Customer Reviews

The Driver's Seat

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Elizabeth Taylor reportedly said those words to her director Griffi when she came on the set the day after she left Burton for their first divorce. So with that mindset she went to work on one of her most unusual, daring and controversial films. From the moment "The Diver's Seat" begins you know you are in a strange place. In Europe the movie was called "Idendikit" so, with two names tagged to it thus making it schizophrenic from the first it easily falls into the realm of the ambiguous art film genre of the late 60's and early 70's.
It's star, Elizabeth Taylor, appears here in one of her most remote and dangerous roles. She plays Lise a woman who is consumed by insanity and the desire to find the ultimate lover, the be all and end all of boyfriends you might say.
As the film opens you are presented with a shattered view of a woman on the edge of something terrible. The camera moves past bald mannequins in a disjointed way. Is this Lise's view of others or is it a reflection of her ultimate fate? Upon being told to take a holiday from work after causing a scene in the office the film opens with her preparations to take flight to Rome. The film jump cuts from past to present as the police in Rome try to reconstruct her final fatal holiday in terrorist gripped Rome. Even Rome comes off as off kilter. This is not the Rome of Audrey Hepburn or Marcello Mastroianni but a city one hardly recognizes from the lack of typical filming locations one associates with "Made In Rome!" movies.
Director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi succeeds in presenting a uniquely Italian cinema verite film of the Muriel Spark novel. This is a unique film and very much of it's day. Its non-linear, experimental, almost documentary style will be hard to get into for any one not used to movies of this sort. But it is well worth the effort. So strange and challenging a film it is that it left the opening night audience at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival in stunned silence.
The cast is well chosen and gives some oddly memorable performances. Ian Bannan as the macrobiotic sex-nut who tires to pick up Lise on the plane to Rome seems almost as mad as she is. It is a wickedly off kilter wild-eyed performance. The charming and always wonderful Mona Washbourne is sweetly touching as the woman who befriends the mad Lise and in doing so leads her to meet the man of her dreams.
But the glue that holds it all together is provided by Miss Taylor who tops off her short list of insane characters from Susanna Drake to Catherine Holly with this daring and shocking portrait of Lise. She opens up as an actress that at the time would have been unthinkable to most of her contemporaries from the old M.G.M. days. That's one of the wonderful things about her film career. She came from an era in old Hollywood where she was trained and groomed to be glossy and perfect. But as times changed so did she and in doing so became much more than an MGM glamour girl, she became an actress with guts. In "The Driver's Seat" she shows her chops as an actress and her willingness to accept challenges in her roles and in Lise she found a great one. One stunning image of her is when in her loud madwoman dress and raccoon painted eyes she challenges the airport security to frisk her. In that scene she seems totally there, totally gone, and totally in control as an actress.

Have just seen this movie on DVD,in it's complete version(it was released on VHS several years ago in a cut version).Fascinating but disturbing,it lures you into the strange world of a woman(TAYLOR),who is obviously insane and her sick obsession with finding the right man to kill her.Taylor,who was having problems of her own at the time,is masterfully in control of the most complex character she had ever played.In a finely nuanced performance,she shows that in the right situation,and with the right kind of role,she can deliver the goods.Vastly underrated at it's time of release(it was considered too disturbing for the general viewer),hardly released,and then lost for many years,it is now being rediscovered and rightly assessed as one of Taylor's really great performances.With it's piano soundtrack,it's use of white light to show us the divide between the reality of the world and Lise's insanity,and the strange event's that surround her 'trip',we watch as the film moves towards it's powerful,disturbing,inevitable closure.For people who appreciate a rare chance to watch a Hollywood great at her best,and a movie that draws you into a nightmare of the mind.

This is a FILM. Elizabeth is a genius actress. This bizarre film proves it very much. She is such an instinctive actress it's fascinating to see her move through this film. There's no one like Elizabeth Taylor.

A very off-beat, disturbing and just excellent story and acting. I love the flavor of so many of the older movies. They have a reality to them and a real art. Elizabeth was also just terrific in "Night Watch" and "Secret Ceremony".

Based on Muriel Spark's harrowing novel (the film inspired another, 'The Public Eye') this is one of Elizabeth Taylor's best performances, which won European Oscars. Why have you never heard about it? It was considered obscene, and parts of it are shocking, still. It demonstrates that Taylor was a very talented actress strangled by the star system in the US, of which she was the last studio product. The film is damaged by extraneous scenes not in the novel, set in a police station. But when Taylor is on screen as perhaps the most neurotic woman in screen history - besides every Joan Crawford performance on film - you won't forget it. Sparks' dialogue, as in 'Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' - taken intact from the novel in Taylor's scenes - is sparkling. To best view this film skip any police scene, and the end will surprise you more as well. It's not too late, Liz - they are filming the musical of 'Sunset Boulevard'.

