A married middle-aged art critic and 16-year-old Margot begin an affair and develop a troublesome mutually parasitic relationship.A married middle-aged art critic and 16-year-old Margot begin an affair and develop a troublesome mutually parasitic relationship.A married middle-aged art critic and 16-year-old Margot begin an affair and develop a troublesome mutually parasitic relationship.
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Richard Burton
- Sir Edward More
- (scenes deleted)
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- TriviaRichard Burton had been filming for two weeks when he was fired. Production company Woodfall Films in their press release said it was "for being unpunctual and unprofessional". However, it has been suggested that, whilst Burton had unarguably been difficult, Tony Richardson's real reason for firing him (at a time when he was the highest-paid, and perhaps most famous, film actor in the world) was to gain publicity, both for his film (which was, as expected, a major box-office failure) and himself. There have been other instances of someone very famous being fired from a film as a publicity tool or power play by producers - for example, producer David Merrick sacked Marlon Brando from the cast of "Child's Play", Merrick's first cinema production, soon after Brando's legendary success in "The Godfather", whilst another new producer, Martin Ransohoff, fired three-time Oscar-winning director William Wyler from "The Americanisation of Emily" to replace him with a newcomer from television, Arthur Hiller.
- ConnectionsReferenced in The Hitchhiker (2017)
Featured review
Versatile Williamson excels again
No names, no pack drill, but some actors are typecast as posh, others are only good in working class roles. Nicol Williamson is as believable as upper middle class Sir Edward More as he was as a violent, self-destructive Irishman in The Bofors Gun. Not that this would have been beyond the talents of Anthony Hopkins or the originally cast Sir Edward, Richard Burton, to name but two. Though would Burton's often worldly-wise screen persona have been quite right here?
Criticism from other reviewers and external commentators concern the liberties taken with Nabokov's novel, which I happily admit not to have read. Steven Puchalski (Shock Cinema, 2017) cavils that while the original Margo was only 16, "the film stars are only separated by four years". Well up to a point Lord Copper. In 1969 Williamson was 33 and Anna Karina 29, but he LOOKS an unfashionable 50, she LOOKS like a 20 year old gold digger. Is this not what acting is all about? An adolescent Margo would have made it too much like Lolita, making sympathy for Sir Edward more difficult.
Some also disapprove of the updating to a contemporary 1960's setting. Leaving it in 1930's Germany would probably have meant the intrusion of politics, a time consuming distraction from what is essentially an individual tragedy. And Anna Karina wouldn't have looked so good in 1930's garb as she does in bikinis and miniskirts. So what's not to like?
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- midbrowcontrarian
- Sep 30, 2020
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