Girl with Green Eyes (1964) User Reviews

May-December romance

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 4 January 2008]

Desmond Davis, who had worked closely with Tony Richardson, decided to try his hand directing films. For his first effort he decided to use Edna O'Brien's novella "The Lonely Girl", which we read a long while ago, and frankly, we don't remember it well. The result was a movie that has that "English Look" of what came out of England during those years.

"Girl with Green Eyes" owes its success to Rita Tushingham, an actress that was the darling of English movie makers. She had a certain waif look that she used to her advantage in films such as this one, and in others of the same period. She holds the movie together as it's hard to take one's eyes from hers. Ms. Tushingham was not a spectacular beauty, yet she had a certain look that was appealing in her work.

Peter Finch appears as Eugene Gaillard, a man who is divorced with a child, and whose estranged wife has moved overseas. His attraction for Kate Brennan is quite understandable, yet, Eugene can't get Kate to be more than a platonic admirer, never being able to consume the passion she feels for him, and vice versa.

Also in the movie, a young and fresh Lynn Redgrave, who went to make bigger and better things on her own in the British cinema and on the stage and films in America, her adoptive country.

"Girl with Green Eyes" is worth a look for what Desmond Davis was able to accomplish in his first feature. The copy we watched recently was sadly in need of restoration.

Rita Tushingham's glorious eyes and Peter Finch's gloominess united with limited success

[clanciai · 8/10 · 31 October 2018]

It's just an episode but charmingly well done, Rita Tushingham shining with her eyes all through the film, well seconded by the slightly more reticent and laconic Peter Finch as the middle-aged writer with a failed family behind him and no illusions left, trying to be alone working by writing, which is difficult as Rita Tushingham keeps haunting him, and his family in America making themselves reminded by commenting on an aging man's relationship with a teenage girl with no experience - it could have been equivocal, but it isn't at all, since it is set in Ireland among angily bigotted catholics who also object against the unorthodox relationship and even try to do something about it by hard methods - there is some drama on the way. Lynn Redgrave assists Rita as well as she could and actually saves the situation in the end.

I saw this film when it was new, it was likeable enough already then, but made no lasting impression, wherefore I gave it a chance 50 years later just to refresh my memory and see what it really was all about - but it imported nothing new. It was still just an episode, charmingly well done, with the Rita's shining eyes and Peter's morose introversions - well done, indeed, but hardly universal, just local.

DARLING RITA...

[masonfisk · 7/10 · 21 August 2018]

Rita Tushingham, the it girl of British cinema in the 60's (she made a few pics w/Richard Lester) stars as a young Irish lass who falls in love w/a separated writer played by Peter Finch. Shot in beautiful black & white on Irish locales, this sobering romance hits all the right notes when a love affair sounds good via the heart but makes no sense in the head. Look for Lynn Redgrave (Vanessa's sister) as Rita's roommate & Julian Glover, who's still acting strong (he played one of the maesters on Game of Thrones), as one of Finch's friends.

New Wave Washes Up On Irish Shores

[humanoid · 31 May 2002]

Long into watching this studiously "small," slice-of-life portrait of a naive young woman, I was still wondering if the film would turn out, in the end, to have been worth watching. Earnest in its desire to be grittily true-to-life, in the neo-realist manner of the Angry Young Men, it is also clearly intoxicated with the quotidian lyricism and plain-spoken poetry of la nouvelle vague. It attempts to be charming and brutally frank at the same time, and manages, to some extent, to carry it off.

But will we end up caring about Tushingham's somewhat obtuse small town escapee, or Finch's sophisticated cold fish? Or will we be left with the rather sodden sensation that we've wasted our time eavesdropping on bores? For my part, I was pleasantly surprised. The story ends with the palpable sense that Kate has grown up a bit, and Eugene has grown a little older and sadder. We've looked on as two people have lived their bittersweet lives, much as we live our own -- and we're a little sad to bid them adieu.

To sum up: not as fresh and appealing today as it probably seemed in its time, but still rewarding and worthwhile.

The eyes have it

[tomsview · 7/10 · 12 April 2016]

Seeing this film after 40-years reminded me how good Peter Finch was – just about the most worldly, in control guy you could hope to see on the screen. He seemed to get better looking as he got older, although he showed every one of his years.

Rita Tushingham got all the raves at the time, and she was a unique presence around the early 60's; it's easy to see why she had an impact on the critics, she had a look with those big eyes and mobile features – she seemed to literally devour life in her early roles.

