Lilith (film): Difference between revisions

Lilith
Lilith
	original film poster
Directed by	Robert Rossen
Written by	Robert Rossen
Based on	Lilith by J.R. Salamanca
Produced by	Robert Rossen
Starring	Warren Beatty; Jean Seberg; Peter Fonda; Kim Hunter
Cinematography	Eugen Schüfftan
Edited by	Aram Avakian
Music by	Kenyon Hopkins
Color process	black and white
Production; company	Centaur Productions
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	19 September 1964 (New York City);
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1,100,000

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Lilith is a 1964 American drama film written and directed by Robert Rossen starring Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg. Based on a novel by J.R. Salamanca, it was Rossen's final film.^[2]

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, who is fascinated by seductive, artistic, schizophrenic patient Lilith Arthur. Lilith reminds him of his mother, who was mentally disturbed and took her own life.

Vincent 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. During an excursion to a carnival, he witnesses her behaving inappropriately towards a young boy. After the excursion, they sleep together and start meeting regularly. Growing increasingly jealous, Vincent follows Lilith to her meetings with Mrs. Meaghan, an older female patient, with whom she has an affair. When Stephen Evshevsky, a patient who is in love with Lilith, presents her a gift, Vincent returns it to him, suggesting that Lilith refused it. The unstable Stephen commits suicide.

Vincent tries to convince Lilith that they had conspired in driving Stephen into committing suicide, but she rejects him. Lilith revives memories of her brother's suicide, which she implies was due to her attempt to initiate an incestuous relationship with him. Later, she goes on a destructive rampage in her room and winds up in a catatonic state. The shattered Vincent approaches his superiors and asks them to help him.

Cast

Warren Beatty as Vincent Bruce
Jean Seberg as Lilith Arthur
Peter Fonda as Stephen Evshevsky
Kim Hunter as Dr. Bea Brice
Anne Meacham as Mrs. Yvonne Meaghan
Jessica Walter as Laura
Gene Hackman as Norman
James Patterson as Dr. Lavrier
Robert Reilly as Bob Clayfield

Production

Produced by Rossen's Centaur Productions^[3] and financed mainly by distributor Columbia Pictures, Lilith was shot on location over a period of six weeks in a rented boarding house and the Killingsworth Taylor mansion, Long Island, and in Rockville, Maryland, where the clinic was located.^[4] One week of shooting was done in the studio.^[4] Rossen, already weakened by illness and medication when filming started, finished the film in complete exhaustion.^[4] According to Jean Seberg, this was owed in parts to Rossen's and Beatty's permanent confrontations over how to play his role.^[5]

Release

Lilith had originally been chosen by the MPAA as the official American entry to the 1964 Venice Film Festival, but was withdrawn after press reports that festival director Luigi Chiarini had disparaged its artistic merit.^[6]^[7] It screened at the New York Film Festival on 19 September 1964.^[7] Upon its subsequent cinema release, the film turned out a commercial failure.^[8]

Reception

Press reactions to Lilith were mostly negative when it was first released.^[8] After the film's presentation at the New York Film Festival, the critic of the New York Times wrote a reserved review, praising the "striking images" and Jean Seberg's "fresh, flighty, fearsome performance", but faulting the lack of a "lucid demonstration of what the whole thing means" and weak acting by Warren Beatty and Peter Fonda.^[7]

Reviews in later years were more sympathetic, calling it "ambitious" and "sadly underrated" (Chris Lloyd, Time Out)^[9] and "a masterpiece" (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader).^[10] In the 1975 The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, David Thomson described 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."^[11] In her 2015 review for The Village Voice, critic Melissa Anderson saw in Lilith a "fascinatingly fractured" film which recalled Last Year at Marienbad, pointing out the presence of Jean Seberg "who most indelibly imprints the film with otherworldliness".^[12]

Awards and nominations

Lilith reached #6 in the 1965 best films list of Cahiers du Cinéma.^[13] Jean Seberg was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Legacy

The Academy Film Archive preserved Lilith in 2000.^[14]

In 2013, the Harvard Film Archive screened Lilith as part of its retrospective on Robert Rossen.^[15]

