User Reviews

Appropriately nuanced film set the standards for many films to follow in style and narrative as fashion photographer (Primus) documents the life of his former client, and one time affair (Dunaway), chronicling her turbulent career as a model. Story is subtle and endearing as it beholds elements of humor and eccentricity throughout, all the while the sharp and talented cast bring to life a myriad of colorful characters along the way.

Jarring and fractured flashbacks expose the hard truth young model Lou Andreas Sand encounters during life in the fast lane of show business. Dunaway is at her most finest here, proving a most vulnerable recipient of players, gamblers, and sharks all around. She is an internal vortex constricted only by the outward manner of control and clarity she has come to grasp. Viveca Lindfors and Roy Scheider offer an equal measure of force and poise in their quirky offbeat roles of employers and players amid the passionate industry. Newcomer Barry Primus ushers in redemption for our tragic beauty.

The most amazing aspect of the film is the fact that Universal Pictures took on this project as what many would see as a mainstream release back in 1970s cinema. Director Schatzberg encompasses a wondrous amount of style and narrative which, as mentioned, leaves us in a whirlwind of themes and arcs, almost lost in the daze, yet never incomprehensible to the story and it's direction.

The entire immaculate package is a precious little gem of a film that delivers much more than promised, and the fact that it stands even more firm 47 years after the fact, (and years of obscurity) is enough to show this film is only beginning to breathe life into audiences. And it's time is only beginning.

'Puzzle of a downfall child' has some stunning scenes in it, and Faye Dunaway is a pleasure to watch, but somehow the story didn't get to me as much as I'd hoped for. The story here is more like a selection of incidents in the life of a model, who has serious 'man' issues.

Her longtime friend, who has also been her photographer and (very briefly) lover, is trying to help her dig through her past, in order to sort some things out. In the end, it seems she is still as confused and insecure as ever, asking him if she was any good in bed, that one time she had apparently forgotten all about.

The supposed urgency of it all eluded me a lot of the time. But I enjoyed the apt hand of director Jerry Schatzberg and the wonderful acting on Faye Dunaway's part quite a bit - not that the rest of the cast didn't do a good job, though.

Some bits reminded me of the series 'Mad men', by the way, if that may be a recommendation.

7 out of 10.

I'll give Faye Dunaway credit for her subtlety as the neurotic fashion model in therapy because she can't handle being so drop dead gorgeous that it either keeps the men away or has them trying to become too close. She's the type who will ask an admirer to approach her in a bar as if they've never met, make a pass, then react damaged after making love because she doesn't believe it is real love. Her neurosis is rather pretentious, but I guess you'd have to be in the high heels of someone like her to understand.

Surprisingly this was not the bad movie I'd expected it to be, and Faye delves into this young woman's disorders obviously having studied it, well deserving of her Golden Globe nomination. Coming off this and a juicy supporting role in "Little Big Man", Faye was proving that she wasn't just a flash in the pan even though she had a few loo loo's just before this. She has a great fantasy life on screen as well, living in her mind as if she was a 1930's movie heroine. (No, not J. C.) Very dated but fascinating, an unimaginable without Faye in it.

Obviously, this would never be financed by Universal Pictures today as it partakes in the usual artiness and experimentation typical of its period. Faye Dunaway-who has never looked better-plays an ex-fashion model ruminating over her career and tragedies. Her psychology is trite-likes older men, perhaps frigid or a nympho or something, rape victim and all this explains why her modeling and beauty render her unhappy. Rather slow, full of rack focus pulling, telephoto lensing, deliberate compositions (the director, Jerry Schatzberg, had been a fashion photographer. Ultimately pretentious but worth seeing once. Odd casting of a young Roy Scheider as some form of a rake (he never played that part again unless one counts All that Jazz).

Not exactly surreal but still nearly completely devoid of a real story-line. Faye Dunaway is a highly successful model who goes off the deep end, leading to a self-imposed isolation that she can't seem to get out of. In what is a genuinely phenomenal performance, Dunaway is emotionally stripped bare. In some ways, her acting here recalls Jane Fonda's work in KLUTE. There's a lot of angst beneath some very thin skin. The supporting cast includes Viveca Lindfors, Roy Scheider (as Dunaway's hot headed boyfriend) and Barry Primus, in his film debut. From a script by Carole Eastman with some really odd direction by Jerry Schatzberg. The movie bends time and jumps back and forth as Dunaway's past is revealed. It's bleak but never depressing.

My take on this will start with the title of this movie. The bad choices of a stupid woman is more appropriate title for this. Or How weaselly handys men can drive a girl to the looney bin.

Faye Dunaway did a good job of running through the emotional thread mill with her psychotic character. Dealing with manipulative Aaron, and degenerate Falco and some of the other riff raff that she picked up in bars along the way.

But the ending when she couldn't remember ever having a forced manipulated fling with Aaron, which by the way should let one know just how inspiring it was, and after which she asked if she was good???

If she couldn't remember, that tells you just how bad Aaron was. IJS.