Daily Archives: February 27, 2018

Lilith
Directed by Robert Rossen
Written by Robert Rossen from a novel by J.R. Salamancca
1964/USA
Centaur/Columbia Pictures Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Stephen Evshevsky: How wonderful I feel when I’m happy. Do you think that insanity could be so simple a thing as unhappiness?[/box]

Here is a well-acted love triangle set in an insane asylum.

Vincent Bruce (Warren Beatty) is a troubled returning veteran.  He longs to “help people” and applies for a job in a private sanitarium which houses the schizophrenic relatives of the  wealthy.  He impresses director Dr. Bea Price (Kim Hunter) and she hires him on the spot.  He proves to be an able worker and soon makes friends with intellectual Stephen Evshevsky (Peter Fonda) and the beautiful and seductive Lilith (Jean Seberg).  Stephen has quite a crush on Lilith.

Poor Vincent tries to resist but cannot ignore Lilith’s charms.  They start a clandestine affair   that tests his own sanity and could prove tragic.

This was the final film of writer/director Robert Rossen (The Hustler).  It features the big screen debuts of Jessica Walters as Vincent’s pre-war sweetheart and Gene Hackman as her crass husband.

Lilith’s character seems to have been written for Seberg and she is absolutely luminous in the part.  All the other acting is very good with that of Peter Fonda standing out to me.  I enjoyed the film and would recommend it if the plot appeals.

Clip – Lilith can’t help herself even with small boys

A Married Woman (Une femme mariée: Suite de fragments d’un film tourné en 1964)
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Written by Jean-Luc Godard
1964/France
Anouchka Films/Orsay Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] There is no point in having sharp images when you’ve fuzzy ideas. – Jean-Luc Godard[/box]

Between inane philosophizing and inane dialogue, this is another annoying film from the irritating Jean-Luc Godard.

Charlotte (Macha Merrill) can’t make up her mind between her lover Robert and her husband Pierre.  We get plenty of scenes of their endless conversations during lovemaking.  She does a lot of lying – or is she really in love with both of them?

To annoy me even more, Godard inserts a bunch of dinner table philosophizing and references to other films and film makers.

There is no denying that Godard was an innovator.  I just don’t like his innovations.  His other film of 1964 is Band of Outsiders.  I remember liking that one so I will give Jean-Luc another chance.