References

^ Anticipated rentals accruing distributors in North America. See "Top Grossers of 1965", Variety, 5 January 1966, p. 36
^ Casty, Alan (25 March 2013). Robert Rossen: The Films and Politics of a Blacklisted Idealist. McFarland. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-7864-6981-9.
^ New York Film Festival Programs, 1963-1975. Arno Press. 1976. p. 57.
^ ^a ^b ^c Casty, p. 233.
^ Casty, pp. 233–34.
^ Casty, pp. 244–45.
^ ^a ^b ^c "'Nothing but a Man' and 'Lilith' Presented". The New York Times. 21 September 1964. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
^ ^a ^b Casty, p. 228.
^ Time Out Film Guide, Seventh Edition 1999. London: Penguin. 1998. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
^ Kehr, Dave (24 June 1985). "Lilith". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
^ David Thomson The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002, London: Little, Brown, p. 760.
^ Anderson, Melissa (14 July 2015). "Jean Seberg Remains Wonderfully Commanding in 'Lilith'". The Village Voice. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
^ Hillier, Jim, ed. (1986). Cahiers du Cinéma: 1960-1968: New Wave, New Cinema, Reevaluating Hollywood (Harvard Film Studies). Harvard University Press.
^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
^ "Lilith". Harvard Film Archive. Retrieved 26 July 2023.

External links

Lilith at IMDb
Lilith at Rotten Tomatoes

[1] Anticipated rentals accruing distributors in North America. See "Top Grossers of 1965", Variety, 5 January 1966, p. 36

[casty-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] New York Film Festival Programs, 1963-1975. Arno Press. 1976. p. 57.

[casty_233-4] Casty, p. 233.

[casty_233_234-5] Casty, pp. 233–34.

[casty_244-6] Casty, pp. 244–45.

[nyt-7] "'Nothing but a Man' and 'Lilith' Presented". The New York Times. 21 September 1964. Retrieved 26 July 2023.

[casty_228-8] Casty, p. 228.

[9] Time Out Film Guide, Seventh Edition 1999. London: Penguin. 1998. Retrieved 26 July 2023.

[10] Kehr, Dave (24 June 1985). "Lilith". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 26 July 2023.

[11] David Thomson The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002, London: Little, Brown, p. 760.

[12] Anderson, Melissa (14 July 2015). "Jean Seberg Remains Wonderfully Commanding in 'Lilith'". The Village Voice. Retrieved 26 July 2023.

[13] Hillier, Jim, ed. (1986). Cahiers du Cinéma: 1960-1968: New Wave, New Cinema, Reevaluating Hollywood (Harvard Film Studies). Harvard University Press.

[14] "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.

