Petulia Petulia

San Francisco physician Archie Bollen is divorcing, sorting out new relationships with his ex, her new man, his sons, and friends who knew him as part of a couple. At a charity event, Petulia Danner, a young and lovely socialite, throws herself at him, telling him they should find a hotel room and soon announcing she intends to marry him. She's quixotic, vulnerable, and not easy to dissuade. She's also married and faces demons of her own. Bollen returns to his apartment one afternoon and finds her unconscious, savagely beaten, most certainly by her husband. How Archie and Petulia respond to the husband's abuse are the film's conclusion.

Julie Christie Richard Chamberlain George C. Scott Arthur Hill Shirley Knight

romance drama foreign

105 mins   More details at IMDb / TMDb

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  • Roman Rangel

    Review by Roman Rangel ★★★★

    "Petulia" captura perfectamente la nostalgia y melancolia en los tiempos del "verano del amor" mediante una narrativa fragmentada que nos adentra en la psique de sus personajes. Petulia es una mujer atrapada en un matrimonio infeliz, quien conoce a Archie, un reconocido doctor a punto de divorciarse. La cinta se mueve en tiempo y espacio mostrandonos viñetas de cada uno y sus momentos mas intimos y dolorosos.
    "Petulia" es un muy buen drama brillantemente dirigido por Richard Lester con estupendas actuaciones de su reparto (en especial de Julie Christie como Petulia). Sumamente recomendable.

  • skeltonia

    Review by skeltonia ★★★★

    Absurdist humor, dreamlike logic, turns on a dime into gritty drama. Love and relationships in light of the sexual revolution. Roeg's influence shines through.

  • Thorkell August Ottarsson

    Review by Thorkell August Ottarsson ★★★★★

    What an utterly brilliant film! Why is this not better known? I get why it is only rated 7.0/10 on IMDb. The film is challenging and you have to work to find the answers but it is so revolutionary in subject matter and how it is edited that it should be better known. It is not often I'm left speechless after a film. This film did just that.

    SPOILERS! Well, to my mind the underlying plot in the film is that Petulia's husband is a pedophile and has been molesting the Mexican boy. This is the reason why Petulia wants to take the boy away. She wants to protect him and feels threatened by him. This is also the reason…

  • Peter Labuza

    Review by Peter Labuza ★★★★½ 1

    I have nothing particularly insightful to say at the moment but this is a fantastic film.

  • Saul Rosenbear

    Review by Saul Rosenbear ★★★★½

    Amazing. Remember that scene at the beginning of BLOW UP, where people get out of a car and all sorts of 60s weirdness runs parallel or is intertwined with the more serious world? Petulia exists in a similar world, except in San Francisco. George C. Scott is a doctor undergoing a divorce; Julie Christie is the flighty "kook" who tries to pick him up. Too serious to be a comedy, too satirical and occasionally funny to be straight. It's about people adapting: to the times, to others. We learn and move on.

  • Chris Underwood

    Review by Chris Underwood ★★★★½

    Despite the sweet title and the presence of Julie Christie, or perhaps, because of, this is not the pleasant movie one might, or might not have expected. Certainly when I first saw this upon release, having seen Lester’s early b/w films, I was expecting another slightly arty avant-garde outing. But no, indeed this seems to have more than a touch of cinematographer, Nick Roeg. Think, ‘Performance’ with its darkness and ‘Don’t Look Now’, with its edginess, heart stopping editing and Julie Christie and this film begins to find itself within a different context. Magnificently and correctly, of its time, this time capsule of a movie, captures exceedingly well that perturbing flip from ‘swinging sixties’ to murder and mayhem, and how…