Darnit, A taste of honey (1961) is a great movie. Witty, sad & beautiful, no wonder Moz took a liking to it, and quoted several of the lines in his songs. The characters are quirky, but sweet. The cinematography is perfect; industrial, working class Manchester in shimmering black-and-white. The plot line, as summed up over at IMDB, is, however, far too simplifying: "The moving story of a plain young girl who becomes pregnant by a black sailor, befriends a homosexual, and gradually becomes a woman." 'Becoming a woman' is not a solution happily embraced by the film or its characters; 'becoming a woman' is rather portrayed as a sad destiny, a loss of freedom and individuality - of oneself. The theme of the film is rebellion, wanting to live the kind of life where one does not fall to pieces - if only one knew what that life looks like.
A taste of honey is a wise film about ideas related to gender, motherhood and (hetero/homo)sexuality. My association while watching it was Juno; like Juno, this is an offbeat, but well-articulated movie that is entertaining & fun but that never fails to take its subject matter seriously. The humour of the two films is somewhat similar, too.
After having seen this one, I'm interested in watching more Brittish, 'realist' movies from the 60's. Haven't seen too many, yet.
The dream has gone
But the baby is real
Oh, you did a good thing
She could have been a poet
Or, she could have been a fool
Oh, you did a bad thing
And i'm not happy
And i'm not sad
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