Capital Celluloid 2018 - Day 251: Tue Sep 18

Puzzle of a Downfall Child (Schatzberg, 1970): Barbican Cinema, 6.15pm


Elisabeth Bouchaud, who will introduce this rarely seen movie, is a senior researcher at École Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielle de Paris. Her field is the fracture of materials. She has graduated both from École Centrale Paris and from a drama school, and obtained her PhD in physics from Orsay University. She is also an actress, and a playwright. In 2017, she adapted Puzzle of a Downfall Child for the stage. In 2014, she became the director of a theatre in Paris, La Reine Blanche, and made it a stage for arts and sciences. This is part of the 'Science on Screen' season at the Barbican. Full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
Very much a film of its period (1970), when the subjective and lyrical editing patterns of Alain Renais were at the height of their influence, this is the first feature of former fashion photographer Jerry Schatzberg. It deals with the memories and imaginings of a fashion model (Faye Dunaway) who's attempting to recover from a nervous breakdown in a beach cottage, and shares the fragmented, mosaic form as well as some of the melancholia of the 1968 
Petulia—though not much of its saving humor. I didn't warm to this film, but given the quality of some of Schatzberg's subsequent work, especially Scarecrow and Reunion, and the claims made for this picture by Michel Ciment, Schatzberg's biggest champion, it may deserve a second look. The script is by Five Easy Pieces
's Adrien Joyce, writing under the pseudonym Carol Eastman; the secondary cast includes Barry Primus, Viveca Lindfors, Barry Morse, and Roy Scheider.
Jonathan Rosenbaum


Here (and above) is the trailer.

 

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