{"id":8388,"date":"2009-07-17T14:32:15","date_gmt":"2009-07-17T21:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=8388"},"modified":"2021-09-27T12:19:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T19:19:26","slug":"lilith-1964","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=8388","title":{"rendered":"Lilith (1964)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Somehow insanity seems a lot less sinister to watch in a man than in a woman, doesn&#8217;t it?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Lilith-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Lilith-Poster-197x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-60528\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Lilith-Poster-197x300.png 197w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Lilith-Poster-672x1024.png 672w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Lilith-Poster-84x128.png 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Lilith-Poster-177x270.png 177w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/Lilith-Poster.png 713w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA troubled young veteran (Warren Beatty) takes a job as an occupational therapist at an upscale mental asylum, where he falls for a bewitching schizophrenic named Lilith (Jean Seberg).\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>Femmes Fatales<\/li>\n<li>Gene Hackman Films<\/li>\n<li>Jessica Walter Films<\/li>\n<li>Kim Hunter Films<\/li>\n<li>Mental Illness<\/li>\n<li>Obsessive Love<\/li>\n<li>Peter Fonda Films<\/li>\n<li>Robert Rossen Films<\/li>\n<li>Veterans<\/li>\n<li>Warren Beatty Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThough it&#8217;s received mixed reviews from critics over the years, Robert Rossen&#8217;s final film is ultimately a dated disappointment. Drawing upon every possible cliched romanticization about mental asylums and their inhabitants, Rossen&#8217;s screenplay (based on J.R. Salamanca&#8217;s novel) comes across as well-intentioned but painfully pretentious and unrealistic. From the beginning, we wonder how a potentially disturbed young veteran can walk off the street into a high-scale asylum and secure a specialized job as a pseudo-therapist, working closely with its inmates and spending more and more time with <em>one<\/em> beautiful inmate in particular, while nobody bats an eyelid (only in the movies &#8212; that&#8217;s how). To that end, Kim Hunter as Vincent&#8217;s boss (who SHOULD be more attentive!) is completely wasted in an underdeveloped role, while Jessica Walter (as Vincent&#8217;s former girlfriend) and Gene Hackmann (as her husband) fare better in tiny supporting roles (but their role in the story is insubstantial at best). <\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Beatty&#8217;s overreliance on Method-acting mannerisms does him no favors here: his character is all hesitations and sideways glances, and never really comes to life. What redeems <em>Lilith<\/em> to a certain extent &#8212; but only marginally &#8212; is Seberg&#8217;s performance in the title role. I&#8217;m not an enormous fan of her work in general, and find her range limited, but here she really takes the role and runs with it; clearly she was able to relate to Lilith&#8217;s seductive insanity in some fundamental way, and channel that back through onto the screen. Equally compelling is Eugen Schufftan&#8217;s black-and-white cinematography: the film is truly stunning to look at, with each shot like a work of art, beautifully lit and framed. It&#8217;s all the more of a shame, then, that the story itself &#8212; which, as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1312lili.html\">DVD Savant notes<\/a>, &#8220;wants to be about the mysteries of the human personality&#8221; &#8212; is ultimately simply a muddled and tiresome snoozefest. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jean Seberg as Lilith<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/lilith-seberg.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/lilith-seberg.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8392\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Jessica Walter as Laura<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/lilith-walters.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/lilith-walters.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8398\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Gene Hackman as Norman<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/lilith-hackman.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/lilith-hackman.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8393\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Eugen Schufftan&#8217;s gorgeous b&#038;w cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/lilith-cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/lilith-cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8394\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo. Listed as a film with Historical Importance and a Cult Movie in the back of Peary&#8217;s book, but I&#8217;m not sure it has much of a following anymore, and am unclear about why it would hold historical relevance. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0058294\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1312lili.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eyeforfilm.co.uk\/reviews.php?id=7319\">Eye for Film Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/12687\/lilith#articles-reviews?articleId=191881\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/film\/reviews\/80480\/lilith.html\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Somehow insanity seems a lot less sinister to watch in a man than in a woman, doesn&#8217;t it?&#8221; Synopsis: A troubled young veteran (Warren Beatty) takes a job as an occupational therapist at an upscale mental asylum, where he falls for a bewitching schizophrenic named Lilith (Jean Seberg). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Femmes Fatales Gene Hackman Films Jessica Walter Films Kim Hunter Films Mental Illness Obsessive Love Peter Fonda Films Robert Rossen Films Veterans Warren Beatty Films Review: Though&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=8388\"> 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-8388","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\/8388","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=8388"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76597,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8388\/revisions\/76597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}