Leo the Last

In one of the more bizarre movies I have ever seen, Mastrianni stars as a rich, but somwhat shy rich person who spends his days spying with his telescope on his black neighbours across the street and the antics they get into. When I thought this was going to be nothing but a very strange variation of Rear Window, Mastrianni soon joins their cause in fighting for better living conditions... Soon he finds out that he actually owns the buildings in the first place..

Whoa, this is a John Boorman film? I should have expected actually, because his work wildly fluctuates. I have NO idea why Marcello Mastrianni is in this movie, as he either acting for the money, or curiously oblivious as how dated this was going to look after a number of years. A curious Movie indeed.

This bizarre drama has a terrific cast who seem to have been forced to sit through one too many viewings of Fellini Satryicon. The film looks great, thanks to Peter Suschitsky's terrific cinematography, and the film has a wonderful opening credit sequence that seems to promise great things. Alas, screenwriter-director John Boorman seems to have ingested acid as he was plotting the film, as it's all downhill from there. It's always good to see Calvin Lockhart working, and I have a soft spot for Ram John Holder and his 'Black London Blues', but Leo the Last is buried by its pacing and an absolutely horrendous score by Fred Myrow, who went on to better work in Soylent Green and the Phantasm series. One of those 60s pieces you should see if you're interested in the period. Others can safely avoid.

I worked on this movie as a driver for the Directer, John Boorman. I remember he was very easy to get on with, and his wife Crystal was a pleasure to know her. The 2 younger twins, Daisy and Charlie were only very young then and were great kids. The family lived in Connaught Sq London, near Marble Arch, and I enjoyed many amusing lunches there particularly when Peter Cook turned up and the red wine was flowing like water.

By the time I joined the movie most of the filming was done and a lot of work was being done on the sound track. John was a perfectionist and the recording sessions often went late into the night. I remember the "end of shoot" party quite well, It was only across Hyde Park but the traffic was so busy John and his wife decided to catch the tube instead, but I cut through Mayfair and got there first. I thought maybe John would be annoyed at me arriving first, but he was very laid back that it wasn't a problem. He had 3 Au Pair girls, 2 Americans, and 1 Australian. I was going out with the Australian girl and she was mainly responsible for me moving to Australia.

In short, I enjoyed my experience working on the movie.

Im writing this in the hope that someone will see it,this film takes me back to my childhood because i remember very well the making of this.We lived in Hurstway street which was in the process of being demolished, and literally all of the houses around us were being bulldozed so the taste of plaster and dry dust was always in the air, but i do digress. In our old street a load of portacabins were set up for the cast and crew and we got to know them,especially billie whitelaw who came to our house to give my brother a spirograph because he was ill. The fireworks wow that was something and the lady singing in the street my mum complained about the noise. We got free electricity from lee electrics because we knew the blokes on the generators,if you can imagine the old streets that you could play in without worry and the bombsites i was so rich as a child and i loved it because we had no material things to speak of. How exciting as a kid to watch a movie being made. chris

As a huge fan of early Boorman I finally had the chance of seeing a nice 35mm print of this at the Cinematheque here in Los Angeles last night, (opposed to horrid bootleg copies i'd seen previously) There must have been about 5 people in attendance, which isn't unusual lately for the Egyptian Theatre, especially for rare 70's films. It seems the crowds get smaller and smaller, nobody seems to care. While dumb rap clubs throb away on the streets of Hollywood and people file in to see disposable tripe like Pirtates of the "Carribbean 3" or "Knocked Up" down at the mega multiplexes, this little oddity from 1970 plays away to a small few. A film that will likely never be screened again, anywhere, at any time. This is a strange time we live in, it's over. This is it folks, there is no future for cinema, there is no future at all. At some point after the 70's ended we took a wrong path. it is over.