Girl with Green Eyes
Directed by Desmond Davis
Written by Edna O’Brien from her novel
1964/UK
Woodfall Film Productions
First viewing/FilmStruck
[box] Malachi Sullivan: Ah, the milk of human blindness.[/box]
I could watch Rita Tushingham’s expressive face all day.
The film is set in Dublin and environs. Kate Brady (Tushingham) and Baba Brennan (Lynn Redgrave) have recently graduated from convent school and have settled in Dublin. Baba is out for laughs and what excitement the big city can offer her. The romantic and naive Kate is her opposite. The girls meet writer Eugene Gaillard (Peter Finch) in a bookstore and have tea with him. Kate takes a chance and pursues Eugene. The much-older and still-married Eugene is not too hard to catch.
The rest of the movie covers their somewhat tentative love affair to its inevitable conclusion.
The story is somewhat slight but made up for by the excellent acting and considerable charm. It’s a sort of mix between kitchen-sink British New Wave and more kenetic and arty French New Wave. It’s nice to have a female coming-of-age story for a change. I liked the movie quite a bit.
Lousy image quality – A-OK on FilmStruck