[15] "Lilith". Harvard Film Archive. Retrieved 26 July 2023.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|1964 American film}}
+{{use dmy dates|date=July 2023}}
 {{Infobox film
 | name           = Lilith
@@ Line 7: / Line 9: @@
 | based_on       = ''Lilith'' by [[J.R. Salamanca]]
 | writer         = Robert Rossen
-| starring       = [[Warren Beatty]]<br>[[Jean Seberg]]
+| starring       = [[Warren Beatty]]<br />[[Jean Seberg]]<br />[[Peter Fonda]]<br />[[Kim Hunter]]
 | music          = [[Kenyon Hopkins]]
 | cinematography = [[Eugen Schüfftan]]
 | editing        = [[Aram Avakian]]
-| color_process  = [[Black and white]]
+| color_process  = black and white
+| studio         = Centaur Productions
-| color_process  = [[Black and white]]
-| studio         = Centur Productions
 | distributor    = [[Columbia Pictures]]
-| released       = {{Film date|1964|10|01|New York City}}
+| released       = {{Film date|1964|09|19|New York City|df=y}}
 | runtime        = 114 minutes
 | country        = United States
 | language       = English
-| gross          = $1,100,000<ref>Anticipated rentals accruing distributors in North America. See "Top Grossers of 1965", ''Variety'', January 5, 1966 p 36</ref>
+| gross          = $1,100,000<ref>Anticipated rentals accruing distributors in North America. See "Top Grossers of 1965", ''Variety'', 5 January 1966, p. 36</ref>
 }}
-'''''Lilith''''' is a 1964 American [[neo noir]] [[drama (film and television)|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]].
+'''''Lilith''''' is a 1964 American [[drama (film and television)|drama film]] written and directed by [[Robert Rossen]] starring [[Warren Beatty]] and [[Jean Seberg]]. Based on a novel by [[J.R. Salamanca]], it was Rossen's final film.<ref name="casty">{{cite book |last1=Casty |first1=Alan |title=Robert Rossen: The Films and Politics of a Blacklisted Idealist |date=25 March 2013 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-6981-9 |page=9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDN4wdZtTsgC |language=en}}</ref>
 ==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, [[schizophrenia|schizophrenic]] patient Lilith Arthur (Seberg). Bruce makes progress helping Lilith emerge from seclusion and leave the institutional grounds for a day in the country and accompanies her on other excursions in which she is alone with him. She attempts to seduce him, and eventually Bruce tells Lilith he is in love with her. Lilith also seduces an older female patient and enchants a couple of young boys on one of her outings. 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 an incestuous relationship that she initiated, and she goes on a destructive rampage in her room and winds up in a catatonic state. Bruce presents himself to his superiors for psychiatric help.
+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, who is fascinated by seductive, artistic, [[schizophrenia|schizophrenic]] patient Lilith Arthur. Lilith reminds him of his mother, who was mentally disturbed and took her own life.
+Vincent 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. During an excursion to a carnival, he witnesses her behaving inappropriately towards a young boy. After the excursion, they sleep together and start meeting regularly. Growing increasingly jealous, Vincent follows Lilith to her meetings with Mrs. Meaghan, an older female patient, with whom she has an affair. When Stephen Evshevsky, a patient who is in love with Lilith, presents her a gift, Vincent returns it to him, suggesting that Lilith refused it. The unstable Stephen commits suicide.
-==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.
+Vincent tries to convince Lilith that they had conspired in driving Stephen into committing suicide, but she rejects him. Lilith revives memories of her brother's suicide, which she implies was due to her attempt to initiate an incestuous relationship with him. Later, she goes on a destructive rampage in her room and winds up in a catatonic state. The shattered Vincent approaches his superiors and asks them to help him.
-==Preservation==
-The Academy Film Archive preserved ''Lilith'' in 2000.<ref>{{cite web|title=Preserved Projects|url=http://www.oscars.org/academy-film-archive/preserved-projects?title=&filmmaker=robert+rossen&category=All&collection=All|website=Academy Film Archive}}</ref>
 ==Cast==
@@ Line 43: / Line 42: @@
 * Robert Reilly as Bob Clayfield
-==Reputation==
+==Production==
+Produced by Rossen's Centaur Productions<ref>{{cite book|title=New York Film Festival Programs, 1963-1975 |publisher=Arno Press |year=1976 |page=57}}</ref> and financed mainly by distributor [[Columbia Pictures]], ''Lilith'' was shot on location over a period of six weeks in a rented boarding house and the Killingsworth Taylor mansion, [[Long Island]], and in Rockville, Maryland, where the clinic was located.<ref name="casty_233">Casty, p. 233.</ref> One week of shooting was done in the studio.<ref name="casty_233" /> Rossen, already weakened by illness and medication when filming started, finished the film in complete exhaustion.<ref name="casty_233" /> According to Jean Seberg, this was owed in parts to Rossen's and Beatty's permanent confrontations over how to play his role.<ref name="casty_233_234">Casty, pp. 233–34.</ref>
-In ''[[The New Biographical Dictionary of Film]]'', [[David Thomson (film critic)|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."<ref>David Thomson ''The New Biographical Dictionary of Film'', 2002, London: Little, Brown, p. 760.</ref>
+==Release==
