I Was Happy Here

I enjoyed this film. The black and white photography was very smooth and pleasant. The opening credits were quite impressive too; the photography reminding me distinctively of the TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD opening. The wind music score that re-appeared throughout the film was quite beautiful as well.

Sarah Miles plays Cass Langdon - a well-mannered free spirit, wanderer-type - who, after a fight with her conservative, upper-crust husband, returns to the sleepy, old Irish seaside township of her birth. Her Londoner, "ordered and settled" husband who "was not brought up in such an Irish bog!" is soon on his way to the village to persuade her to come back away with him. For Cass, this trip back to her homeland is a period of convalescence. Much of the film is spent in flashbacks, remembering her childhood sweetheart Colin, her uneasy marriage with Matthew, and the time she spent abroad in London before meeting him.

For the most part these flashbacks are done without dissolves - which is good, because if used they would most definitely have compromised the artistic nature of the non-linear story telling. There's a very good use of close ups, and the dolly work also helps the photography. It's also good to see no rear projection - particularly in the scenes with the cars or bicycles - which is so prevalent in other British films in the early 60's.