This film is the personification of London in the swinging '60s.
Two clumsy girls come down from the North of England, in search of the 'Swinging London scene' they've read so much about in their teen mags.
After much tomfoolery, they 'make it'.
Yvonne played by Lynn Redgrave makes it as a pop star and her mousey friend, Brenda (Rita Tushingham) becomes a top model, adorning the covers of all the top glossy fashion magazines.
Unfortunately, it takes quite a while for things to happen, also, unfortunately, there are too many overly long, unfunny slapstick-pie- throwing scenes before the the action really takes off, but it's worth the wait.
From the moment Yvonne goes into the studio to cut her first hit single, the film starts to fly.
The clothes, the cars, the energy, the excitement of that fleeting moment when London was the coolest place on earth are captured here more than in any other film made at the time. Although the film set out to mock the era, almost unintentionally it caught Zeitgeist, unlike the many other films of the time, that tried so hard to capture what was going on and fell flat on their faces.
Smashing Time was supposed to have been made in 1966 at the height of the Swinging London madness, but it was delayed and delayed, it was finally released in early 1968, by which time people had become very jaded with the notion of 'the swinging city'. Things moved very fast back then. What was in in '66 was very old hat by '68 and the film flopped only to be rediscovered many years later. It now has quite a following and it warrants the retrospective love it gets.
A top notch DVD with tons of extras is long overdue, so the young generations of the past, present and future can have a good look at what '60s London was really like.
Two clumsy girls come down from the North of England, in search of the 'Swinging London scene' they've read so much about in their teen mags.
After much tomfoolery, they 'make it'.
Yvonne played by Lynn Redgrave makes it as a pop star and her mousey friend, Brenda (Rita Tushingham) becomes a top model, adorning the covers of all the top glossy fashion magazines.
Unfortunately, it takes quite a while for things to happen, also, unfortunately, there are too many overly long, unfunny slapstick-pie- throwing scenes before the the action really takes off, but it's worth the wait.
From the moment Yvonne goes into the studio to cut her first hit single, the film starts to fly.
The clothes, the cars, the energy, the excitement of that fleeting moment when London was the coolest place on earth are captured here more than in any other film made at the time. Although the film set out to mock the era, almost unintentionally it caught Zeitgeist, unlike the many other films of the time, that tried so hard to capture what was going on and fell flat on their faces.
Smashing Time was supposed to have been made in 1966 at the height of the Swinging London madness, but it was delayed and delayed, it was finally released in early 1968, by which time people had become very jaded with the notion of 'the swinging city'. Things moved very fast back then. What was in in '66 was very old hat by '68 and the film flopped only to be rediscovered many years later. It now has quite a following and it warrants the retrospective love it gets.
A top notch DVD with tons of extras is long overdue, so the young generations of the past, present and future can have a good look at what '60s London was really like.