Lilith (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lilith
Original movie poster for the film Lilith.jpg
original film poster
Directed byRobert Rossen
Written byRobert Rossen
Based onLilith by J.R. Salamanca
Produced byRobert Rossen
StarringWarren Beatty
Jean Seberg
Peter Fonda
Kim Hunter
Anne Meacham
James Patterson
Robert Reilly
CinematographyEugen Schüfftan
Edited byAram Avakian
Music byKenyon Hopkins
Color processblack and white
Production
company
Centaur Productions
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • October 1, 1964 (1964-10-01) (New York City)
Running time
114 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1,100,000[1]

Lilith is a 1964 American neo noir drama film written and directed by Robert Rossen. It is based on a novel by J.R. Salamanca and stars Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg.

Plot[]

Set in a private mental institution, Chestnut Lodge in Rockville, Maryland, the film tells of a trainee occupational therapist, a troubled ex-soldier named Vincent Bruce (Beatty), who becomes dangerously obsessed with seductive, artistic, schizophrenic patient Lilith Arthur (Seberg).

Bruce is successful in helping Lilith emerge from seclusion and leave the institutional grounds for a day in the country, and later escorts her on excursions in which she is alone with him. She attempts to seduce him, and eventually Bruce tells Lilith he is in love with her, after which they begin sleeping together. He catches Lilith seducing an older female patient and witnesses her behaving inappropriately with young boys on two of her outings, incidents which greatly disturb Bruce.

Bruce triggers the suicide of another patient (Fonda) out of jealousy over the patient's crush on Lilith. This brings up memories in Lilith of her brother's suicide, which she implies was due to her attempt to initiate an incestuous relationship with him. She goes on a destructive rampage in her room and winds up in a catatonic state. Bruce then presents himself to his superiors for psychiatric help.

Production[]

Chestnut Lodge would not permit filming on location so those scenes were done in a vacant mansion rented by the production company, Centur Productions, on the North Shore of Long Island (Locust Valley). Location shooting in Maryland was done in a private home in Rockville as well as in the downtown area, plus scenes at Great Falls on both the Maryland and Virginia sides of the Potomac River, as well as a staged carnival scene at Barnesville, Maryland. This was Rossen's last film.[2]

Preservation[]

The Academy Film Archive preserved Lilith in 2000.[3]

Cast[]

Reputation[]

In The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, David Thomson describes Lilith as "an oddity, the only one of [Rossen's] films that seems passionate, mysterious and truly personal. The other films will look increasingly dated and self-contained, but Lilith may grow."[4]

Accolades[]

The film was nominated for the American Film Institute's 2002 list AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions.[5]

Jean Seberg was nominated for Best Actress--Drama Golden Globe award by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Anticipated rentals accruing distributors in North America. See "Top Grossers of 1965", Variety, January 5, 1966 p 36
  2. ^ Casty, Alan (25 March 2013). Robert Rossen: The Films and Politics of a Blacklisted Idealist. McFarland. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-7864-6981-9.
  3. ^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
  4. ^ David Thomson The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002, London: Little, Brown, p. 760.
  5. ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-19.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""