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Petulia
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Wikipedia article
'Petulia' is a 1968 British-American drama film directed by Richard Lester and starring Julie Christie, George C. Scott and Richard Chamberlain. The film has a screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus from a story by Barbara Turner and is based on the novel 'Me and the Arch Kook Petulia' by John Haase. It was scored by John Barry.
Plot
Petulia Danner is a young socialite married to a savagely abusive architect. At a benefit concert for victims of traffic accidents, she meets Dr. Archie Bollen, with whom she becomes smitten because he treated an injured Mexican boy. Archie is in the process of divorcing his wife Polo, sifting through relationships with the new man in his ex's life, his estranged sons, and well-to-do friends who only know Archie as one-half of a couple. Petulia and Archie embark on a quirky, desperate, and ultimately tragic affair.
Cast
* Julie Christie as Petulia Danner
* George C. Scott as Dr. Archie Bollen
* Richard Chamberlain as David Danner
* Arthur Hill as Barney
* Shirley Knight as Prudence "Polo" Bollen
* Joseph Cotten as Mr. Danner
* Pippa Scott as May
* Kathleen Widdoes as Wilma
* Roger Bowen as Warren
* Richard Dysart as Motel Receptionist
* Ruth Kobart as Nun
* Ellen Geer as Nun
* Lou Gilbert as Mr. Howard
* Nate Esformes as Mr. Mendoza
* Maria Val as Mrs. Mendoza
* Vincent Arias as Oliver
* Eric Weiss as Michael
* Kevin Cooper as Stevie
* Austin Pendleton as an Intern
* Howard Hesseman as Hippie (uncredited)
Production
Filmed on location throughout San Francisco, 'Petulia' included scenes at the apartment building located at 307 Filbert Street, the Cala Foods on Hyde, and in the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel where Janis Joplin was filmed lip-synching to a pre-recording in May 1967.
Release
'Petulia' had been listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, but the festival was cancelled due to the May 1968 protests and unrest in France.
Giving the film four stars, Roger Ebert wrote in his 'Chicago Sun-Times' review of 1 July 1968: "Richard Lester's 'Petulia' made me desperately unhappy, and yet I am unable to find a single thing wrong with it."
In her 1969 essay "Trash, Art, and the Movies," Pauline Kael wrote that "I have rarely seen a more disagreeable, a more dislikable (or a bloodier) movie than 'Petulia'."
Awards and nominations
Music
Lester uses the current West Coast musicians of the time: Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Grateful Dead playing "Viola Lee Blues", The Committee, and Ace Trucking Company are briefly featured in club sequences. Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and Bill Kreutzmann appear in cameos during the movie's apartment house medical emergency scene as onlookers. Jerry Garcia also appears in duplicate on a large mural and in triplicate on a bus bench both times in stylized solid black and white.
'Petulia' was an influence on filmmaker Steven Soderbergh.
The track "All Things To All Men" by The Cinematic Orchestra begins with a sample of John Barry's haunting saxophone theme from the film.
Home media
The film was released on VHS. A US DVD was released in 2006.
References
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