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!

I saw this lovely little film shortly after it first appeared. It is a thoroughly charming and winning motion picture about first love, disillusionment, and acknowledgement, as the young and lovely Susannah York comes of age. She is absolutely winning in one of her first major roles. Kenneth More is superb as the object of York's unrequited affections, and Danielle Darrieux is splendid as More's jealous lover. Wonderful scenes of the French countryside (I remember especially a charming visit to a wine chateau) make this a delightfully wistful experience.

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.

This film is a distant memory of Sunday afternoons in my teens when this film was still played in the UK. How can we get it released on video? The innocence of the girl falling in love with the thief, it was gripping. ten out of ten

Susannah York is astonishingly good as a sixteen-year old British girl, traveling through France with her mother and three younger siblings, who falls in love for the first time with a handsome, older man (Kenneth More) harboring a guilty secret. The kids, who are left temporarily without their mum after she takes sick, arrive at their hotel in France's Champagne Country to an ill-wind: the two lesbian women who run the extravagant spread do not permit children, but one of the ladies is also involved with More and he takes the family under his wing. The complex relationship between the women--business partners who appear to have a great deal of history together-- is handled without high drama (indeed, Howard Koch's writing is so subtle that the depth of these characters may elude some viewers). The children get to stay, and everyone falls in love with dashing More, but with crystal-eyed Susannah there's bound to be heartbreak--and in that heartbreak, jealousy and a child's vindictiveness. A fully thought-out and realized film-adaptation of Rumer Godden's novel, played out amongst a gorgeous backdrop. The movie has a precocious nature and a wise child's sensibility--very little of the drama is hammered out for us--and the tone of the picture is kept dreamy-romantic. It is exceptionally well-performed, and given a sensitive direction from Lewis Gilbert that ably steers viewers through the complicated narrative to the story's poetic finish. *** from ****