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| released = {{film date|df=y|1968|6|10}}
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| runtime = 105 minutes
| runtime = 105 minutes
| country = United Kingdom<br>United States
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
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'''''Petulia''''' is a 1968 British-American drama film directed by [[Richard Lester]] and starring [[Julie Christie]], [[George C. Scott]] and [[Richard Chamberlain (actor)|Richard Chamberlain]]. The film has a screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus from a story by [[Barbara Turner (actress)|Barbara Turner]] and is based on the novel ''Me and the Arch Kook Petulia'' by [[John Haase (author)|John Haase]]. It was scored by [[John Barry (composer)|John Barry]].
'''''Petulia''''' is a 1968 British drama film directed by [[Richard Lester]] and starring [[Julie Christie]], [[George C. Scott]] and [[Richard Chamberlain (actor)|Richard Chamberlain]]. The film has a screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus from a story by [[Barbara Turner (actress)|Barbara Turner]] and is based on the novel ''Me and the Arch Kook Petulia'' by [[John Haase (author)|John Haase]]. It was scored by [[John Barry (composer)|John Barry]].


==Plot==
==Plot==

Revision as of 05:39, 30 August 2022

Petulia
Theatrical release poster, artwork by Ted CoConis
Directed byRichard Lester
Screenplay byLawrence B. Marcus
Story byBarbara Turner
Based onMe and the Arch Kook Petulia
by John Haase
Produced byDon Devlin
Denis O'Dell
Raymond Wagner
StarringJulie Christie
George C. Scott
Richard Chamberlain
Arthur Hill
Shirley Knight
Joseph Cotten
CinematographyNicolas Roeg
Edited byAntony Gibbs
Music byJohn Barry
Distributed byWarner Bros.-Seven Arts
Release date
  • 10 June 1968 (1968-06-10)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1,600,000 (US/ Canada)[1]

Petulia is a 1968 British drama film directed by Richard Lester and starring Julie Christie, George C. Scott and Richard Chamberlain. The film has a screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus from a story by Barbara Turner and is based on the novel Me and the Arch Kook Petulia by John Haase. It was scored by John Barry.

Plot

Petulia Danner is a young socialite married to a savagely abusive architect. At a benefit concert for victims of traffic accidents, she meets Dr. Archie Bollen, with whom she becomes smitten because he treated an injured Mexican boy. Archie is in the process of divorcing his wife Polo, sifting through relationships with the new man in his ex's life, his estranged sons, and well-to-do friends who only know Archie as one-half of a couple. Petulia and Archie embark on a quirky, desperate, and ultimately tragic affair.

Cast

Production

Filmed on location throughout San Francisco, Petulia included scenes at the apartment building located at 307 Filbert Street, the Cala Foods on Hyde, and in the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel where Janis Joplin was filmed lip-synching to a pre-recording in May 1967.

Release

Petulia had been listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival,[2] but the festival was cancelled due to the May 1968 protests and unrest in France.

Giving the film four stars, Roger Ebert wrote in his Chicago Sun-Times review of 1 July 1968: "Richard Lester's Petulia made me desperately unhappy, and yet I am unable to find a single thing wrong with it."

In her 1969 essay "Trash, Art, and the Movies," Pauline Kael wrote that "I have rarely seen a more disagreeable, a more dislikable (or a bloodier) movie than Petulia."[3]

Awards and nominations

Award Category Nominee(s) Result
Laurel Awards Top Female Supporting Performance Shirley Knight Nominated
National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Actor George C. Scott 2nd Place[a]
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actor Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards Best Written American Drama Lawrence B. Marcus Nominated

Music

Lester uses the current West Coast musicians of the time: Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Grateful Dead playing "Viola Lee Blues", The Committee, and Ace Trucking Company are briefly featured in club sequences. Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and Bill Kreutzmann appear in cameos during the movie's apartment house medical emergency scene as onlookers. Jerry Garcia also appears in duplicate on a large mural and in triplicate on a bus bench both times in stylized solid black and white.

Petulia was an influence on filmmaker Steven Soderbergh.[4]

The track "All Things To All Men" by The Cinematic Orchestra begins with a sample of John Barry's haunting saxophone theme from the film.

Home media

The film was released on VHS. A US DVD was released in 2006.[5]

References

  1. ^ "Big Rental Films of 1968", Variety, 8 January 1969 p 15. This figure is a rental accruing to distributors.
  2. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Petulia". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
  3. ^ Kael, Pauline (February 1969). "Trash, Art, and the Movies". Harper's.
  4. ^ 10/13/99 3:00PM (13 October 1999). "Steven Soderbergh". Avclub.com. Retrieved 3 June 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Petulia DVD". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
  1. ^ Tied with Alan Arkin for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.
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