The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame IV

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Cross posting from "Rate the Last Film . . ."



A Taste of Honey, 1961

Teenager Jo (Rita Tushingham) has a fraught relationship with her mother, Helen (Dora Dryan). When Helen picks up a new boyfriend-then-husband (Robert Stephens), Jo seeks solace in the arms of a soldier who has been wooing her (Paul Danquah). After Jimmy ships out and Helen moves in with her new hubby, Jo discovers she is pregnant. Enter Geoff (Murray Melvin), a gentle, gay young man who takes a liking to Jo. Together they set up house, but as Jo's pregnancy progresses, their domestic set-up begins to strain.

What a fun little film!

The best part of the film is the way that it captures the complex emotions of moving from childhood to adulthood. I so identified with Jo's misery as she both wants to be looked after by her mother in one moment and yet treated like an adult in another. Dora Dryan, as Helen, perfectly portrays the slightly baffled, slightly irritated reaction of a mother who can't do anything right, though she is very aware that she hasn't made the best choices herself or set the best example for her daughter. As she says "Why can't you learn from my mistakes? It takes half a lifetime just to learn from your own." While Jo is the central character, the film carves out a nice little space for Helen, who wants to do right by her daughter, but also finds herself at the mercy of her own decisions and her marriage to a man who seems to be her best option for future security.

Also interesting are Jo's relationships with the two male characters her age. Having read the plot description, it was a pleasant surprise to see how the relationship with Jimmy was portrayed. The two of them have a pretty sweet little romance. Sleeping together is obviously a huge mistake, but it's an understandable one even as you're going "No!!!!!!". At first, Geoff feels like a bit of a contrivance. This gay angel swoops in and cleans up Jo's apartment and provides her with stability and companionship while asking nothing in exchange. But as Geoff himself later makes clear, he was in a bit of a depression and having someone to care for was a way to give himself purpose. The film never really addresses what Geoff's future might look like. He obviously cannot openly seek out his own romantic partner, and the film lets that hang there. If anything, it seems plainly tragic that such a caring person will never be able to openly pursue love and the domestic partnership he has with Jo.

The film ultimately leaves a lot of elements up in the air: Jo's relationship with her mother; whether Jo and Geoff will continue their partnership; whether Jimmy will ever return. But the character arc is all about Jo coming to terms with how her pregnancy is going to change her life.

On the downside, the scenes between Helen and Jo are so good, that the rest of the film sort of pales slightly in comparison. Dryan is just so good, that I found myself wishing that I was spending more time with Helen. And while it's nice seeing a film portray a gay character in a positive and productive light, it does fall into that trap of the "asexual gay" character. Geoff is coded as being super gay---people seem to just take one look at him and clock him as homosexual--and yet we see no signs of desire. It's tragic that Geoff can't pursue love, and yet the film leaves this as just an implicit thing. It would have gone a long way, in my opinion, to have even a single longing glance at a man.

Good pick--thanks!




Sorry about that. Moved to the correct thread.
I have a question for MarkF that I've wondered about. All of your list are checked off, except two movies from the Cannes' Award Winners, Men Without Wings (1946) & Red Meadows (1945). Mark is there a reason you haven't checked those off? Is it that those two film are unavailable? Or some other reason? I'm just curious.



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I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

A Taste of Honey, 1961

What a fun little film!

The best part of the film is the way that it captures the complex emotions of moving from childhood to adulthood. I so identified with Jo's misery as she both wants to be looked after by her mother in one moment and yet treated like an adult in another. Dora Dryan, as Helen, perfectly portrays the slightly baffled, slightly irritated reaction of a mother who can't do anything right, though she is very aware that she hasn't made the best choices herself or set the best example for her daughter. As she says "Why can't you learn from my mistakes? It takes half a lifetime just to learn from your own." While Jo is the central character, the film carves out a nice little space for Helen, who wants to do right by her daughter, but also finds herself at the mercy of her own decisions and her marriage to a man who seems to be her best option for future security.
I was so excited to see this get nominated and I'm glad you liked it. I think you had a more positive view of the mother than I had, I must watch it again and see if my opinion changes.

