Georgy Girl
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.49 You Save: $10.50 (70%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.42 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Georgy Girl
Movie Review: "There's another Georgy deep inside"
Summary: 5 Stars
Lynn Redgrave stars as Georgy, an awkward young woman living in 60s swinging London. Her roommate Meredith (Charlotte Rampling) is gorgeous and has men lining up to woo her, including her somewhat clownish long-time beau, Jos (Alan Bates). Poor Georgy has only James (James Mason) chasing after her; he's the much older employer of her butler father. However, clearly Georgy wants much more - will she take chances to get the life she desires?
"Georgy Girl" is a marvelous movie that flawlessley combines comedy and drama. I had put off watching this movie, as I thought it would be another dated comedy from the era. However, the film is fairly universal in theme and technique. As is typical for movies of this era, there's a sadness underlying all the wacky shenanigans and a plethora of moral issues bubble under the surface. Many hit movies from the 60s explored moral issues - here it's all about monogamy and marriage. However, very few movies from that era stand up this well; the film never comes across as preachy or over-reaching.
All elements blend beautifully in "Georgy Girl." Lynn Redgrave gives the performance of her career - she manages to make Georgy by turns wacky and vulnerable, but always endearing. She deservedly won the Golden Globe for Best Actress (Musical/Comedy) and was nominated for an Oscar. Alan Bates is also very good, although toward the end he starts to be a bit grating. He was nominated for a Golden Globe but passed over by the Oscars. Finally, James Mason was Oscar nominated for his role as Georgy's pursuer. Credit should also go to director Silvio Narizzano who balances all of this craziness, allowing the melancholy to shine through the laughs; unfortunately, his career peaked with this effort - none of his previous or subsequent films made much impact.
Perhaps my favorite part of the movie is the title and end credits, over which the Seekers' hit song "Georgy Girl" plays. I've heard the song a million times, never paying close attention to the lyrics. However, in the title sequence, the song perfectly sums up Georgy as she walks down a crowded British street. Redgrave's acting is impeccable here - title sequences don't usually require much acting, but she totally scores. Likewise, the song plays over the end credits, again neatly summarizing what has happened and where everyone will go from here. The lyrics for this section of the song apparently aren't in the hit single version, so you won't know the ending just from having heard the song.
In some ways, "Georgy Girl" is a precursor to "Muriel's Wedding" and any number of other movies about so-called `ugly ducklings' who find their confidence before the end credits roll. However, this genre has never been done so well as here. Overall, "Georgy Girl" is a tremendous surprise: a nearly perfect comedy that deftly explores some potentially difficult topics. Most highly recommended.
Movie Review: Self-Esteem Wanted
Summary: 5 Stars
If the British DVD is any indication, SONY Columbia will be releasing this film on DVD in the same bare format they accorded to BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING and many other quality films deserving of better treatment. If only they had managed to find even one "deleted scene" featuring Charlotte Rampling, whose disappearance from the movie far too early is the biggest disappointment of them all. (After she leaves, a bit of the film's energy goes with her; the audience feels deflated, like a paper bag.) GEORGY GIRL was a huge hit for Columbia in 1966, one of the biggest of the year, and it still holds up today. Lynn Redgrave was nominated for an Oscar, and the press made much of a possible rivalry with her far more glamorous sister Vanessa, who was also nominated the same year. Neither sister won, for the prize was taken from them by Elizabeth Taylor's stylish harridan in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? Rachel Kempson, mother to Lynn and Vanessa, has a nice character part in GEORGY GIRL as well, in a role which makes her a sort of romantic rival to Lynn's character-a little kinky.
Lynn plays Georgy Parkin, a dumpy instructor whose parents are very old-school servants to a wealthy gentleman played by James Mason. Georgy lives on her own with a gorgeous roommate called Meredith-the part played by Charlotte Rampling without vanity, without pretense, Rampling unafraid of seeming unsympathetic in a way that would be unthinkable to most US actresses of her generation. She's so awful you start to like her. And she's the wife's worst nightmare, and then she gets pregnant with Alan Bates' baby and the picture really launches into gear. Unusually for a 1960s movie, GEORGY GIRL is really a "woman's picture" which in the old days which have paired Miriam Hopkins against Bette Davis, and the plot, such as it is, is all about how will Georgy attain a shred of self-esteem if she's always comparing herself to supermodel-thin Meredith?
On top of everything else, the film also forecasts BRIDGET JONES by having two men fall in love with Georgy, but I can't say which ones, that would be telling. The Seekers, Australia's biggest pop group of the period, sings the title song as a commentary on the action, Judith Durham's angelic voice the aural embodiment of Georgy's questing soul.
Movie Review: A great flick
Summary: 5 Stars
I was quoting dialogue and remembering scenes all the way through it. And I'd only seen it once before, when it first came out. That's how much it had impressed me. I've been waiting since DVDs were invented for this movie to come out on DVD, and I snapped it up (at a hell of a price, thank you very much!) as soon as it did. It is everything these other reviews say it is. I'm in love with Lynn Redgrave (much prefer her to her sister) and have been for years (including her singing on Ben Bagley's R&H revisited series on CD, though I don't like Bagley, just the songs, many of which he tampered with). One quibble with the other reviewers, like the Amazon staff reviewer. Only Georgy's parents were puritanical, and he was a toady anyway. And to disect (or even mention) the morality of the plot seems a bit much in 2005, and considering the movies that have been coming out for the past 30 years. I loved it and am glad I bought it. I highly recommend it. It is as much fun as its title song.Movie Review: Charmer from Swinging Sixties
Summary: 5 Stars
This account of a lovable frump who finds love for the first time, albeit messily, is an absolute winner. I can't think of enough superlatives to describe how good Lynn Redgrave is in the title role. How she didn't win the Oscar in 1966(Liz Taylor won for "Virginia Woolf") is beyond me. Redgrave just grabs on your heartstrings and doesn't let go. There is an excellent supporting cast on hand here with James Mason sympathetic as Georgy's wealthy benefactor would-be-lover, Charlotte Rampling as her cold-hearted flatmate, and Alan Bates as her flatmate's husband. This film was made in a period when social mores were changing over in the U.K. and Georgy's plight here is following her heart in light of these changes. That said this film holds up well and does not seem dated. Love is messy and that has always been universal.Movie Review: Georgy Girl
Summary: 5 Stars
Distinctive black comedy has Georgy, a free spirit with a self-image problem, surrounded by somewhat pathetic, bizarre characters: Meredith's beauty can't conceal the soul of a witch; Jos is a loveable, overgrown child; and Mason's character seems like a rather lonely, leering fellow, though endowed with real affection for Georgy. Still, the film's ambiguity is intended- and it's a large part of its charm. A fascinating, highly original ride, with terrific performances and a vivid sense of London in the swinging sixties. Catchy title tune by The Seekers.