Set in Ireland, Kate Brady (Rita Tushingham), a young country girl experiencing life for the first time in the city, has an affair with a much older man: a writer, Eugene Gaillard (Peter Finch). However, there are problems; he doesn't want to get too involved after a failed marriage, and she has inhibitions due to a suspicious father and her upbringing as a strict Roman Catholic.

This was Desmond Davis first film as director, and possibly he was influenced by the French New Wave where everything had the feeling it was photographed by accident with plenty of sharp cutting. Some of the mood changes in the film are also a bit sudden as well. When Kate's father and friends arrive from the village to save her from Eugene, the film gets an attack of the John Fords with the whole sequence treated as broad comedy with even broader Irish characters.

However there is assurance with the way the scenes of Kate and Eugene are handled. Kate although sensitive, is outspoken and often at odds with the older Eugene, she is a strong character and not as naive as he seems to think she is. Eugene makes allowances for Kate's youth, but is inclined to avoid confrontation – their exchanges are often intense, but also breezy and witty, with the odd insight thrown in.

The bedroom scenes were quite frank for the times, even if they are of the sheets around the shoulders variety. John Addison's score has a wistfulness that portends the end of the affair, a sentiment echoed in the script. At one point Eugene observes, "There's no always in human relations … people die, change, outgrow their best friends, nothing's permanent".

Awkward touches aside, this is still an engaging film. It has two charismatic stars; a touch of sadness and a life-goes-on ending that feels about right.

a fine, often well-acted May-December romance drama, no more no less

[Quinoa1984 · 7/10 · 23 March 2017]

Girl with Green Eyes seems typical of the period of British "Kitchen-Sink" drama films (I saw it as the 2nd part of a double bill with The Leather Boys and the theme being Rita Tushingham performances, though this is dialed down a little from that turn), and that's what's good but not terribly memorable about it all. It's realistic in some of the basic character interactions, though it has a bouncier/more emotionally-cued up score than the material should have, if that makes sense. It seems like a minor point but Desmond Davis clearly wanted to get a lot of emotional/romantic/tragic pull out of the music by John Addison, and it may have been too much for this lot of realism (how typical this is by the way, it's produced by Tony Richardson).

The story is actually an Irish-Kitchen-Sink movie, though with a couple of British touches: a young girl in Dublin, who originally was from a fairly lower-class farm that was highly religious but working *very* Irish class all the same, is working at a bookstore and finds that there's an author that she would like to meet along with her friend/roommate Baba. Peter Finch is this man, and soon Kate, the girl of the title, takes a real liking to him, and after not too long he to her. So they "hook up", so to speak, and this brings on problems, both external in force (he's technically married with a kid in another country, she's got pressure from her family not to have anything to do with this "Godless heathen), and more about the fact that it's a man who could be old enough, if only barely, to be her father.

This is a story explored in many kind of films, whether it's throw-a-dart-and-hit a Philip Roth story, or of course Manhattan. There's enough chemistry and charm between the two leading people as Tishingham, even dialed down, is delightful, and Finch does a lot playing usually-crusty and mostly sardonic/sarcastic speaking (if there had been a remake some years back I could've seen Alan Rickman in his role), plus Lynn Redgrave being wonderful and funny in her supporting place. But there's not much here that elevates it past its time and place; it's a perfectly fine drama, and it doesn't distinguish itself past some insights, which are only insightful up to a point, that you may need to grow as a person (or can never meet the other on the flipside due to losing "youthful vigor" as an aging man) to have a relationship work sometimes.

There's a nice, tender feeling to the film, Finch and Tushingham make a good pair on screen (precisely because we kind of know, deep down, it's not only not going to work but it can't not ever work, if that makes sense, so let's see them in the little moments) and that should work for anyone looking for that. Although some things that contribute to the 'hasnt-aged-terribly-well' is, say, when the film is edited so early on in their courtship Eugene and Kate talk and one part of a sentence begins in a new location and then another and another, and it feels distracting.

girl with green eyes

[mossgrymk · 6/10 · 9 December 2023]

Very young, romantic gal falls in love with a sophisticated, much older man. Relationship fails. Gal gets over it rather quickly. Sound just a wee bit THIN, story wise? Sound like it'd work better in Edna O'Brien's novel from which it was adapted (by Ms. O'Brien)? Yeah, me too. Certainly the film makers seem to think so. Why else the pretty cinematographic tour of Dublin and the Irish countryside, the fancy schmancy editing and low angle shots, and that constant, annoying oboe music like some artsy fartsy fly in our ear if not to distract us from the fact that there's not much meat on the bone, as it were?

