Experiencing a massive re-think just now concerning world cinema! This has been occasioned in part by watching every disc one can get one's hands on of the recently released catalogue of British "Vintage Classics". Have you ever heard of "Mandy" (1951)? Or "The Captive Heart" (1946)? Or "The Sound Barrier" (1952)?

Or "The Maggie" (1954)? Or "The Angry Silence" (1960)? Or "Melody" (1971)? -- which, incidentally, was the source material for "Moonrise Kingdom" (2012) by Wes Anderson.

What you find out as you view these priceless expressions of popular art is that you've probably been wrong to idolize, almost to the exclusion of other expressions, the "cool" movies of the French 'New Wave' or the British 'Kitchen Sink'/'Angry Young Man' school.

I, for one, got so mesmerized, "When I Was Young" (Eric Burdon and the Animals, 1967), by the narrative of art as "transgression", as the angry denunciation of boundaries and establishments, that I failed to recognize a whole host of other expressions -- and in particular, expressions of human drama that were redemptive and optimistic rather than bitter and enraged.

Just compare Matt Monro with Sid Vicious. Or Terence Rattigan with John Osborne. Or "Shag" (1989) with "The Graduate" (1968). (Boy, was I ever seduced by "The Graduate". Yet now I look at it, all brightly done up by the Criterion Collection, and see a superficial swipe at ... the Presbyterian Church!)

So here's a little word in favor of happiness, fun, and seaside romance. Did you miss out?