Dir: Orson Welles | US Drama
Yet another flawed masterpiece from Orson Welles that those who love Welles will probably love and those who don’t won’t. (Welles himself only plays a supporting role as the Advocate, but his voice in a variety of accents issues from most of the supporting cast.)
Visually stunning of course and resembling in places the work of Borowczyk, it almost certainly influenced the look of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, since it was screened on BBC2 while the latter was preparing his own film.
Plagued throughout production by money worries, but making good use of the brutalism of Zagreb and the grandeur of Paris, it features two of Europe’s hottest female properties of the sixties Jeanne Moreau and Romy Schneider; the latter memorably playing the nymphomaniac Leno, who “finds accused men attractive”. @RichardChatten