The Savage Eye

An opportunity to re-assess the reputation of maverick cinéaste Joseph Strick, thanks to the restoration of three of his most celebrated films by the Academy Film Archive in LA. Completed 50 years ago with two co-directors, Ben Maddow and Sidney Meyers, The Savage Eye won international acclaim as an innovative semi-documentary about urban life. A jaundiced camera-eye follows Judith, a recently divorced woman trying to adjust to single life, on a journey through the uglier side of a city’s existence, taking in drunks, religious fanatics, leering spectators at a strip show and other discomfiting scenes of human behaviour. An original,uncompromising view of contemporary society, Strick’s collaborative labour of love remains real and fascinating. —bfi