MUBI

Forsaking much of the inner monologue and crucial symbolism that makes Malcolm Lowry’s 1947 novel so memorable, and difficult, John Huston instead focuses on the novel’s bare story, about the last day of the life of a bitter alcoholic, whose estranged wife returns to see him hit rock bottom in an unforgiving Mexico on the Day of the Dead. The great novel had always been labeled “unfilmable”, but Huston does just fine telling a story of regret, the ravages of memory, and the end effects of life in a bottle, with the help of photographer Gabriel Figueroa and an Oscar nominated performance from Albert Finney as Lowry’s drunk alter-ego, Geoffrey Firmin. Included in the packed new Criterion release is a brilliant documentary on the troubled life of Malcolm Lowry, who spent ten years writing his masterwork, and never came close to equaling it, and an hour long on-set documentary, focusing on Huston, late in his life and career, still a master storyteller, behind and in front of the camera.