As in most UK films it's the acting that saves it and keeps you watching. Rita Tushingham does her combination of waif and sharp observer of life with her usual charm while Peter Finch is fine as a world weary novelist. Also good in support are Marie Kean as a tough, loyal servant and Julian Glover as a smarmy, obnoxious poet (are there any other kind?). But for my dough it's Lynn Redgrave, stealing every scene she's in as a brassy, funny, cheeky sidekick, kind of an Irish Thelma Ritter, who is the best in the cast. C plus.

You Go, Girl!

[rpvanderlinden · 9/10 · 9 June 2010]

"Girl with Green Eyes" is a coming-of-age story - a nice Catholic girl has an affair with a much older man and morphs from an ugly duckling into a worldly young woman. It is set in a society which harshly condemns such things, to the point where a young woman's life is not really her own, but the property of family and Church. Shades of "The Magdalene Sisters".

Rita Tushingham plays the girl, who imagines she's good and innocent, but who's unaware of the guile and jealousy lurking inside herself. She's looking, I think, for a ticket out of her former life. Peter Finch is the man, middle-aged, separated from his wife and kid. The last thing he wants is an emotional entanglement to send his life off balance. He's protective of his privacy and tends to be a tad arch and patronizing. Sometimes he finds the girl rather juvenile. I found it interesting that the upper-crust society he's entrenched in also condemns this May-December romance, only it does so, not with pronouncements about sin, but with winks and whispers.

This movie is set in Ireland, and the moody, evocative black-and-white photography is gorgeous. It is crisp with a full palate of greys. The images were so palpable I wanted to reach out and touch the screen. The camera moves like a feather. The scene, near the end, where the girl is on the boat leaving Dublin, and the shore recedes further and further away, is a beautiful metaphor, describing the passage from one chapter of the girl's life to another.

Lacked passion

[mklmjdrake · 6/10 · 18 March 2020]

I'm drawn to B&W films of the 60s so i was anticipating an enjoyable film (although it made the title a bit ironic). They often have that crisp cinematography and high contrast lighting. The story is familiar: young girl falls in love with and older married man. Like that ever works haha. The music was a little strange at times. It lacked prosody and detracted from the film IMO. Neither of the lead actors were extremely attractive but they made the characters likable. Julian Glover was a pleasant surprise. He usually played refined villains and Malachi wasn't far from it. I understand this was a rom-dram but it lacked the passion of a classic like Wuthering Heights or Pride and Prejudice or even Jerry Maguire. The script was flat, the actors were talented but didn't really seem to care. Redgrave added a little of what was lacking but she couldn't compensate enough. I enjoyed Peter Finch in Flight of the Phoenix and Network but his performance as Malachi didn't seem to showcase his talent. It's a sad story that could have been produced with more panache than it was given.

a picture of Ireland in the 1960-s

[wvisser-leusden · 9/10 · 24 May 2010]

The theme of 'Girl with Green Eyes' isn't new at all: a young girl has an affair with a man who could have been her father. Predictably it miscarries.

Apart from this, 'Girl' is great. Excellent acting to start with, set in a very recognizable Dublin- & Irish countryside-scenery. All shot in a pretty down-to-earth way, allowing you to identify easily.

'Girl's plot inevitably involves the Irish Roman Catholic Church, whose influence was strong in those days. Its fairly slow and uncomplicated pace is quite in tune with the 1960-s society. And its shooting in black and white supports the mood of this enjoyable film very well.

My only criticism: this picture of Ireland represents a very clean country. Having been there myself in the early Seventies, I remember a not-to-ignore lack of hygiene. In shops, in restaurant's bathrooms, as well as in many people's clothing.

The Girl with One Mad Eye

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 4 April 2020]

Dublin in the early sixties as photographed by Manny Wynn looks very picturesque to visit but was probably no fun for a young woman to actually live in (it probably still isn't).

This adaptation by Edna O'Brien of her novella 'The Lonely Girl' (1962) benefits enormously from two attractive leads, and compares interestingly with similar subject matter depicted in 'Love in the Afternoon' (1957) and later viewed through the twin prisms of nostalgia and modern sexual politics in 'An Education' (2009).

