Elia Kazan made "The Arrangement" in 1969 after having first published
it as a novel. It's a difficult film but ultimately a rewarding one. It
begins along the lines of a rather heavy-handed satire on consumerism
before turning into a very late sixties psychodrama about a mid-life
crisis which Kazan chooses to film in the fractured style of a European
art-movie. The central character is Eddie Anderson, (not his real name;
he changed it from the original Greek), and from flashbacks we are lead
to believe he's the son of the boy from "America, America" who has now
become Richard Boone. The film opens with Eddie's bizarre suicide
attempt when he drives his sports car under the wheels of a truck and as
it moves forward, to some kind of redemption. It also keeps skipping
back to the events in Eddie's past that have lead up to that moment when
he felt his life was no longer worth living.
Kirk Douglas plays
Eddie superbly, in what is really a very difficult role. His
long-suffering wife is an equally superb Deborah Kerr, mixing acidity
and sweetness to an almost alarming degree as she tries to comprehend
what it is that's driving her husband. In the role of Eddie's mistress
Faye Dunaway is less successful simply because her character is too much
of a contradiction; she seems to undergo a complete change of
personality. However, there's fine work from Hume Cronyn as Eddie's
slimy lawyer and Boone is splendid as the gruff, seemingly uncaring
father.
The movie itself wasn't a success and critics were heavily
divided, many feeling that Kazan had stepped outside of his comfort zone
and had largely failed. However, the magazine 'Films and Filming', a
bible of British film criticism at the time, selected it as the year's
best film from any source. It was hardly that but it is still Kazan's
last really good movie, an utterly essential part of one of the great
canons of work in world cinema and it certainly shouldn't be missed if
you get the chance to see it.
The films reviewed here represent those I have liked or loved over the years. It is not a list of my favourite films but all the films reviewed here are worth seeing and worth seeking out. I know many of you won't agree with me on a lot of these but hopefully you will grant me, and the films that appear here, our place in the sun. Thanks for reading.
Thursday, 6 June 2019
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