Loss of Innocence

This movie is my husband's favorite. He, the consummate movie buff, describes this movie as "nearly perfect" and "simply beautiful."

We have been searching for a copy of it for quite literally a decade. It does not appear to have ever been issued on videotape and it never appears on television, either.

If any of you just happen to know someplace where this wonderful movie might be available, please contact us!

Greengage Summer (Loss Of Innocence, American release title) is a wonderful, nostalgic movie that I love to watch over and over again. How can you improve upon Kenneth More looking over at a blossoming Susannah York in one of her first films, tasting the perspiration on her face and saying sweetly: "Dew of Joss"? Sigh. So romantic!

The performances of all the children are first rate, and the actor who plays Paul is perfectly slimey for his part. You can almost smell him through the tv screen! In the novel by Rumer Godden I think there were two more children than in the movie, but who's counting? Best scenes: the French countryside, the sightseeing tour to the church, winery and the cafe, the dance scene at the hotel, and Eliot saying goodbye to Joss at the end. The movie also boasts rather gorgeous music that is available on CD. Check it out. I sounded out the main theme and play it on my piano quite often.

They just don't make films like this anymore, and if they tried to they would have the main characters in bed together in the first five minutes. Yuck. Give me yesterday, and understated romance over the tripe they call entertainment today.

In the early 1960s there were several movies that put a teen-aged girl into a moral dilemma that was difficult even for people three times her age. But the performances of Jill Haworth in "Exodus," Hayley Mills in "The Chalk Garden" and Merrie Spaeth and Tippy Walker in "The World of Henry Orient" are overshadowed by that of Susannah York in "The Greengage Summer" (1961).

York plays a responsible person who falls in love with a criminal -- a professional thief, played by Kenneth More, who finds her very attractive. She is sixteen, he is in his 40s. Without parents for the summe, she is in charge of her younger siblings; he is single and carefree. But there is no seduction here, from either party.

Susannah York's Joss trembles and blushes as someone ready to throw pride and morality to the wind in the name of love. Kenneth More's Eliot, initially a copy of Charles Boyer's Pepe in "Algiers" (1940), becomes genuinely awkward as he tries to understand her exuberance, and as he rediscovers a pre-criminal sense of honor within himself. The relationship of these two unlikely lovers is erotic, but without the smutty sex we now expect from such cinematic situations, and without the sermonizing or soft-focus slow motion that became fashionable for awhile a few years after this movie and those with a similar theme.

Realistic dialogue and lush background scenes are juxtaposed against embarrassing and unspoken emotions, making this film a haunting exposition.

Kevin Cisneros

The alternative title for this film is The Loss of Innocence, which sounds deceptively exploitative. It is however an appropriate description of a charming yet sinister film.

The film is set in the Champagne Country in France, so we get some lush views of the French countryside and even a look into the champagne caves. That alone would probably be enough for some people but we have a great story too: four children (for those who read the book, the character of Cecil has been merged with Hester) are left on their own in a grand hotel in France when their mother gets taken ill. Thirteen-year-old Hester, the second eldest, takes charge of The Littles (their name for the two young children) as she has the best knowledge of French, but it is the eldest child, sixteen-year-old Joss, that blossoms almost overnight. Her beauty captures the heart of their unofficial guardian, middle-aged Englishman Eliot, and Joss soon becomes entangled in a love triangle between her, Eliot, and co-owner of the hotel, Madame Zizi. Further complications arise when Eliot proves himself to be untrustworthy, perhaps even criminal...

The novel has been diluted in the transition to film. The novel's equivalent of Hester, Cecil, is the narrator of the novel, so we see her sister's sexual awakening through her eyes. Cecil also undergoes a transition into womanhood, however all hints of this are eradicated in the film. Whether this is due to time restrictions or trying to please the censors is unclear. The focus of the film is on Joss and her coming-of-age. Fans of the book may be disappointed that Susannah York does not have the exotic dark beauty that Joss is supposed to have, but she is suitably pretty and passes as a sixteen-year-old who is just turning into a woman. She also resembles Sue Lyon in Lolita, which came out in the same year, and the two films have some similarities in that relationship. Kenneth More is a bit old to play Eliot so one might have to stretch their imagination to believe that Joss fancies him. He also doesn't have the suaveness or mysteriousness of Eliot in the novel. However he does have a chirpy charm and works well with the children. A mention should also go to Jane Asher, who plays Hester's curiosity of the adult world very effectively.

Although the film does not capture the darkness and perfection of the novel, it remains a nice exploration of the process of growing up.

I was only 10 when I saw this film but I'd been seeing films for around 3 years at least already so I really did understand what was going on, etc. For some reason, I OFTEN think of this movie and have been trying to remember the title for years to see if it's available for purchase. I can't wait to see how I like it now, 40 years later... for some reason that countryside is in my mind and I must see it again.