Green Eyes in Colorful Black and White

[jayraskin1 · 10/10 · 21 July 2008]

The only thing I had seen before this by Desmond Davis, was the classic "Clash of the Titans." That was perhaps the best movie ever made based on ancient Greek Mythology. It was a wonderful adventure and fantasy film.

This is totally different. It is British new wave with a camera that tracks, sweeps and runs across the British/Irish countryside as gently as it tickles Rita Tushingham's large nosed, perky face. Besides the energetic cinematography and editing which is somewhere between Goddard's "Breathless" and Richard Lester's "A Hard Day's Night," we get a hard edge slice of life drama/comedy that leaps with wit and poetry. Its as good as Tushingham's earlier, similar hit, "A Taste of Honey."

Lynn Redgrave is cuter than any human being has a right to be and Peter Finch is honest and likable as Eugene, the man who wins Tushingham's confidence, if not her heart.

The point of the movie is that we all change and we even "outgrow our friends". We should accept it without getting hysterical or dramatic about it. It is a touch sad, but we move on.

In a way it belongs with "My Fair Lady," and "Educating Rita" as a picture about women becoming...

All one can say about the movie in its entirety: "Smashing!"

Rita Tushingham

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 25 December 2023]

Kate Brady (Rita Tushingham) is a young single girl living with her best friend Baba Brennan (Lynn Redgrave) in Dublin. They had gone to convent school together. She meets middle aged writer Eugene Gaillard (Peter Finch).

Tushingham was a British it girl for a moment in the 60's. She's not a Bond girl. Instead, she has an awkward fresh innocence. Lynn Redgrave was another awkward fresh faced girl. Her height gave her that awkwardness. The age difference with Peter Finch is interesting although I don't think it mattered especially back in the day. I assumed that he's hiding a marriage so that's not a surprise. It is a slice of Irish life of that time. Him getting a divorce was probably a much bigger deal than the age difference. This movie is really about Tushingham.

dull

[cherold · 5/10 · 8 January 2015]

There's not a lot to this movie, which details the relationship of a young woman who sets her cap for a much older man. Not a lot happens, and while the actors are skilled, they are given little to work with. Rita Tushingham seems a bit dim, and Peter Finch is given a series of world- weary lines that are too stylized to fit with the movie's naturalistic pretensions. Those looking for something akin to a story will be disappointed.

As a middle-aged man, I see the movie mainly as a warning against dating young women. The girl's conflicted emotions and crazy family are exactly the sort of things a middle-aged man shouldn't have to deal with. I'd be curious to know what moral a young woman would take from the movie though.

Intergenerational Affair

[harry-76 · 14 January 2003]

Poor Rita Tushingham--she did seem to inherit some strangely frustrating parts.

In "A Taste of Honey" she was a young pregnant girl, first abandoned by her itinerant sailor, then landing in a "relationship" with a sadly confused chap.

In "Girl with Green Hair," she's another adolescent who falls for a man twice her age. Won't she ever learn?

Director Desmond Davis' work resembles Tony Richardson's so much that their styles are almost interchangeable. It may be because Composer John Addison also scored Richardson's "A Taste of Honey," and "Loneliness of the Long Distant Runner." It's remarkable how Addison's bleakly dissonant style so greatly influences the moods of these dramas.

With Davis employing a lot of contrapuntal passages played by a thin woodwind ensemble--often featuring a solo oboe--one does feel the emptiness and loneliness of character emotions.

There was no one who embodied the "Cockney Kitchen Sink" dramas of the 60s like Tushingham. She was perfect for her parts. Here ably supported by Peter Finch as a blase older man and Lynn Redgrave as a daftly talkative friend, Tushingham plays her role to the hilt.

By the end, the viewer has come to experience a limited encounter--rather doomed from the start--between a worldly wise Dublin land owner and working class Brit girl . . . the latter of whom is finally able to move on with her education and find acquaintances more her age.

The viewer during this visit has experienced some telling scenes of Irish-English life, and an interesting adolescent/mature fling at a brief encounter.

Sad. Dark and very black and gray .

[jeromec-2 · 8/10 · 13 March 2008]

This is not a film where everything works out. It's sad and disagreeable in the way it does not satisfy us.

