Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Lilith (1964 Robert Rossen)

Kim Hunter slowly realises trainee occupational therapist Warren Beatty is as bonkers as the patients; in the meantime he's ravished inmate Jean Seberg (another seriously good performance) in a film I can only describe as trippy.

Editor Aram Avakian was one of the new breed, from Jazz on a Summer's Day. His very long dissolves are fabulous and the scene where the couple make love for the first time, with a sparkly river superimpoosed on lots of different fades of Seberg is worth the entire price of admission. Eugen Schufftan's marvellous high contrast deep focus photography is also a major asset. Compositions and angles all very interesting.

Peter Fonda makes a strong impression, as does Gene Hackman, who I guess Beatty then picked up for Bonnie and Clyde.

Our 1.85:1 transfer looks slightly cropped at top and bottom to me leading to suspicion it was probably 1.66:1.

No comments:

Post a Comment