This is absolutely magnificent! And I thought I wasn’t totally ignorant about films from this era, but I’ve never seen a film by William Klien before.
And based on the first ten minutes of this movie, he might be the best director of anything in the whole world ever!
I am the flabbergast!
I love every scene in this movie. But I’ll be really disappointed if it all doesn’t like cohere. I mean, it’s hilarious and smart and gorgeous, and it’s got a whole bunch of loose plot threads going (there’s a documentary crew, a prince?, there’s some secret agents !?!?, whaaa), and I so hoping that he’ll tie things together.
Yeah, I think this is going in the direction that I was worried about. I mean, every scene is funny (and brilliantly shot and acted) — even if this parody of psychoanalysis went on a bit long — but I think it’s basically going to be one funny scene after another until the movie ends. Without any sort of coherence.
This film is so fucking close to being a fucking masterpiece. And while they did kinda pull it together at the end, they went for the joke, once again, instead of something… more.
But I mean — the movie’s hilarious, and so stylish and smart, and it was a joy to watch.
I’m still disappointed.
Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?. William Klein. 1966.
This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.