Basically a young, very vulnerable, very unworldly girl who falls in love with a very worldly worn man who has the psychic energy of a rotten discarded orange. He was naturally drawn to her. She completely misunderstands his general makeup preferring to see him as suave and debonair. She has obviously never met anyone like him. Later on in the movie we see the kind of men in her life. Her father believes in all the simple relationships between men and women. The priest has a traditional view of her behavior and offers her very traditional advice, which she chooses not only to ignore, but chooses to run from.

Near the end, we witness the breakup of the love affair between the central characters. One of the things we learn about her father's marriage is that her mother ran away all the time just so he (her father) would pursue her (her mother). She thought the same ploy would work on her lover. That's how little she understood the world of such men.

She could not understand his reaction. He was in their relationship only as long as it was idyllic. It was a very pleasant diversion, an escape from the failures of his life. He did not want any of the problems of her love because it was too confining. He was capable of making love, but not of loving.

So it ended. He with a fading memory and she with a bit of an education.

I liked Tushingham. Anyone would. It was the Peter Finch character that made the film so barren and ugly. That doesn't mean it was a bad film. It only means it was hard to enjoy and watch and feel anything but …

sad.

Irish Kitchen Sink

[JamesHitchcock · 8/10 · 4 August 2020]

This film is based upon the second volume of Edna O'Brien's "Country Girls" trilogy. That novel was originally published as "The Lonely Girl", but for some reason this was changed in the film adaptation to "Girl with Green Eyes", even though it was made in black and white so one cannot tell what colour the main character's eyes are. Subsequent editions of the book were also entitled "Girl with Green Eyes".

The title character is Kathleen "Kate" Brady, a naive young girl from the rural west of Ireland, who moves to Dublin, where she works in a grocer's shop and shares a room with her friend and schoolmate, Barbara "Baba" Brennan. (Baba is only a secondary character in "Girl with Green Eyes", but she plays a more central role in the other two episodes of the trilogy). Kate hopes to find a boyfriend, but she is shy and naïve and has less success than the more worldly-wise Baba. Eventually, however, Kate becomes involved with the middle-aged Eugene Gaillard, and it is their romance which forms the main subject-matter of the film. (In the original novel Eugene was a film-maker, but here he becomes a writer).

The age difference between Kate and Eugene is not the only obstacle in the way of their relationship. She is a devout Catholic and he a freethinker who does not share her faith. To make matters worse, he is married with a child. He is separated from his wife, but the two are not formally divorced. (At the period when the film is set, divorce was not possible in the Irish Republic; Mrs Gaillard, an American by birth, has had to return to her native country in order to obtain one). Kate's widowed father is horrified by the idea that his daughter is involved with a married man and he descends on Dublin with a group of friends, virtually kidnapping Kate and forcing her to return home, although at the first opportunity she can get she runs back to Eugene.

When the "Country Girls" trilogy was first published, between 1960 and 1963, it caused great controversy in O'Brien's native Ireland. It could be published in Britain but was banned in the Republic, and copies of the books were publicly burned. (It seems that the only freedom the Irish people had gained by secession from the UK was the freedom to be less free than their neighbours). It is therefore surprising that permission was given to make the film in Dublin and other Irish locations, even though it was made in 1964, only a hear after the final instalment in the trilogy had come out.

The film was, however, made by a British production company, Woodfall Film Productions, and the leading actors were all either British (Rita Tushingham as Kate, Lynn Redgrave as Baba) or Australian (Peter Finch as Eugene). Despite the Irish setting, it was made in the "kitchen sink" social-realist style popular in Britain in the late fifties and sixties. Woodfall had earlier made other films in this style, such as "A Taste of Honey", which also starred Tushingham, and "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner", both directed by Tony Richardson, who acted as executive producer for "Girl with Green Eyes". The director, however, was Desmond Davis, making his directorial debut after working as a cameraman. .

At the time, the "kitchen sink" school was hailed as marking a new departure in British film-making, although the vogue for films of this nature was to be a relatively brief one, and did not really survive into the seventies (not, by any means, the most distinguished decade in British cinema history). "Spring and Port Wine" from 1970 can be seen as marking the end of the line. Nevertheless, that brief period saw some films of genuine quality and gave a voice to the British working class who had previously been neglected by the country's film-makers.

There are first-rate performances from Tushingham as Kate, a much more sensitive and vulnerable figure than her Jo in "A Taste of Honey", and from Finch as Eugene, a rather more sympathetic figure than he is in the book, a sophisticated, intellectual type who is at first flattered by the attentions of a younger woman, but who realises that the differences between them are too great to be easily overcome. "Girl with Green Eyes" is perhaps less well-known today than films like "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", "A Taste of Honey" or "The Loneliness...", but I think it deserves to be better remembered.

