Sunday 14 April 2024

The Sailor From Gibralter (1967 Tony Richardson & co-scr)

Richardson's film, an adaptation of Marguerite Duras, seems something like a shaggy-dog story. It has a fabulous beginning with couple Ian Bannen and Vanessa Redgrave in Florence and nearby, he utterly disillusioned with life; he leaves her and hooks up with a mysterious 'American' Jeanne Moreau, who's cruising the Mediterranean trying to find a lost love. The journey takes us to Greece, then Africa, and finally Alexandria, where nothing is resolved.

It's a rare film now, for some reason, though luckily TCM had screened it at some point, in a nice clean copy, albeit at 1.6:1 cropped from a wider ratio. It looks lovely, photographed by Raoul Coutard. Tony Gibbs is the supervising editor, working with Brian Smedley-Aston and Bill Blunden, and the music's by Antoine Duhamel.

Orson Welles and Hugh Griffith pop up briefly.

Christoper Isherwood and Don Magner also worked on the script. Truffaut's Suzanne Schiffman is the script girl. No credit for whoever designed the fabulous credits scene.






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