{"id":6555,"date":"2009-05-09T21:57:01","date_gmt":"2009-05-10T04:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=6555"},"modified":"2020-12-30T16:11:35","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T23:11:35","slug":"puzzle-of-a-downfall-child-1970","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=6555","title":{"rendered":"Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I&#8217;m not adding up to anything, am I, Aaron? I&#8217;m not making any sense.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/Puzzle-Downfall-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/Puzzle-Downfall-Poster-205x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"205\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-60552\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/Puzzle-Downfall-Poster-205x300.png 205w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/Puzzle-Downfall-Poster-701x1024.png 701w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/Puzzle-Downfall-Poster-88x128.png 88w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/Puzzle-Downfall-Poster-185x270.png 185w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/Puzzle-Downfall-Poster.png 743w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 205px) 100vw, 205px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen visited by an old boyfriend (Barry Primus) hoping to make a film about her, a former fashion model (Faye Dunaway) recovering from a mental breakdown reflects on her rocky past and relationships.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Faye Dunaway Films<\/li>\n<li>Flashback Films<\/li>\n<li>Mental Breakdown<\/li>\n<li>Models<\/li>\n<li>Roy Scheider Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nFaye Dunaway&#8217;s committed central performance is the primary saving grace of this pretentious flashback film, which is ultimately merely an ineffective imitation of its more esteemed cinematic peers (most notably 1965&#8217;s similarly themed <em>Darling<\/em>). Despite Dunaway&#8217;s best efforts, it&#8217;s impossible to care much about the film&#8217;s self-absorbed protagonist (loosely based on screenwriter Carole Eastman), whose rise and fall from fame is utterly unremarkable (a climbing star becomes petulant and difficult to work with? impossible to imagine!), and whose mental breakdown is never fully explained or justified. When Dunaway says to Primus early on in the film, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know why you want to make a film about me&#8221;, we can&#8217;t help agreeing. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Faye Dunaway as Lou<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/puzzle-dunaway3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/puzzle-dunaway3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"625\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6558\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Viveca Lindfors as Lou&#8217;s agent<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/puzzle-lindfors.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/puzzle-lindfors.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"625\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6559\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Creative visuals and editing<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/puzzle-lips.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/puzzle-lips.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"625\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6832\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; despite its provocative title, this one can easily be skipped. Listed as a Sleeper in the back of Peary&#8217;s book.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0066262\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=3772&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not adding up to anything, am I, Aaron? I&#8217;m not making any sense.&#8221; Synopsis: When visited by an old boyfriend (Barry Primus) hoping to make a film about her, a former fashion model (Faye Dunaway) recovering from a mental breakdown reflects on her rocky past and relationships. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Faye Dunaway Films Flashback Films Mental Breakdown Models Roy Scheider Films Review: Faye Dunaway&#8217;s committed central performance is the primary saving grace of this pretentious flashback film,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=6555\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6555"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60553,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6555\/revisions\/60553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}