Lovely, lyrical, bittersweet romance

[vallerose · 8/10 · 21 October 2009]

Lovely, lyrical, bittersweet romance with young Rita Tushingham as a simple, convent-reared shop girl in Ireland who forms a relationship with a much older man, an intellectual, worldly agnostic (and married, but separated), living in isolation on a farm, writing books, in a finely wrought performance by Peter Finch. Tushingham and her chatterbox roommate, nicely played by Lynn Redgrave, casually meet on Finch's farm. Tushingham finds him attractive, with age difference no object, and invites him to tea in the city. Finch, somewhat world weary and wary of getting himself into an affair with a young, innocent girl, succumbs to her persistence and after a few meetings they consummate their relationship tenderly in scenes of gentle mutual affection. But, eventually, with family and priest strongly admonishing her for her "adultery" and ultimately Finch's withdrawal, Tushingham moves to England and finds relationships with men her own age and philosophically accepts the end of one, memorable phase of her life and the beginning of another. But this is not a plot-driven film – it's all character. As a sagacious film critic said a long time ago of another actress in another film (Audrey Hepburn in "A Nun's Story"), the theater is all in her face and it's Tushingham's wonderfully wistful performance, all manifested in those big, expressive eyes, that is the central and salient feature of this fine film, and which gives it its special quality.

Marc Feldman 3-8-2005

An Unsatisfying Romance

[atlasmb · 5/10 · 3 July 2020]

Though most of this film focuses on the relationship between a young woman named Kate (Rita Tushingham) and an older man named Eugene (Peter Finch), this is decidedly the woman's story. He is only on camera when he interacts with her.

Unfortunately, Kate's story arc is unsatisfying, because whatever her points of view, she usually abandons them; also, the object of her affections---Eugene---is as noncommittal and lackadaisical about their relationship as she is. They have a fairly unromantic romance. This is the fault of the writing, not the acting by Finch and Tushingham, who do inhabit their characters well.

At her essence, Kate is a good girl, mindful of Roman Catholic dogma, dealing with major pangs of guilt when she transgresses. When she decides to ignore the teachings of her father or her priest, she knows she deserves punishment, though a small voice inside her tells her she is allowed to be her own person. That voice belongs to a bird that never takes flight during the film, though the ending suggests that she might later learn to soar above the odious and inane teachings of her parish.

My least favorite thing about this film is the incidental music, which I found to be distracting and annoying.

You can take a girl out of a convent but not the convent out of the girl

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 22 November 2018]

Bitter sweet tale beautifully adapted for the screen by Edna O'Brien from her own novel. It is a difficult subject. a young girl's infatuation with an older married man but the dialogue is so good it even convinces when you initially feel that a scene is unlikely to work. Her inviting him out to tea, her opening his bedroom door are prickly moments dealt with so well they seem perfectly natural. Rita Tushingham and Peter Finch are perfect in their roles and director Desmond Davis' light touch in the first of a short run of successful films ensures that there is almost something magical now and again. Of course, such a subject would be controversial anywhere, anytime but early 60s Ireland it must have been very much a no, no and the film does not avoid this. Indeed it confronts the hypocrisy of family and church very well including a devastating eulogy from the local priest which absolves men from just about anything, except the matter in hand. You can take a girl out of a convent but not the convent out of the girl, is the ardent hope of these primitive souls but perhaps no more as recently uncovered horrors have exposed even greater hypocrisy and criminality in the name of the Lord. In the end the film says more about the making and keeping or changing friends (and lovers) and is a surprisingly insightful outing.

the good, the bad and the lovely

[nomorefog · 8/10 · 25 May 2011]

I ordered this on video through my overseas mailing service and it was easy to get a hold of to rent. Starring Rita Tushingham and Peter Finch, and based upon a novel by Edna O'Brien. My mail order contact told me he was one of Rita Tushingham's old boyfriends, which impressed me very much and for some reason made me biased toward liking the film.

