Martin Bradley Desmond Davis may be the finest director ever to have been 'overlooked' by the British film establishment. A former camera operator Davis directed his first feature in 1964 and it's a small masterpiece and one of the most beautifully shot black and white films in all of British cinema, (Manny Wynn was the DoP). "Girl with Green Eyes" was adapted by Edna O Brien from her novel "The Lonely Girl" and it's set in Dublin where friends Kate and Baba share lodgings and where Kate meets a much older English writer, (an excellent Peter Finch), with whom she has an affair.It's a very simple picture, closer in tone to the French New Wave than the British Kitchen Sink and while now it's largely been forgotten it was surprisingly successful in its day, winning the Golden Globe for Best English Language Foreign Film while Davis took the National Board of Review's Best Director prize. Davis followed it with two more superb 'small' films, "The Uncle" and another O'Brien story "I Was Happy Here" before a brief breakthrough into more commercial fare and then an awful lot of television. Still alive at ninety, his name may not mean much to the present generation of cineastes but his first three films alone, and "Girl with Green Eyes" in particular, have earned him his place in the sun

tomsview Seeing this film after 40-years reminded me how good Peter Finch was – just about the most worldly, in control guy you could hope to see on the screen. He seemed to get better looking as he got older, although he showed every one of his years.Rita Tushingham got all the raves at the time, and she was a unique presence around the early 60's; it's easy to see why she had an impact on the critics, she had a look with those big eyes and mobile features – she seemed to literally devour life in her early roles.Set in Ireland, Kate Brady (Rita Tushingham), a young country girl experiencing life for the first time in the city, has an affair with a much older man: a writer, Eugene Gaillard (Peter Finch). However, there are problems; he doesn't want to get too involved after a failed marriage, and she has inhibitions due to a suspicious father and her upbringing as a strict Roman Catholic.This was Desmond Davis first film as director, and possibly he was influenced by the French New Wave where everything had the feeling it was photographed by accident with plenty of sharp cutting. Some of the mood changes in the film are also a bit sudden as well. When Kate's father and friends arrive from the village to save her from Eugene, the film gets an attack of the John Fords with the whole sequence treated as broad comedy with even broader Irish characters.However there is assurance with the way the scenes of Kate and Eugene are handled. Kate although sensitive, is outspoken and often at odds with the older Eugene, she is a strong character and not as naive as he seems to think she is. Eugene makes allowances for Kate's youth, but is inclined to avoid confrontation – their exchanges are often intense, but also breezy and witty, with the odd insight thrown in.The bedroom scenes were quite frank for the times, even if they are of the sheets around the shoulders variety. John Addison's score has a wistfulness that portends the end of the affair, a sentiment echoed in the script. At one point Eugene observes, "There's no always in human relations … people die, change, outgrow their best friends, nothing's permanent".Awkward touches aside, this is still an engaging film. It has two charismatic stars; a touch of sadness and a life-goes-on ending that feels about right.

vallerose Lovely, lyrical, bittersweet romance with young Rita Tushingham as a simple, convent-reared shop girl in Ireland who forms a relationship with a much older man, an intellectual, worldly agnostic (and married, but separated), living in isolation on a farm, writing books, in a finely wrought performance by Peter Finch. Tushingham and her chatterbox roommate, nicely played by Lynn Redgrave, casually meet on Finch's farm. Tushingham finds him attractive, with age difference no object, and invites him to tea in the city. Finch, somewhat world weary and wary of getting himself into an affair with a young, innocent girl, succumbs to her persistence and after a few meetings they consummate their relationship tenderly in scenes of gentle mutual affection. But, eventually, with family and priest strongly admonishing her for her "adultery" and ultimately Finch's withdrawal, Tushingham moves to England and finds relationships with men her own age and philosophically accepts the end of one, memorable phase of her life and the beginning of another. But this is not a plot-driven film – it's all character. As a sagacious film critic said a long time ago of another actress in another film (Audrey Hepburn in "A Nun's Story"), the theater is all in her face and it's Tushingham's wonderfully wistful performance, all manifested in those big, expressive eyes, that is the central and salient feature of this fine film, and which gives it its special quality.Marc Feldman 3-8-2005

Jay Raskin The only thing I had seen before this by Desmond Davis, was the classic "Clash of the Titans." That was perhaps the best movie ever made based on ancient Greek Mythology. It was a wonderful adventure and fantasy film.This is totally different. It is British new wave with a camera that tracks, sweeps and runs across the British/Irish countryside as gently as it tickles Rita Tushingham's large nosed, perky face. Besides the energetic cinematography and editing which is somewhere between Goddard's "Breathless" and Richard Lester's "A Hard Day's Night," we get a hard edge slice of life drama/comedy that leaps with wit and poetry. Its as good as Tushingham's earlier, similar hit, "A Taste of Honey." Lynn Redgrave is cuter than any human being has a right to be and Peter Finch is honest and likable as Eugene, the man who wins Tushingham's confidence, if not her heart.The point of the movie is that we all change and we even "outgrow our friends". We should accept it without getting hysterical or dramatic about it. It is a touch sad, but we move on.In a way it belongs with "My Fair Lady," and "Educating Rita" as a picture about women becoming...All one can say about the movie in its entirety: "Smashing!"