Petulia (1968)   Starring: Julie Christie, George C. Scott and Richard Chamberlain Digital Classics RRP: £15.99 1007DC Certificate: 15 Available 27 April 2009

Petulia, unhappy in her own marriage to David, starts an affair with recently divorced and melancholic Archie - an affair destined to end badly.

Petulia (1968 - 1 hr, 40 min, 35 sec) is a meditation on the vacuous nature of modern life and relationships. The film was directed by Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night (1964), The Bed Sitting Room (1969), Superman II (1980)), written by Lawrence B. Marcus (screenplay) from the original novel by John Haase. The stunning cinematography was provided by Nicholas Roeg. The film was nominated for two awards.

The film boast three great leads but is not a movie that is easy to watch. Petulia is one of the coldest films I have ever seen, with every characters existing somewhere between a state of ennui and downright nihilism. Although it starts off as what looks like a typical sixties film, people having lunch in a topless restaurant, Petulia, is presented as a kooky free spirit living, what initially seems, an open marriage These things are presented to lull you into a false sense of comfort. The film quickly takes a much darker turn when the story lets us get beneath the characters skins. Petulia isn’t so much kooky as she is damaged, Archie isn’t just melancholic, he is hiding a deep anger against his ex wife, even attacking her with a vase when she announces that she is to remarry and David isn’t so much compliant with his wife’s affair as he is murderous about the whole thing.

Lester allows the film to tell its own story, mixing the action up between the past and future events. You only get the feeling that you know this particular story after it's finished and you are able to rearrange events. You will find yourself doing this as you try, like the characters, to make sense of what is essentially meaningless actions enacted in a cold and meaningless world. There is a randomness that pervades the whole film, even the first meeting of Petunia and Archie is at a bizarre and slightly surreal party, the meaning of which is never explained, nor should it be as it sets in motion the general feeling of being unsettled in the audience.

All three of the leads are impressive in their roles transitioning with ease between what the audience initially perceives them to be to exposing their inner emotionally stunted worlds of unfulfilled dreams.

The disc is another bare bones affair, presented in 2.0 with a pretty clean print. The review copy didn’t even have a menu, but then it doesn’t really need one unless you’re looking for a particular chapter.

Some of Lester’s earlier work has not been given the praise or attention it deserved and this film falls into this category. If you like well crafted stories, which have something to say and will make you think, then you’ll enjoy Petulia.

8

Charles Packer