The film is set in Dublin and the Irish countryside nearby, where the people are, shall we say, strict about certain matters. Tushingham plays an impressionable young girl bored with her life at home on an Irish farm. She moves to Dublin and shares a flat with a best friend (wonderfully played by Lyn Redgrave). She meets and becomes attracted to Finch's sophisticated author. They have a very touching romance, much to the chagrin of the local Irish louts who consider the pair as deeply suspicious and sinners in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church. Girl With Green Eyes was shot on location in Ireland and has a wonderful feeling for the people even when they are being intolerant and brutish.

Tushingham and Finch are both appealing and bring a wonderful reality to their parts. The fate of their romance is left up in the air as Finch decides to go back to his wife and Tushingham refusing to go back to live on her father's farm, set on living her own life. In between, their relationship is portrayed with a great amount of tenderness and it is a lovely film for those of us who are romantics at heart.

Peter Finch is photographed in a particularly flattering way. He looks spectacularly handsome in this, with a swathe of grey hair and a face that has seen a lot of living. And what a marvellous voice he had, it is totally unlike any other. And lo and behold, he was also an Australian. 'Girl with Green Eyes' is a small but precious gem to be treasured and absolutely recommended if you're feeling less pre-occupied with matters of the mind, and more with matters of the heart.

A small masterpiece

[MOscarbradley · 9/10 · 28 April 2017]

Desmond Davis may be the finest director ever to have been 'overlooked' by the British film establishment. A former camera operator Davis directed his first feature in 1964 and it's a small masterpiece and one of the most beautifully shot black and white films in all of British cinema, (Manny Wynn was the DoP). "Girl with Green Eyes" was adapted by Edna O Brien from her novel "The Lonely Girl" and it's set in Dublin where friends Kate and Baba share lodgings and where Kate meets a much older English writer, (an excellent Peter Finch), with whom she has an affair.

It's a very simple picture, closer in tone to the French New Wave than the British Kitchen Sink and while now it's largely been forgotten it was surprisingly successful in its day, winning the Golden Globe for Best English Language Foreign Film while Davis took the National Board of Review's Best Director prize. Davis followed it with two more superb 'small' films, "The Uncle" and another O'Brien story "I Was Happy Here" before a brief breakthrough into more commercial fare and then an awful lot of television. Still alive at ninety, his name may not mean much to the present generation of cineastes but his first three films alone, and "Girl with Green Eyes" in particular, have earned him his place in the sun

Unremarkable

[crumpytv · 4/10 · 25 February 2021]

Of its time, but the casting for Dublin in the 1960s was way off. Casting Rita Tushingham and Lynne Redgrave as Irish just didn't gel. Peter Finch is Australian, this was clear from his first words, but no mention is made of him hailing from the Antipodes. The relationship between Eugene and Kate started off interestingly but the acting let it down. The relationship was just not believable and the love scenes (kissing) were embarrassingly inadequate and poorly acted. The high spot was Lynne Redgrave who stole the film as Baba. I wonder if this role got her the one as Georgy Girl a couple of years later because essentially the characters were the same.

A Young Gir LearningTh

[whpratt1 · 8/10 · 17 March 2008]

This is a cute story about a young girl named Kate Brady, (Rita Tushingham) who lives with another girl named Baba Brenan, (Lynn Redgrave) and Baba sort of leads her roommate Kate around with her and is very talkative and has had plenty of relationships with men. However, Kate Brady becomes very interested in a man who is twice her age and begins to do everything she can to capture his attention. This man is Eugene Gaillard, (Peter Finch) who is a writer and a married man with a daughter and Eugene is not getting along very well with his wife and wants to get a divorce. Kate begins to get Eugene's full attention and before you know it, they are starting a strange relationship with each other which can lead to a great deal of trouble. Kate's family becomes involved and there are big problems facing Kate. This is a rather bitter sweet love story which is very true to what life is really all about. Enjoy.

not a fan of Tushingham

[lotusgdess-1 · 4/10 · 17 March 2017]

Never cared very much for Rita Tushingham. I remember her being tagged for the role of the daughter of Lara & Yuri in Dr. Zhivago. Seriously? That face was not created by the DNA of the likes of Julie Christie and Omar Sharif. I find her acting mannerisms irritating and her face reminiscent of a ferret. I realize that not every movie actor needs to be a great beauty, but swear to god I don't see how she ever got a career in movies. It's just hard to see her for 2 hours in a film. Thankfully I didn't watch it on a huge screen.

The movie seems dated. Lynn Redgrave was pretty good and Peter Finch played his usual cold & distant personality which reminded me of his Jake Armitage character in The Pumpkin Eater.