Justine (1969)

Director:

George Cukor

Writers:

Lawrence Durrell (novel)
Lawrence B. Marcus (writer)

Release Date:

6 August 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In Alexandria, in 1938, Darley, a young British schoolmaster and poet, makes friends through Pursewarden...

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity | Based On Novel | Character Name In Title

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Anouk Aimée	...	Justine
Dirk Bogarde	...	Pursewarden
Robert Forster	...	Narouz
Anna Karina	...	Melissa
Philippe Noiret	...	Pombal
Michael York	...	Darley
John Vernon	...	Nessim
Jack Albertson	...	Cohen
Cliff Gorman	...	Toto
George Baker	...	British Ambassador David Mountolive
Elaine Church	...	Liza
Michael Constantine	...	Memlik Pasha
Marcel Dalio	...	French Consul General
Michael Dunn	...	Mnemjian
Barry Morse	...	Colonel Maskelyne

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Tunisia

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

'Joseph Strick (I)' was fired shortly after production began and replaced by George Cukor.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003) (V)

A muddled mess

This is either a very good "bad" movie, or a bad "good" movie. Either way. Cukor's master touch is still visible even though he phoned this one in. Fine cinematography. As with so many films, the actors gave first rate performances but it was not enough. It's a cliche but it's true. The problem is with the story, or more specifically, the screenplay. We see love affairs and parties and characters appearing and disappearing all for no apparent reason. Another failure of trying to squeeze a complex novel into a two hour drama. By the time the secrets are revealed at the end, we really don't care. It is no reward for our having sat through 110 minutes of mish-mash-mush. To pawn this off as a "character study" is a poor excuse for a poor movie.