The Driver's Seat

Identikit

Italy

1974

105 Min

Color

Italian, English

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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SCR Raffaele La Capria, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, Muriel Spark

CAST Elizabeth Taylor, Ian Bannen, Bedy Moratti, Andy Warhol, Guido Mannari, Mona Washbourne, Luigi Squarzina, Alessandro Perrella, Quinto Parmeggiani, Anita Bartolucci

One of the odder movies to come out of the 1970s, this over-the-top melodrama based on a novel by Muriel Spark features Elizabeth Taylor chewing acres of scenery as a mad spinster who travels to Rome in search of romance and, ultimately, murder. A series of surreal misadventures befall the off-her-rocker romantic as she seeks to keep a date with a mystery man. Andy Warhol and Ian Bannen co-star in this masterpiece of the so-bad-it’s-good genre.

Director

Giuseppe Patroni Griffi

Giuseppe Patroni Griffi (26 February 1921 – 15 December 2005) was an Italian playwright, screenwriter, director and author.

He was born in Naples in an aristocratic family and moved to Rome immediately after the end of World War II and spent his professional life there. Patroni Griffi is considered one of the most prominent contributors to Italian theater and film in post-war Italy. Roberto Rossellini make a movie from his theatral opera Anima nera. His first listed film writing credit was on the 1952 musical Canzoni di mezzo secolo. Patroni Griffi will direct Charlotte Rampling, Elizabeth Taylor, Marcello Mastroianni, Laura Antonelli, Florinda Bolkan, Terence Stamp, Fabio Testi.

Patroni Griffi was also involved with numerous television productions of lyric opera, including Verdi’s La Traviata. His many theatrical productions include works by Pirandello, Eduardo de Filippo, Jean Cocteau and Tennessee Williams. As a writer, he published a first collection of stories in… read more

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tibber

15May12

If not for the writeup here on Mubi (And Facets!), I might never have seen this. Definitely needs to be better known, it's like if Roeg and Antonioni had a baby that was adopted by Argento.