Richard Lester's Petulia and other "cult" classic Warner comedies are getting a DVD release this June, 20th. A Fine Madness, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, The Loved One and Petulia will each be available for $19.97 SRP. All the films have been newly remastered and are presented in anamorphic widescreen. Moe info and artwork here:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=60506

Great covers!!

Been waiting for this for a while, and I'm definitely a fan of the cover. I still prefer Petulia to any of the excellent films Roeg directed.

I saw the news in DVD times and I still can't believe that they advertise Petulia as a comedy! Anyway, at least it will be released...

Yeah, I guess but I would have prefered this poster cover art for Petulia:

I've been waiting for this film to come out for like five years. Great!

I've been waiting on this film since I first started collecting laserdiscs back in 1988. That makes it 18 years.... yikes!!!!

Beaver reviews it:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview ... review.htm

And now, DVDTalk:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=22324

After reading so much about Petulia for years, I ran to Best Buy yesterday to buy the DVD blind! I just know that the film is right up my alley.

I wonder how Petulia compares to Schlesinger's magnificent Darling also with Julie Christie (made about 3 years prior). Darling is great great great. I think about this film a lot lately. The Capri sequence is amazing.. I never knew that it was such a cruising spot for gay men! Capri has always been my grandmother's favorite place to visit for about 60 years and she loves reminiscing on how beautiful and free people are on the island and how the world should be like that. But Darling boldly, cruelly slaps you away from that thinking. It shows that no matter how much sex or fame or money there is in the world, its still and always a cold, empty world. Petulia's premise almost sounds the same if I'm not mistaken.

Anybody seen Darling?

Oh Petulia! Oh WOW! Petulia is a film that you have to watch at least three or four times to get the full impact. It's impossible to fully understand Petulia based on one viewing because of the kinetic editing which can be disorientating (reflecting the characters' state of mind and also the most craziest era of Americas history), the film refuses to give you any space to emotionally connect to its characters. In other words, the film is thoroughly chilly and numbing. Like being caught in the pot-smoke haze with no way out. The structure of Petulia works like "mosaic" (with endless non-linear flashbacks!) so that's why repeated viewings are essential for films like this. Once you put all the broken pieces together to get the whole picture - becoming an amazing revelation that you will be rewarded.

Petulia is one wave of gorgeous images that will pierce through your minds eye. I had a hard time falling asleep last night because the images just refused to let go of me. The world captured in Petulia is painfully cold and bitter - hospitals complete with dummy TVs!, apartments made of steel and glass, isolated boats, rows and rows of houses built exactly the same and so on.

I still can't believe that they advertise Petulia as a comedy!

Crazy, isn't it? Petulia is one of the most cynical and cruel films I've ever seen. The film continues to follow me into the next day. The resonance is so powerful. The last scene, the last word equals the visceral impact of "Rosebud".

One question about Petulia: I don't undersand the whole point of the Mexican boy. Did something happen between him and Petulia's husband? When the nurse called him "spic", I was like "damn". Some film directors from other countries are really clever at filming "hate letters" to America. Look at Douglas Sirk.

Michael, if you liked Petulia's editing style, I recommend you check out Roeg's Bad Timing.

http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/vie ... php?t=2434

BTW, I have yet to watch Petulia (though it's on my to-watch list for a long time) but your description just wetted my appetite even more!

Richard Lester is American.

Roeg was the cinematographer on Petulia. The editing style is watered-down Resnais: it's clever but it definitely doesn't have the emotional resonance of Hiroshima or Muriel.

Richard Lester is American.

For some reason I thought he was British. My mistake. But still... Petulia is a very clinical, ugly look at the 60s America. And it came from an American director! Even better.

The editing style is watered-down Resnais: it's clever but it definitely doesn't have the emotional resonance of Hiroshima or Muriel.

Hmm.. I don't think Petulia is set out to make you emotinally connect to the film itself. The characters are too numb, confused and distant for us to connect to them in any way and the film works the same way. The editing style certainly has a very strong "mental" resonance but I think Petulia's "emotional" resonance comes through repeated viewings.

He had left America before he started making movies, and I believe Petulia was his first (only?) film shot in the U.S.

Please don't make me watch this movie again!

The reason why I said "mental resonance" is because Petulia functions very much like a jigsaw puzzle or perhaps a mosaic in which all the pieces are jumbled or disorganized. (Hiroshima's use of flashbacks is more linear if I'm not mistaken while Petulia's is intentionally, totally fragmentary and confusing.) So your mind gets busy while you fit together all the pieces of Petulia and put them in order before you can step back and look at the whole picture. Once the whole picture is realized, then the "emotional resonance" blooms from there only if you allow it. It's easy to dimiss the crazy, non-linear editing style as gimmicky. It's so effective in its way of experiencing through the fucked-up mindset of the characters, the characters (put altogether) being the ultimate metaphor of the 60s America.

The last shot of Petulia left me in silence that I have no idea why. I would love to see what others think of the film, especially its last shot.. what it's supposed to signify.

The Language of Time: The Discontinuity of Sound and Image in Richard Lester's Petulia

http://fringedigital.com/flicker/petulia/

Careful Bertrand, your Kael is showing!

Love,
Leos

So that means Pauline Kael didn't like Petulia?

That's right. From what I recall, Kael likened Lester to a crooked cop framing a suspect (America) with trumped-up charges. She basically felt that Petulia was unnecessarily mean-spirited and that the generally praised editing style was second rate Resnais.

Michael, I think it's interesting that you compare Sirk to Lester in this context. It's overly simplistic to characterize Sirk (who chose to live here) as anti-American; His best films expose the hypocrisy of American inclusiveness, at a time when it was extremely brave to do so. By the time Lester (who chose to leave) came along, the outsiders were taking to the streets. Petulia may be daring in certain respects, but it's not brave in the way that All That Heaven Allows is. Well, that's my opinion anyway.

carax, I wholeheartedly agree with you about the bravery of All That Heaven Allows. It's a gutwrenching, bitter "attack" on everything that America holds dearly. I often wonder if the '50s viewers got "it" or if it went over their heads. After watching Petulia, the thought of the film being made by Sirk if he was young and making films in 1968 came across my mind. Like All That Heaven Allows, Petulia relies on structures, colors, camera angles, etc to reveal every wart of America...both are also romances made tragic by the "plasticity" and hypocrisy that fuel whatever eras they take place in.

I am now greatly looking forward to seeing this film for the first time next week. I don't know why I put off seeing it for so long, what with me being a huge fan of all the talent involved.