Daisy Miller (1974 Peter Bogdanovich)

Well, Peter explained - do you know Peter? oh well, he's a lovely chap - he explained that he felt he didn't quite fit into America being the son of European parents and didn't quite fit into Europe as being too American, a decidedly alienating thing - still, I suppose this sort of thing is more common than you think - and that Henry James novel, well long short story, thus appealed to him greatly and also to his loved one Cybill - who's everso good in those very long scenes, be it by the lake in Vevey, the Hotel Trois Couronnes or somesuch place - yes she really wanted to play the part of Annie Miller and when they met Barry Brown, why he just was Frederick Winterbourne, has a sort of melancholy sense about him - they say he used to read the obituaries every day - poor Barry, a strange and sad man, but he's awfully good, well they both are, such a shame then that the film wasn't really seen by anyone, wasn't liked much by the public and it slipped away like the last rays of sunshine over the Chateau de Chillon - oh, have you been? It's the most visited historic monument in Switzerland.

Yes. She might have understood more had she talked less. It's a dance, a social comedy of manners in which neither of the two can understand the other's feelings, hindered as they are by the judgements and impressions of all those around them, Mildred Natwick, Eileen Brennan, Cloris Leachman, George Morfogen, Nicholas Jones - even various concierges and bell hops. So whilst Frederic Raphael's writing stresses these social conflicts with amusing dialogue it still tenderly makes its way towards tragedy.*

Full credit to the cast who enact these long takes with complicated camera moves - something about the overlapping dialogue and the moves and the period and even the end credits made me think of The Magnificent Ambersons more than once. Beautifully shot by Alberto Spagnoli, edited by Verna Fields, no music score. The end fade to white anticipates Six Feet Under.

Larry McMurtry's son James plays the kid.

Loved the shot of Cybill being driven away in carriage outside the Colosseum. Q usefully informs me that Roman Fever was malaria ('mal aria' - bad air) emanating from swamps in this part of town.

Troubled family - sister Marilyn also committed suicide, told in brother James's book 'The Los Angeles Diaries'

*In fact Peter is latterly reported as saying he didn't use any of Raphael's script.