Georgy Girl

I watched this movie mostly for Lynn Redgrave, expecting nothing more than an old, light-hearted British comedy. It was better than I expected; "Georgy Girl" is a lovely, bittersweet dramedy clearly inspired by American screwball comedies of the 30's and the French New Wave that was burning in the 60's (to see how much the Nouvelle Vague aesthetics influenced British cinema, check the also remarkable "Two for the Road", with Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn).

Redgrave, fantastic as usual, plays Georgy, a scatter-brained working-class virgin with a golden heart. She shares a flat with a selfish, cold bitch (Charlotte Rampling), who gets pregnant of Jos (Alan Bates), and the three of them eventually move together; but things get complicated as Georgy is courted by Jos and James (James Mason), a much older man, at the same time.

Bates (is it just me, or does he look like Jean-Paul Belmondo - one of the greatest Nouvelle Vague icons because of Godard's "Breathless" - in this?), Rampling and Mason are all great in their respective parts, but this is Redgrave's show all the way. Her anti-heroine is sweet and memorable, somewhat similar to Toni Collette's Muriel Heslop (from "Muriel's Wedding"), some sort of a British, less patient and clumsier Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou). Georgy singing "Whole Lotta Woman" is a classic scene. Lynn's performance alone would make this movie worth seeing, but she's not the only good thing about it, just the core. 10/10.