An adaptation of the 1966 novel of the same name by Audrey Erskine Lindop, 1969 Brit-flick I Start Counting is an ‘end of innocence’ story in more than one sense. At the heart of the film is Wynne, a fourteen-year old girl (played by the then sixteen-year old Jenny Agutter). On the edge of adolescence, Wynne is haunted by, and is nostalgic about, growing up in her family home in the woods. Now living in a new urban tower block, she’s worried about the challenges of young adulthood and the thought of leaving her childhood behind.
Wynne’s preoccupations find a focus in an unhealthy obsession with her step-brother George, damaged by the death of his fiancée. But while she indulges in fantasies about the romantic life they could have together, she harbours the fear that he might be the killer who’s murdering young girls in the area. This coming of age story unfolds in the midst of another form of social transition: as the ‘new towns’ of the 1960s replaced the exhausted and worn out cities of an earlier industrial era. But the fact that the promised idylls of the town planner could become the sites of murder, betrayal, and selfishness is, in the plot of I Start Counting, evidence of the naivety of this kind of social engineering.
Director David Greene gives the film a considered and thoughtful tempo, favouring insights into his characters over the frenetic energy of many psychological thrillers of the time. Agutter delivers an impressively accomplished performance as the yearning Wynne. Clare Sutcliffe shines in the role of Corinne, her hedonistic and competitive best friend who’s determined to be older-than-her-years. There’s assured work too from the ever-dependable Bryan Marshall as the suspicious, and possibly duplicitous, George.
As befits a BFI Blu-ray release of this type, I Start Counting boasts an impressive quantity of special and supplementary material. In addition to the usual audio commentary, trailer, and image collections, are four new features and five historic ones. Loss of Innocence, a short treatise on the film by Chris O’Neill, is backed by interviews with screenwriter Richard Harris (An Apprentice with a Master’s Ticket); lead actor Agutter (A Kickstart); and record label owner Jonny Trunk (Worlds Within Worlds), a champion of ambient music pioneer Basil Kirchin, who wrote the film’s soundtrack.
The archival material on the disc explores the wider social and cultural context in which I Start Counting is set, as seen through contemporary eyes. It’s something that enhances an appreciation of the times in which the film was made. I Start Building is a collection of three newsreel documentaries which highlight the woefully unrealistic expectations that informed the ‘new town’ initiative of the 1960s. Don’t Be like Brenda is a finger-wagging warning to young women of the early 1970s not to succumb to the lure of lust that will result in teenage pregnancy and ruination.
Lighter relief is found in Danger on Dartmoor, a spirited Children’s Film Foundation drama from 1980, penned by Lindop, and featuring ‘national treasure’ Patricia Hayes, David Jackson (Gan from Blake’s 7), and Barry Foster (Van der Valk) amongst others. The first pressing of the Blu-ray also includes a fully-illustrated booklet, offering an expert view of the film and the work of its cast and crew. Such engaged and informed treatment of the subject matter is one of the signatures of this BFI series, and other specialist film labels would do well to emulate the approach.
