A Touch of Love

I enjoyed this film. It was a slice of its time-late 60's London. I especially enjoyed seeing early performances by some very cool actors-Sandy Dennis, Eleanor Bron and Ian McKellan. Ian played a sort of lothario which was fun to see. My only doubt is about Sandy Dennis as the lead. I wonder if she was miscast. I love her, she is a favorite of mine, but I'm not sure if I accept her as a British girl. But it's a treat to see her at this young age. She plays a character that is strong willed and apparently doesn't care what society expects of her. This movie has an arty, literary quality to it which I always like. Eleanor Bron is fabulous as always. Not a film for most people, probably, but that's what makes it interesting.

Not sure I find Sandy Dennis very credible, it's a mannered performance, at times impassive and disengaged, at times the opposite - for no discernible reason other than perhaps to maintain her familiar unfathomable screen personna.

Clearly written by a woman, judged by the savage portrayal of the sadistic hospital matron who needlessly blocks the young mother from even glimpsing her recovering infant under the pretence of efficiency and rules, in contrast to the kind (male) consultant who is only too happy to allow this.

Ian McKellan plays a pleasant young man who one would assume seduces the Dennis character only that she seems neither stirred nor shaken by his advances. Nevertheless clearly we gather from her change of costume into something more comfortable and it being morning, that intimacy has taken place. Somehow this significant event has, while changing her state irrevocably, left her manner as neutral and unchanged as if it never happened. And, oddly, the film ended suddenly leaving me feeling exactly the same - as if nothing of interest or significance had happened.

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.

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 )