Georgy Girl
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Georgy Girl is a 1966 British film based on a novel by Margaret Forster. Its title song became a hit single.
The film was directed by Silvio Narizzano and starred Lynn Redgrave as Georgy. It also starred Alan Bates, James Mason, and Charlotte Rampling.
[edit] Plot
Georgina (Lynn Redgrave) is a 22-year-old Londoner of lower-class birth. She has considerable musical talent, is well-educated, and has a rather charming if shameless manner. On the other hand, she believes herself to be plain, dresses haphazardly, and is incredibly naïve on the subjects of love and flirtation; she has never had a boyfriend. She has an inventive imagination and loves children.
Her parents are the live-in employees of one James Leamington, a successful businessman. Leamington (James Mason) is fiftyish and has a loveless, childless marriage. He has watched with affection as "George" grew up, and has treated her as if her were a second father. (It is he who provided her excellent education and a studio for George in his own home in which she teaches dance to children.) As George has become a young woman, however, it is apparent that Leamington's feelings for George have become more than fatherly.
James offers George a legal contract, offering to supply her with the luxuries of life in return for her becoming his mistress. He also promises to provide for any "fruit of the union". George refuses his offer; Leamington's businesslike language and manner (and awkward inability to express any affection for her) leave her cold.
George's flatmate is her so-called best friend Meredith (Charlotte Rampling). Meredith is a beautiful but shallow woman who lives to pursue her own hedonistic pleasures. She treats George as if she were an unpaid servant, and George meekly complies.
When Meredith discovers that she is pregnant by her boyfriend Jos (Alan Bates), they are married and Jos moves in with the two girls. Jos becomes disillusioned with the shallow Meredith and begins to find himself attracted to George (he suddenly kisses her while in the midst of an argument with Meredith over her cavalier attitude to her pregnancy). Jos and George soon begin a secret affair.
Meredith gives birth to a daughter. She has tired of Jos and has no interest in the baby, refusing to have anything to do with her. She announces her plans to put the child up for adoption and divorce her husband.
George and Jos set up home together in the flat, caring for the baby (whom they name Sara) and living as a married couple. It soon becomes clear that George's interest is more in the baby than an adult relationship with Jos. The relationship ends when Jos realises he is of no real importance to George and has tired of a father's responsibilities. Now that George is the sole caretaker of a baby to whom she has no blood ties, social services wish to remove baby Sara from her care.
In the meantime, James Leamington's wife has died, leaving him a widower. (At George's request he has provided all of the baby's needs, even while she was still living with Meredith and Jos.) Leamington, who was unable to express his true feelings while his wife lived, now finds himself free to express his love for George, and proposes marriage. George accepts his proposal (but only because this will allow her to keep Sara). The two are wed despite the difference in their backgrounds and ages, and the viewer is left to wonder about the couple's future happiness. Although George married James for security instead of love, perhaps she will grow to love James as he does her.
[edit] Music
The title song, which was written by Jim Dale, was sung by the Australian pop group The Seekers.
The title song was a #2 U.S. and Australian hit, and a #3 British hit in 1966.
It was nominated for an Academy Award for song of the year.
[edit] External link
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