Recensioni de* critic*

This astonishing play was by an eighteen-year-old woman, Shelagh Delaney, whose reaction to one of Terence Rattigan's well-made and polite dramas was the conviction that she could do better herself. Richardson not only produced and directed the film but also cowrote the screenplay with Delaney. Their script is faithful to the dialogue and plot of the play but explodes it out of the cramped settings of cheap apartments and into the rural and urban landscapes of industrial Lancashire.

The film's complicated treatment of love stands out as its best asset. Jo's fling with a black sailor, which results in her pregnancy, is sweet, charming, and funny... As a film that celebrates and fears the quickly changing world, A Taste of Honey is gifted with its central performance from Tushingham, which keeps it fresh and timeless. It isn't perfect, however; the filmmaking displays discomfort in how to treat a feminine drama versus a male one.

Shelagh Delaney's adaptation of her own play finds an acid touch in Richardson's direction, which treats Jo and Helen's constant bickering as the anchor for their humanity.

Richardson's next two films, A Taste of Honey (1961) and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), are among the greatest of the British New Wave films because Richardson synthesizes the Nouvelle Vague style and atmospheric lighting of cinematographer Walter Lassally, the modern scores of John Addison and naturalistic acting of unknown actors to tell poetic stories that give insight into the souls of ordinary people.

A perfect example of how the 'New British Cinema' of the late '50s and early '60s has dated and become almost unwatchable... There's no anger, no joy, and ultimately no insight in this film; its shallow reliance on clichés reeks of complacency.

Tony Richardson, who directed this mess, was once quoted as saying, "The British cinema is the worst in the world," and he was in a position to know.