. It would have gone a long way, in my opinion, to have even a single longing glance at a man.
I see what you are saying but I think it is asking a lot for 1961.

Similar to A Taste of Honey I would also recommend The Leather Boys (1964), also starring Rita Tushingham.



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Seven Up!



Last film first, I guess!

I had avoided watching this before as the idea of watching the whole documentary series seemed a little daunting. I am curious as to how this has become known as a film when it is clearly a television series, but it doesn't really matter.

Anyway, this was a fascinating watch. My parents would have been about this age in 1964, which added an extra dimension of interest. I could imagine my mum as the little girl who wants to work in Woolworths but then goes to the grammar school. And Bruce in his suit looks like old photos of my dad. It's so interesting to see the way things were so different then, but also the ways they aren't all that different at all.

What worked so well about this is the lack of much commentary - they just have the kids speak and you're mostly left to draw your own conclusions, which makes it so much more valuable as a document of social history than some psychologist of the time giving their opinions. They're filmed almost without judgement, too. Of course there must be some kind of judgements made when making the film as to who to include and what to include of what they've said (and this seems more pointed in the second episode). In a way it was quite funny that their idea of a diverse group of children is essentially five posh kids from London, five or six poorer kids from London and three middle class kids from somewhere up North, all but one white, most of them boys. But at the time even recording the lives of different children like this was probably quite a novel idea.


I liked this so much that I immediately watched 'Seven Plus Seven' aka 14 Up. A lot of this is clips of the first one. This would have been essential watching it seven years later, but a bit annoying watching it immediately afterwards. I do want to watch the rest of the series now, but I think I will space them out a bit.

The other trouble with 14 Up is that the observation affects the experiment - the kids at 14 are more aware of how they will be perceived, how they were perceived in the first film, what their parents will think. They make several references to the first programme, and some of them are quite hostile to it, or wary of generalisations being drawn.

It was interesting, as a parent of a 14 year old, to see the behaviour of the 14 year olds here in 1971 and recognise it absolutely. They mumble, they don't make eye contact, they have forthright opinions that they then contradict, or they won't share any opinion at all on some subjects. The biggest difference is that 14 year olds today would be glued to their mobile phones or computers.

I now want to know what happens next to these children. I feel quite sympathetic to almost all of them - especially Bruce, who went to such a horrible school, separated from his parents so young and comes across as being so thoughtful, and Neil, who is so bright and cheerful and I'm now horribly afraid will somehow be crushed by life. And the ones who don't come across so well like John, or the girl who does ballet I feel for too, because they are just children. They are all shaped by their experiences. And some of them at 14 are so painfully shy and awkward and bound to regret what they say when they are older - but this is the experience for all 14 year olds these days, everything is recorded and put on social media. I'm glad nobody interviewed me when I was 14.

A great choice, I'm glad to have started watching this series.



My Night At Maude”s: Only my third Rohmer, but that’s probably because he hasn’t totally drawn me in yet. I liked this but didn’t love it. Rohmer seems to only see religion in relationship to sex and It think that kept me at a bit of a distance. For an obviously smart guy, and a movie brimming with dialogue, it just ends up feeling reductive. Probably doesn’t help that I found the main character to be a drip. How two beautiful women with lots of prospects are attracted to him so quickly is beyond me. Anyway, yeah, I mostly liked it.



2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
Seen 4 from him. The Green Ray is probably my favorite. In a way I dug them all but none were top 100 movies if that makes sense.



I can't find full copies. The sites I've found that say they have one, don't.
Isn't this one of them?

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Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Yeah, thanks. I have actually watched that. I debated whether to list that because there's no subtitles, but since I've seen it, I suppose I will.



The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
Anyone want to guess the order that people finish?

I'll say

Allaby
Sean
Takoma
Citizen
Thursday
Okay
Fredrick
Cricket
Raul
Siddon
Ed
Thief
Neiba

Takoma would finish in 3 days except she'll have a movie that gets lost in the mail.
I'm offended...