Criterion Collection Review: A Taste of Honey (1961) by Tony Richardson

Cover of Criterion Collection #829 A Taste of Honey (1961) d. Tony Richardson

Criterion Collection Review

A Taste of Honey (1961)

d. Tony Richardson

#829

   The original idea for this blog was that I would read all 1001 Books and watch all the Criterion Collection films.   When I started, Criterion Collection still had titles on Netflix, then it moved to Hulu, then there was a brief Filmstruck period and now there is the Criterion Channel which you can install on your smart tv.  Criterion Channel far surpasses prior efforts, and it comes close to realizing the vision I thought I was getting into when I came up with the idea a decade ago.

   When I stopped watching Criterion Collection films the entire collection was at #703, A Taste of Honey, #829 came out in 2016.   That's the real problem with trying to stay current on Criterion Collection films- they come out five a month.  A Taste of Honey is a film example of the "Kitchen Sink" realism school of English art, unusual in that it takes place outside of London and the source material, a play, was written by a woman.   The story is about a high school student who lives with her louche mother in a succession of low-rent apartments in 1950's Manchester.   

  Part of the pleasure of A Taste of Honey is the Manchester locations- lovingly restored by Criterion of course.   The extras give the always interesting journey of pathbreaking films in the British film environment- marked by the absence of any first amendment protection and the ever-present British Film Censor.  Here, the controversy is obvious- an interracial coupling and an openly gay bff add to the native exoticism of the milieu.