Petulia

I stumbled across "Petulia" late one night somewhere on cable and quickly became entranced by the mixed up, alarming and sensitive story. Julie Christie and George C. Scott are amazing in this tale of bad marriages and mistakes. Richard Chamberlain, who is chilling to look at no matter what the role, plays the slightly-insane prison-warden husband of Petulia so well it makes your hair stand-on-end with disturbance. Lester's cinematography is amazing - manipulating the scenic San Francisco landscape to its diabolical best - even better than Hitchcock in "Vertigo". It especially captures the essence of the city in its heyday of hippie-drugged-ness, adding another layer to the film's drama. The quick cross-cutting by Lester adds to the disturbing stream-of-consciousness and rich visual chemistry of the film. The 1960's drug culture poignantly juxtaposes the upright middle-class marriages of the main characters, adding color and quirkiness to the already-strange montage. I especially enjoyed George C. Scott in sport coat & tie on the floor of the Fillmore dancing to the Grateful Dead. Petulia is the cross-over character: a free spirit with a tuba in white maribou, being shut up in a stuffy mansion in Marin County, with an abusive, plastic husband. "Petulia" is a wonderful, alarming, disturbing gem of a film that has soaring hope and chilling visuals. Not a film to be missed.

I saw this film when it opened and recently bought the video and watched it again.

I remembered being very moved by the characters and the pairing of Julie Christie and George C Scott. Christie was so young and Scott was also still quite young as well. They had great chemistry. I didn't know that Shirley Knight was nominated for an award for her role. She's very good. Her scene with Scott where she's trying to appease him and he loses his temper is electric. She says more in her look, using her eyes to convey her hurt and confusion, than most actors say in too many words.

Julie Christie has always had a way of getting under your skin. She is able to make you care for her (a lot like she did in "Darling") despite the fact that her character initially comes off as flaky or "kooky." It starts out light and amusing then turns dark and insightful. I remembered this movie for years until I was able to buy the video. It is very 60's in sensibility. So, if you weren't around during that period, see this movie. It captures the sixties in way few films have done as well.

San Francisco looks beautiful in 1967.

Petulia opens with a shot of a middle-aged woman in a wheelchair, then cuts to a sixties' rock club featuring a very young-looking Janis Joplin. The sixties counterculture definitely torpedoed middle-aged women. Their husbands, like Archie, the middle-aged doctor played by George G. Scott, have the luxury of deciding they're "tired" of being married and jumping into affairs with younger women. This is a cause of continuing sadness to his ex-wife Polo, wonderfully played by Shirley Knight. Archie becomes involved with Petulia (Julie Christie), a clichéd "kooky" young woman of a type that often appeared in films of this period. Petulia is married to an abusive, wealthy husband, David, played with suitable evil by Richard Chamerlain. Christie is such a good actress that she gives some dimension to the role, although she's far outshone by Knight as Polo, the wounded wife. In its technique and attitude it really is a European or British film shot in San Francisco with American actors. There are interesting cultural references to the sixties, that may have seemed daring at the time, but now seem more innocent than anything else. The film is really about Archie and men of his generation and their bewilderment at the changing cultural mores represented by Petulia. On one hand they're delighted to feel that they can have sex with no responsibilities, but Petulia, for all her charm brings nothing but chaos into Archie's life. Was it really worth for him to be involved with her? And he ends up stuck with a high maintenance greenhouse in his apartment.

I adore this film and I'm so surprised that it doesn't have a higher score for user votes. I stumbled on this film on cable and was mesmerized. It's truly is fabulous - if it sounds like I'm gushing over it, it's because that's precisely what I'm doing. Julie Christie is just awesome in this film. She so kinetic, and of course, beautiful. The biggest surprise for me was watching Richard Chamberlain. I always thought of him as just the King of Television Mini-Series, and he was so utterly different in this than what I grew up thinking him to be. The film is so stylistic - wonderful the way it plays with time and images. Petulia is the best hidden surprise that I've stumbled on in the last 5 years. Now if someone would only release it on DVD - PLEASE!

Critically-lauded drama from fashionable filmmaker Richard Lester is certainly handsome enough, although it doesn't initially appear to leave its audience with much but a sour aftertaste. A divorced, frustrated doctor--who has taken up with an exasperating, unhappily married young woman named Petulia--quickly realizes this new direction is adding no particular meaning to his life. Choppy, infuriating picture seems to be leading somewhere but never does; admirers of the film say this is precisely Lester's point, that his tying the story in loose, inconsistent knots is his idea of symbolism. George C. Scott has some amazing moments, Julie Christie is smartly-attired and attractive, Shirley Knight and Richard Chamberlain try hard in underwritten roles, but the movie is pretentiously off-kilter. Lester underlines his scenes with a modern sort of cynicism--American cattiness--that comes off as unfunny and rude rather than satirical. However, the design and conception of the film is startling, and memories of it may sneak up on you days after seeing it. **1/2 from ****