Alfie

1966 / UK / 113 min. / Colour

Director: Lewis Gilbert

Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Millicent Martin, Vivien Merchant, Jane Asher

Alfie is the quintessential anti-hero and Caine, in his breakthrough role, makes this unlovable rogue addictively compelling. It remains one of, if not the, greatest performances of his career. The film is cinematically original and uncompromisingly honest. It’s most famous stylistic trick is Alfie’s straight-to-camera commentary on his misogynistic bed-hopping and as the gap between his justification for his actions and the consequences of those actions grows ever wider, so we come to understand his own loneliness and disaffection. Self-realisation eventually strikes, but is it too late? The closing words to this true masterpiece of British cinema says it all and haunt Caine to this day: “What’s it all about? You know what I mean.”