfred Hitchcock) was the master of the thriller, and this was one of his best. The flamboyant Marvin (Lee Marvin) takes the acting honours, but there's unusual subtlety in the development of Wayne's (John Wayne) character and his actions that effectively counterbalances the director's familiar sentimentality about the time when the west was still unconquered and his regret at its passing. (On The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962))

The lack of a strong narrative is quite unimportant because it's so well played and made that the events unfold, fascinatingly, like life itself. A beautifully unconventional movie, which is alternately very funny and touchingly poignant. (On Life Is Sweet (1990))

The pace is fast but never breakneck, which provides the characters and the scenes with ample time to develop, while Douglas (Michael Douglas) gives one of his best performances. (On Wonder Boys (2000))

This is film noir in spades, so darkly shot that electricity might not have been invented yet. But the pervading gloom, internal and external, cleverly accentuates the darkness at the heart of David Fincher's basically formulaic thriller and turns it into something truly, memorably shocking ... The relationship between the cops - initially antagonistic, eventually trusting - is predictable. Far less so are the way the killer's identity is revealed and one particularly horrifying murder that comes so far out of left field that you can't possibly foresee it. As for the ending, well, I doubt if you'll see that coming, either. (On Se7en (1995))

Krueger is a superb creation and teenage Nancy a spirited and worthy heroine. Wes Craven's film is comparatively low on gore but high on frightening anticipation. A very scary movie, especially because you're never quite sure whether what you're watching is truly a murder or just another dream, it's darkly funny at times with a splendidly creepy score by Charles Bernstein. (On A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984))

A thriller? A horror movie? Alfred Hitchcock's classic is both. Nothing supernatural here, just moments of unbearable tension leading to three of the cinema's most memorable scenes - in the shower, on the staircase and in the basement of the house of motel proprietor Norman Bates. The heroine is disposed of early, so is the man who comes looking for her. This is a masterclass in keeping the viewer eternally on the wrong foot or, as Hitchcock put it, "playing the audience like an orchestra". No good trying to second-guess, either, because Hitch is always way ahead of us. (On Psycho (1960))

This was the first film in director David Lean's Oscar-winning epic period and is an unusual war movie in that it shows very little warfare, except at the end. There is plenty of tension and suspense but what is particularly involving is Lean's gift, which he had shown earlier with Brief Encounter (1945) and Great Expectations (1946), for revealing human character in small details - Guinness's smug pride in what he had created and Hayakawa's fear that if the bridge is not completed on time, he will be obliged to commit suicide. And there's a tragic inevitability throughout that is summed up at the end in Guinness's anguished cry of: "What have I done?" (On The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957))

A clever reworking of a very good plot but not as powerful as the 1962 film. Big business as a threat to a nation's security? Possible but less alarming than communism. (On The Manchurian Candidate (2004))

She never seemed to take herself seriously and there was an engaging sense of mischief about her. For instance, she was always urging me to call Burton "Walter" because that was his middle name and she knew he hated it. But she was also, let it be said, a much better actress than most people gave her credit for - not a great actress but a very good one, who had the rare distinction of moving from child star to grown-up movie queen with never a false step. (On Elizabeth Taylor)

Make no mistake, Mendes (Sam Mendes) provides much to admire - from his own tight handling of the action to the casting against type of Paul Newman, Tom Hanks and Jude Law, excellent performances and the dark, cold, ominous look of the film ... Yet, cleverly though it's made, good as the acting is (especially by Newman and Craig (Daniel Craig) and superbly photographed though it is by Conrad Hall (Conrad L. Hall), the film doesn't quite hack it. Something vital is missing - soul, if you like; it's just too bleak. Even the normally engaging Hanks is so grimly emotionless that it's hard to empathise with him. Ultimately this is a movie that won my respect but not my affection. (On Road to Perdition (2002))