+''Lilith'' had originally been chosen by the [[Motion Picture Association|MPAA]] as the official American entry to the 1964 [[Venice Film Festival]], but was withdrawn after press reports that festival director [[Luigi Chiarini]] had disparaged its artistic merit.<ref name="casty_244">Casty, pp. 244–45.</ref><ref name="nyt">{{cite news|title='Nothing but a Man' and 'Lilith' Presented |last= |first= |date=21 September 1964 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/21/archives/nothing-but-a-man-and-lilith-presented.html |access-date=26 July 2023}}</ref> It screened at the [[New York Film Festival]] on 19 September 1964.<ref name="nyt" /> Upon its subsequent cinema release, the film turned out a commercial failure.<ref name="casty_228">Casty, p. 228.</ref>
+==Reception==
+Press reactions to ''Lilith'' were mostly negative when it was first released.<ref name="casty_228" /> After the film's presentation at the New York Film Festival, the critic of the ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' wrote a reserved review, praising the "striking images" and Jean Seberg's "fresh, flighty, fearsome performance", but faulting the lack of a "lucid demonstration of what the whole thing means" and weak acting by Warren Beatty and Peter Fonda.<ref name="nyt" />
+Reviews in later years were more sympathetic, calling it "ambitious" and "sadly underrated" (Chris Lloyd, ''[[Time Out (magazine)|Time Out]]'')<ref>{{cite book|title=Time Out Film Guide, Seventh Edition 1999 |year=1998 |publisher=Penguin |location=London |url=https://www.timeout.com/movies/lilith |access-date=26 July 2023}}</ref> and "a masterpiece" ([[Dave Kehr]], ''[[Chicago Reader]]'').<ref>{{cite news|title=Lilith |last=Kehr |first=Dave |date=24 June 1985 |newspaper=Chicago Reader |url=https://chicagoreader.com/film/lilith/ |access-date=26 July 2023}}</ref> In the 1975 ''[[The New Biographical Dictionary of Film]]'', David Thomson described ''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."<ref>David Thomson ''The New Biographical Dictionary of Film'', 2002, London: Little, Brown, p. 760.</ref> In her 2015 review for ''[[The Village Voice]]'', critic Melissa Anderson saw in ''Lilith'' a "fascinatingly fractured" film which recalled ''[[Last Year at Marienbad]]'', pointing out the presence of Jean Seberg "who most indelibly imprints the film with otherworldliness".<ref>{{cite news|title=Jean Seberg Remains Wonderfully Commanding in 'Lilith' |last=Anderson |first=Melissa |date=14 July 2015 |newspaper=The Village Voice |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2015/07/14/jean-seberg-remains-wonderfully-commanding-in-lilith/ |access-date=26 July 2023}}</ref>
+==Awards and nominations==
+''Lilith'' reached #6 in the 1965 best films list of ''[[Cahiers du Cinéma]]''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Cahiers du Cinéma: 1960-1968: New Wave, New Cinema, Reevaluating Hollywood (Harvard Film Studies) |editor-last=Hillier |editor-first=Jim |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1986 |url=https://archive.org/stream/cahiersducinemainenglish8feb1967/Cahiers_du_Cinema_1960-1968_New_Wave_New_Cinema_Reevaluating_Hollywood_djvu.txt}}</ref> Jean Seberg was nominated for the [[Golden Globe Awards|Golden Globe Award]] for Best Actress by the [[Hollywood Foreign Press Association]].
-==Accolades==
+==Legacy==
+The [[Academy Film Archive]] preserved ''Lilith'' in 2000.<ref>{{cite web|title=Preserved Projects|url=http://www.oscars.org/academy-film-archive/preserved-projects?title=&filmmaker=robert+rossen&category=All&collection=All|website=Academy Film Archive}}</ref>
-The film is recognized by [[American Film Institute]] in these lists:
-* 2002: [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions]] – Nominated<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/passions400.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions Nominees |format=PDF |date= |accessdate=2016-08-19}}</ref>
+In 2013, the [[Harvard Film Archive]] screened ''Lilith'' as part of its retrospective on Robert Rossen.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/lilith-2013-12 |title=Lilith |website=Harvard Film Archive |access-date=26 July 2023}}</ref>
-==See also==
-*[[List of American films of 1964]]
 ==References==
-{{reflist}}
+{{Reflist}}
 ==External links==
-*{{IMDb title|0058294|Lilith}}
+* {{IMDb title|0058294}}
-*{{Rotten Tomatoes|lilith}}
+* {{Rotten Tomatoes|lilith}}
 {{Robert Rossen}}
@@ Line 64: / Line 72: @@
 [[Category:1964 films]]
 [[Category:1964 drama films]]
-[[Category:American films]]
 [[Category:American black-and-white films]]
 [[Category:American drama films]]
 [[Category:Columbia Pictures films]]
-[[Category:English-language films]]
+[[Category:1960s English-language films]]
 [[Category:Films based on American novels]]
 [[Category:Films directed by Robert Rossen]]
 [[Category:Films scored by Kenyon Hopkins]]
 [[Category:Films set in psychiatric hospitals]]
+[[Category:Films about mental disorders]]
+[[Category:Films with screenplays by Robert Rossen]]
+[[Category:1960s American films]]
+[[Category:English-language drama films]]

v t e Films by Robert Rossen
As director	Johnny O'Clock (1947) Body and Soul (1947) All the King's Men (1949) The Brave Bulls (1951) Mambo (1954) Alexander the Great (1956) Island in the Sun (1957) They Came to Cordura (1959) The Hustler (1961) Lilith (1964)
Screenplays	Marked Woman (1937) They Won't Forget (1937) Racket Busters (1938) Dust Be My Destiny (1939) The Roaring Twenties (1939) A Child Is Born (1939) The Sea Wolf (1941) Out of the Fog (1941) Blues in the Night (1941) Edge of Darkness (1943) A Walk in the Sun (1945) The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) Desert Fury (1947)
As producer	The Undercover Man (1949)