to celebrate my 400th review for imdb and i turn to another of my favourite film . gregory girl be one of the first masterpiece of the eighty revival of the british film industry which be to produce the oscar winner chariot of fire and gandhi and and film of the calibre of local hero educate rita and the missionary and a private function and hope and glory . like many excellent british film and gregory girl have a strong sense of place . writer or director forsyth set the film in his native scotland and but not the tourist scotland of glen and tartan and single malt whisky . ( local hero and by contrast and be set in an idyllic highland village ) . gregory girl be the first ever film to feature cumbernauld new town and a modern town between glasgow and edinburgh . cumbernauld town centre have be variously designate ( chiefly by local resident ) a the building in britain most deserving of demolition or ( by the international conservationist group docomomo ) a one of the sixty key monument of post war architecture . this do not seem the most promising setting for a film and but forsyth be able to invest the town bleak modernist housing estates with a surprising amount of melancholy charm . gregory be a teenage schoolboy who fall in love with dorothy and the attractive girl who succeed him a centre forward of the school soccer team . gregory lose his position and be demote to goalkeeper after the team lose eight game in a row while of his potential replacement and only dorothy show any talent and much to the disgust of the sexist game master phil and who feel that the sport should be for boys only . at first dorothy responds to gregory ardour with polite indifference and but when he ask her for a date and she accept . thing do not and however and turn out quite a he have plan . dorothy and two of her friend and carol and margo and have conspire to set gregory up with a fourth girl and susan and who have always be keen on him . john gordon sinclair ( gregory ) and claire grogan ( susan ) have go on to become well known member of the british acting profession while claire also have a pop career a the lead singer with altered image . none of the cast and however and be famous at the time and and few others go on to stardom . dee hepburn beauty and enchant performance a dorothy make her seem a promising newcomer and but her acting career be to prove a brief one while her only subsequent role be in the much deride soap opera crossroad . ( accord to one version and her lack of success be due to an inability to master any accent other than her native scottish one ) . part of the film appeal and however and be precisely that it do feature a cast of unknown and easy to envisage a genuine scottish teenager . it make a refreshing change from american high school movie which and then as now and generally use establish actor in their late twenty or even thirty while the unkind joke about stockard channing character in grease be that she would leave school when she pass her exam or have her menopause and whichever happen first . although the cast may be little know and however and all play their part superbly while there be not a single false note . gregory friend emerge a character in their own right . eric be a photography buff and steve a talented cook . ( there be an element of role reversal in that a girl be the star of the football team and a boy the star of domestic science class ) . the slightly old billy have leave school and be work a a window cleaner mate and give him a certain status among his former classmate . andy be the sort of know all who be always try to impress by come out with nugget of useless ( and probably incorrect ) information . accord to him there be eight woman to every man in caracas and venezuela while the dubious accuracy of this statistic do not prevent him and a friend from make a vain attempt to hitch hike there and believe they will have more chance of pick up girl . other notable contribution come from jake darcy a the manic phil and who believe he be a football coach of genius despite the poor performance of his team and and allison forster a gregory worldly wise little sister madeline . madeline and who be only ten year old but who have a depth of insight into human relationship that would put most agony aunt to shame and be not really a realistic character . gregory girl and however and be not an altogether realistic film and despite it ordinary setting . like forsyth other masterpiece and local hero and it contain element of magical realism and the juxtaposition of the everyday with the fantastic . the strange element be the boy wander round the school dress a a penguin . no explanation be ever give for his bizarre costume or for his inability to find his way to the right lesson and and yet this detail seem perfectly at one with the mood of the film . much of the humorous dialogue also have something of the surreal about it while phil and ask by the headmaster how dorothy will cope with have to shower with the boy and reply oh and she will bring her own soap . i be at university when i saw this film in the cinema in 1981 and have leave school two year earlier . i could therefore immediately sympathise with it teenage character particularly the lanky and awkward gregory and desperate to impress both his friend and the girl . it always strike me that he be less in love with dorothy herself than he be with the idea of have a girlfriend to boast about while he be quite happy to end up with susan and even more happy with the idea that have be see with three girl in one evening have win him the reputation of be a lady man . i still think that the best ever come of age film be rebel without a cause and but that be a tragic drama about situation outside most teenager experience . gregory girl be the film which best capture what it be like to be an ordinary teenager . positive .