Identikit

Presented out of sequence (either a trenchant move or merely ineptness), this Elizabeth Taylor melodrama, adapted from Muriel Spark's novel by director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi and Raffaele La Capria, is rather seductive on its slim budget and fascinating in its wrong-headedness. Filmed in Italy, the story concerns a mentally disturbed woman on the hunt for the perfect man to be her...murderer? The film has such a loopy, surreal quality, you can almost feel something extraordinary happening here but without the necessary talent to make it a success. Taylor is actually attempting something (rather than just posing), but one can only wonder what she made of this script and her odd, underwritten character. Most bad films are simply boring or uninspired, but "The Driver's Seat" has an almost accidental reverse-magic. On first glance, the construction of the picture appears to be amateurish--and Taylor set adrift--but Griffi has moviemaking fever and his film is almost always interesting. ** from ****

Those sadly uneducated critics who dub this Liz' worst film have evidently never seen Boom!, based on Tennessee Williams' play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore. I don't believe Boom! has ever been released in any video format; it is unbelievably horrendous. Compared to it, Identikit (or The Driver's Seat) is a work of genius. Liz' rant at the saleslady in the very first scene is worthy of comparison with Mink Stole's opening sequence in Desperate Living. I'm also fond of the scene at the airport, where she shouts at the security people, "You're all so suspicious! SUSPICIOUS! SUS-PI-CIOUS!" Her wardrobe looks like it was designed by a clown(her landlady asks derisively if she's off to join the circus), her hair must be seen to be believed, and I give this piece of vintage Liziana three out of four stars.

This obscure movie, which has been so unfairly panned by the critics of its time, actually manages to deliver what I believe was the intention, a disintegrating world of a psychotic woman. As viewers, we are somewhere in the middle of two layers of realities, the one being the compulsive psyche of the main character, Lise, portrayed by Liz Taylor, and the other one being the absurd and incoherent events in her surroundings. I quite like this film, I had expected a B-movie with second rate production values, but I was at least partly mistaken, the cinematography is effective in painting the psychotic state of mind, example; Lise turning to her right, framed in the left side of the screen, when addressing someone. Another scene, where Lise is attempting to get in touch with a woman she befriended just recently, who may be stuck in the lavatory from some illness, we see Lise at the same time completely absorbed by her own mirror image, disconnected from any real emotional concern over the lady that might be in peril. Maybe some think these are cheap means of making a weird and psychotic setting, still the movie makes the viewer access the process of disintegration of Lise. Furthermore, some scenes are chillingly before its time regarding terror events and crimes; terror do pop up everywhere these days, and maybe a modern day public can better identify themselves with a confused and disintegrating persona as Lise. We can barely understand our own feelings and our driving forces - how can we then understand the complexity of the human society in terms of terror and conflicts?

Elizabeth Taylor reportedly said those words to her director Griffi when she came on the set the day after she left Burton for their first divorce. So with that mindset she went to work on one of her most unusual, daring and controversial films. From the moment 'The Diver's Seat' begins you know you are in a strange place. In Europe the movie was called 'Idendikit' so, with two names tagged to it thus making it schizophrenic from the first it easily falls into the realm of the ambiguous art film genre of the late 60's and early 70's. It's star, Elizabeth Taylor, appears here in one of her most remote and dangerous roles. She plays Lise a woman who is consumed by insanity and the desire to find the ultimate lover, the be all and end all of boyfriends you might say. As the film opens you are presented with a shattered view of a woman on the edge of something terrible. The camera moves past bald mannequins in a disjointed way. Is this Lise's view of others or is it a reflection of her ultimate fate? Upon being told to take a holiday from work after causing a scene in the office the film opens with her preparations to take flight to Rome. The film jump cuts from past to present as the police in Rome try to reconstruct her final fatal holiday in terrorist gripped Rome. Even Rome comes off as off kilter. This is not the Rome of Audrey Hepburn or Marcello Mastroianni but a city one hardly recognizes from the lack of typical filming locations one associates with 'Made In Rome!' movies. Director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi succeeds in presenting a uniquely Italian cinema verite film of the Muriel Spark novel. This is a unique film and very much of it's day. Its non-linear, experimental, almost documentary style will be hard to get into for any one not used to movies of this sort. But it is well worth the effort. So strange and challenging a film it is that it left the opening night audience at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival in stunned silence. The cast is well chosen and gives some oddly memorable performances. Ian Bannan as the macrobiotic sex-nut who tires to pick up Lise on the plane to Rome seems almost as mad as she is. It is a wickedly off kilter wild-eyed performance. The charming and always wonderful Mona Washbourne is sweetly touching as the woman who befriends the mad Lise and in doing so leads her to meet the man of her dreams. But the glue that holds it all together is provided by Miss Taylor who tops off her short list of insane characters from Susanna Drake to Catherine Holly with this daring and shocking portrait of Lise. She opens up as an actress that at the time would have been unthinkable to most of her contemporaries from the old M.G.M. days. That's one of the wonderful things about her film career. She came from an era in old Hollywood where she was trained and groomed to be glossy and perfect. But as times changed so did she and in doing so became much more than an MGM glamour girl, she became an actress with guts. In 'The Driver's Seat' she shows her chops as an actress and her willingness to accept challenges in her roles and in Lise she found a great one. One stunning image of her is when in her loud madwoman dress and raccoon painted eyes she challenges the airport security to frisk her. In that scene she seems totally there, totally gone, and totally in control as an actress.

Amusing or alienating as many people as it intrigues, this fragmented psychological drama has some attention-getting elements, but can't quite overcome its limitations. Taylor plays an unusual and deeply troubled woman who heads to Rome, ostensibly to escape from her normal existence, but actually to complete a more deadly plan. Argumentative, demanding, disinterested and yet appalled, she wanders about airports, malls and parks, rather aimlessly awaiting the arrival of a man she feels destined to meet...but she isn't even sure who he is! The story is told in a fractured, flashback and flashforward-laden style. Taylor's intentions aren't spelled out clearly and the film often has a confusing or detached feel to it. This is, however, mostly intentional as her disintegrating mental state is exhibited. Sometimes Taylor's intensity during her episodes of anger and delusion gives the film an unintentionally humorous twist, such as when she resents being searched at the airport, throws a hissy fit over a smudged drinking glass, sprawls on the bed and fondles her own breasts and especially runs and falls after a car-bombing. Her story is punctuated by various encounters with strangers who find themselves in direct contact with someone who will later be the focus of a police investigation. Bannen plays a zealous macrobiotic swinger who wants to wine and dine Taylor. Washbourne is a kindly, but dotty, old lady who accompanies Taylor on a brief trip to a shopping center. Warhol is an austere and mysterious member of political society. She also encounters a skittish plane passenger and a lascivious (but scorchingly sexy) auto mechanic. Taylor, who is buried under a deliberately atrocious costume, huge, back-combed, frizzy hair, thick make up and a few extra pounds of weight, still manages to look beautiful in a few scattered shots. In certain light and at the right angle, she appears as striking as ever, though usually for just an instant or two. Somewhat rare, for her, is the amount of nudity she allows here, at one point standing for a long time with the sheerest of bras barely concealing her breasts. The cheapness of the titles, camera setups, dubbing, background music and lighting detract from the overall impact of the piece. Also, the script isn't coherent enough to really get it's points across. However, there is a certain level of interest in seeing Taylor go through the paces of this disturbed character. It's no classic, but it's unusual enough and striking enough, at times, to hold interest.