Oct. 22, 2003 - 8:49 pm
i always sort of had a crush on Julie Christie after seeing Doctor Zhivago (1965) so of course when you start looking up information about her you hear about this film. this is the one that she won her Oscar for. it won a couple of other awards and was even nominated for Best Picture.
the movie is about a model who starts out by having an affair and then leaving her husband to live with the writer that she is having the affair with. she then decides that he isn't enough for her and that she needs to start sleeping with other men (of course only those that further her career). she works her way to the top, eventually becoming a real-life princess. but she still thinks of her author and how he was the only man that she may have ever loved.
i somewhat enjoyed the movie. it does a great job of making you detest people while empathising with them. i'll say that that's because of the acting. Dirk Bogarde, who plays the writer, is a wonderful actor and this is actually only the second film that i've seen him in. i'll have to watch out for more films that he stars in. and Julie Christie is amazing in this of course. her character is terrible, but you still can understand how these men could easily do anything she says. she has a certain hold over people.
i have to give this movie a lower rating because they make it extremely difficult to enjoy yourself while you're watching it. i realize that in a way, that's precisely the point of the film, but it still doesn't make me want to start watching it again any time soon. you get so enthralled in the action of the story, and that story is so negative, that you end up feeling like you've got some sort of stomach virus or something and you simply can't wait until it's over. sometimes that can work well, as it does with Requiem For A Dream (2000), but in this case it just makes me hate myself. still it's a very good movie. just paradoxical for me.