MartinHafer George C. Scott and Julie Christie star in this mega-unusual film. For much of the picture, she relentlessly stalks a doctor (Scott) and much of it makes no sense until about midway through the story.I'll cut right to the chase on this one. You won't know it until later in the film, but this bizarre, artsy-fartsy mess of a film is about spousal abuse. Sadly, it's a super-important topic for a movie but it gets lost among all the pretense--all the artsiness, all the psychedelics and all the non-linear film footage that looks almost like it was edited randomly. Had the film simply told the story, it would have been so much better and so important. After all, back in 1968, folks didn't really talk about domestic violence and this movie COULD have opened up a dialog on the subject. Instead, it looks like director Richard Lester dropped some acid and kept doing so throughout the entire movie. All in all, a horribly frustrating film that I just can't recommend.

Milan I went into this film not really knowing what to expect. The story looked like a 60's matinée love story of adultery and betrayal, but it seemed to me that there was something more, that lurked under the surface. Armed with Roger Ebert's favorable review, I decided to give it a go, and something which doesn't happen too often to a seasoned film buff, happened here, as I floated into the world of Petulia. I was more than pleasantly surprised with originality and distinctive, yet peculiar flavor of this film. Richard Lester, best known for his work with the Beatles, used his senses and the feel of the times, to create a near masterpiece that blended simple love story with torment, escapism and ridicule of the society, love, hate and aggression, misunderstanding and care, all wrapped up in San Francisco of 1967.The use of counterculture, Janis Joplin appearance, Grateful Dead and their communal entourage, against the backdrop of uniformed man and women, in military and nun's outfits, all underlined the deeply divided American society of the Vietnam era, which was worlds apart from one another, same as Petulia and Archy, two lovers that were destined to lose. Richard Chamberlain is perfect in the role of psychotic husband and this is his most layered role that I know. Look at him in this film and you'll never see Dr Kildare again. Film of so many meanings and profound styles. As Richard Lester told the producer Raymond Wagner after the screening of the finished film: "Ray, no one may ever see this movie or understand this movie, but at lest our blood is on every frame of the film, and we did the very best we knew how". Worth keeping.

bkoganbing Petulia is one of those films that some critics find creative because it takes the story plot line and presents it in a non linear manner. We're all supposed to think that's creative when in fact all it is is confusing. This is what passes for art.That being said had the film been presented in a straightforward manner I might have found more to like in it. When it all gets straightened out the story involves uptight middle-class doctor George C. Scott who is in the process of getting a divorce from Shirley Knight. At a swinging party in San Francisco where the story takes place, Scott is propositioned by Julie Christie on about thirty seconds worth of acquaintance.Scott puts her off, the fact that she's already married to the wealthy Richard Chamberlain is certainly enough reason. But Julie is a persistent one, she shows up the next night at Scott's apartment with a tuba she ripped off from a pawnshop. Sounds bizarre, but what we're able to perceive is that this is really a desperate cry for help on many levels. Scott only gradually comes around to seeing it, we do also mainly because the way the story is told.Christie and Scott are both good in the leads, there is a performance by Joseph Cotten as Chamberlain's father who exudes a sinister presence in the few scenes he's in. As Joseph Cotten is one of my favorite players it's only natural I would commend him for his work here.A straightforward telling of the tale might have served Petulia better, but someone like director Richard Lester among others was just trying to be arty.

Edgar Soberon Torchia 1968 was a remarkable year in the history of cinema. Films as Pasolini's "Teorema", Anderson's "if...." and Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey", among others, reflected the times of sudden and often violent changes people were experiencing all over the world. "Petulia" is among those motion pictures, but it is obvious Warner Brothers executives did not realize what had director Richard Lester delivered, and handled the product badly, as the original trailer eloquently shows. I finally had the opportunity to see it after many years, since I saw it included in a list of best films, in James Monaco's book "American Film Now". "Petulia" (based on the novel by John Haase, "Me and the Arch Kook Petulia") touches neuralgic issues of difficult times in the United States in an oblique manner, not to avoid them, but because its center is the title character played by Julie Christie (excellent as usual): hippie culture, racial conflicts, Vietnam, drugs, illegal immigration, the intrusion of technology in the bedroom, and middle-class betrayal before the reign of so-called "savage capitalism", all appear as variables in the drama of a young woman abused by her husband. The script of "Petulia" is a guide to moderation and restraint: the film does not emphasize nor is it redundant, but paints all those aspects as integral parts of the portrait of a British woman trapped in (and adapted to) the life of her rich and influential in-laws, and whose intent of rupture is as fragile, fragmented and banal as her personal structure. This is told in a most innovative way for its time, which makes it more regrettable that the film was handled as a pop extravaganza, when it was an innovative and puzzling product with a structure that demanded a more intellectual participation from the audience; and with an organic use of the flash-forward technique (proposed by its editor, Antony Gibbs), an anticipation device that would become common practice in later years (it is interesting to note that five years later the cinematographer of "Petulia", Nicolas Roeg, would direct Julie Christie in the horror drama "Don't Look Now", which contains a scene film editors often mention as an outstanding example of the flash-forward technique, a sex scene inter-cut with takes of the following scene, edited by Graeme Clifford). For many who only think of Richard Lester as the maker of The Beatles movie, "Petulia" is one of several titles of his making that ask for a reconsideration of his work, which also includes very enjoyable period comedies as "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", "Robin and Marian", "The Three Musketeers" and "The Four Musketeers".