Su vida íntima

British-made feature involving a pregnant and unmarried woman making life choices. The combined talents of director Waris Hussein, usually a very fine, quirky filmmaker, and Sandy Dennis in the lead should have resulted in something more touching than this. The lead character is in such a passive fog that she becomes vacuous. Dennis uses a subtle local accent but spends most of her time on screen fiddling with her lifeless hair. She was obviously trying to stretch her abilities passed her kooky screen persona, but a somnambulant Sandy doesn't do her--or us--any favors. The film isn't incompetent, but it's washed-out, dishwasher-dull. Also known as "Thank You All Very Much". *1/2 from ****

After seeing Sandy Dennis in all her somewhat-quirky roles ( I even saw her hit '60,s play "Any Wednesday", before she got into films), it was almost a revelation: how beautiful and fine her performance. Also, interesting as time warp: 60's situation and attitude, also all the other fine performers when they were young( Bron, Standing, McKellen )

I wish this were on DVD. I know it is an esoteric film but it is a little gem starring Sandy Dennis when she was at her peak popularity.

Despite the commentary on the miserable part of living in England, London is beautifully photographed and is almost its own character in the film.

Also a great history lesson for young women on how oppressive sexual mores(more-ays) once were before Blondie, Britney and Madonna.

Young Ian McKellen is in this for all fans of the awful Lord of the Rings Trilogy. For those who want a juxtaposition of what films once were, just watch these two McKellen films that bookend his career.

This is a great film to watch on a rainy afternoon.

Gentle film based on the Margaret Drabble novel of several years earlier, entitled, The Millstone.

Ros is an academic virgin doing her thesis at some unnamed university. One night she makes love to a campy television presenter played by Ian McKellen and falls pregnant. After much thought, she decides to keep the baby.

Luckily her rather cold parents have left London for Africa, so she has the run of their large mansion flat off Baker Street and she invites her friend, played by Eleanor Bron, to move in. This adds some life to the proceedings. Bron even rents a TV to bring some light to their gloomy flat, it also gives Ros a chance to catch brief glimpses of the father of her child, who she temporarily becomes mildly obsessed with.

The film is really about a young woman who grapples with the problems of having a child out of wedlock at a time when this was socially difficult.

It's sensitively made. Sometimes quite lifeless. There are some very nice shots of London, mostly around Marylebone. It's quite atmospheric and is the sort of gentle film that in the 70s would have been a rather good one-off TV play. The sort that are sadly no longer made. Middle Class, well spoken, Londoners are now forbidden territory for TV or cinematic dramas in 'Classless Britain'.

Made in 1969, but don't expect 'Swinging London'. Ros, played, rather well by Sandy Dennis, who affects a very good English accent, is what back then would have been considered a 'square'. No Donovan singles in Ros's record collection or Saturday afternoons along the King's Road. More a case of violin recitals at The Wigmore Hall and matronly outfits from Fenwick's.

The film is now available on an excellent quality DVD.

It's well made, well shot, well acted, somewhat lifeless at times, but what's good about it adds up to make this into a film well worth watching.

Sandy Dennis is working on her doctoral thesis at the British Museum. All the young men fancy her, and she seems to be moderately active, but disengaged. She falls pregnant by -- seemingly -- Ian McKellan in his first screen role. She decides to keep the baby as a single mother.

There are several questions. Why, despite her indifference, does she keep the baby? Will she ever finish her thesis, and what it is about? These questions are never answered, so clearly they are not important. What is important to this movie is making sure the Post Office Tower (now the BT Tower) is in seemingly every outdoor shot in case the IRA wants to bomb it, and the poor attitudes of nurses in the National Health Service. They are far more interested in sitting and gossiping than tending to a moaning woman, when Miss Dennis is in the wrong hospital room, they blame her and not the nurse who put her there, and when she wants to see her baby after surgery, they can't be bothered.

It would be a dull movie of petty bureaucracy were it not for Miss Duncan's constant reactions to everything. Usually it's an attitude of annoyance. Occasionally it's deliberately choosing to scream until people do what she wants. Sometimes I wonder if that's the only way to get anything done.