DVD-R mfrs. such as SYNERGY offer no commentary, deleted scenes or other bonus features. Dubs are "best available source" and can vary from very good to only fair.


In Euro-made THE DRIVER'S SEAT, Elizabeth Taylor plays an unmarried woman on a quest for her own private Kevorkian. Oddball Andy Warhol cameos here as an oddball Lord/diplomat.

SYNOPSIS--
The highly neurotic Lise (Taylor) arrives in Rome on a mandatory vacation and seeks out in the city's seamier districts a mate willing to love her and leave her... DEAD. Lise desires to be ceremoniously bound and then murdered with a knife. From appearances alone this woman is clearly unbalanced: smeared mascara, a max-tacky wardrobe and wild behavior are an attempt to stand out from the crowd as well as her desperate cry for help.

Macabre atmosphere captured through skilled cinematography, sets and lighting amply give a sense of the insanity that haunt's Lise's conscience. The obvious semi-deranged self-absorption of this character is wonderfully conveyed by Liz in one of her least remembered yet most-difficult roles.

If you're seeking typical popcorn fare you'd do best to try elsewhere, but if a logic-challenging movie with an offbeat performance by one of Hollywood's greats is your goal, then look no further-- cuz you've found it!


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(5.5) The Driver's Seat (Italy-1974) - Elizabeth Taylor/Ian Bannen/Guido Mannari/Mona Washbourne/Luigi Squarzina/Andy Warhol

A strange and interesting movie. Unfortunately "Synergy Entertainment" seems to have dubbed the DVD straight from a VHS tape. When they had seen the fruits of their labor and realized they had not completely destroyed the film - they then burned their logo into the screen periodically - like a frat boy proudly claiming a fart. Perhaps, had they not done this, I would have lost the case and forgotten who ruined the transfer.

WOW!IS THIS PICTURE A REAL DOG...AND LIZZIE DOES DO SOME STRANGE "BLUE"THINGS HERE.BUT IT'S WORTH THE PRICE AS A COLLECTORS ITEM OF BAD FILMS MADE BY GOOD ARTIST.THIS IS ONE OF THE BARELY KNOWN EUROPEAN FILMS LIZ DID AND PROBABLY NOT SHOWN IN THE US.[THANK GOD!]THE PRIMUS IS A WOMAN ON THE VERGE OF MADNESS FOR WHO KNOWS WHAT REASON..PMS?SHE SEARCHES FOR THE "RIGHT"MAN WHO IS WILLING TO MURDER HER [?]TO HAVE SEX[?]ONE IS NOT SURE AND WHAT'S WITH THE PEANUT GUY?AND WILL LIZZE REALLY GIVE A B---J--?SHE'S NOT LOOKING HEALTHY HERE TOO...DRINKING IS BAD ON THE FACE.AND WHY IS ANDY WHARHOL IN THIS MESS TOO?WHAT'S THE POINT BUT TO HAVE AS A COLLECTOR'S PIECE.HMMMM.

This film was an omen, a portent of this time we live in. I agree with a few of the reviewers I've read that this is a disturbing film. It is disturbing because it is so current! These are the stories we read about now in the news online everyday! The faceless mannequins represent ourselves in an overpopulated and disenchanted world. We are all John and Jane Does. Lise's journey into madness is not her own, it is ours as the world becomes more and more unknowable. I disagree with one review that it is a "movie of its time". It is NOT; it is a movie that could be made today. It is completely modern. I meet Lises everyday now--on the subway, at the market, in malls. They are blindly and listlessly shopping or going nowhere. They are bored, lost and looking for anything that will make them feel like they are alive. We are all Lises. We chat with and have virtual relationships online. We use webcams and have virtual sex with no STDs. We are plugged in all the time and cling to our cellphones like life rafts. It doesn't matter whether someone is really on the other end or not, we need connection and validation constantly. We cling to our drinks and ipods like Lise clings to her shopping bags. We feel unreal unless we look at our reflections in passing shop windows or cars. It is a schizophrenic world we live in and it is rapidly becoming considered normalcy. I think Lise is courageous to take her life into her own hands and decide her fate! It is brave to take control over the one thing nobody wants to think about--one's end. She turns it into a love affair to make it more acceptable to her psyche perhaps.

"The Driver's Seat" is pure arty trash, pretentious, boring and smugly self-conscious, a blatant exploitation of Elizabeth Taylor in which she was obviously a willing participant. Someone was smoking something when they concocted this one, but it's a-typical of the sort of stuff that tried hard to shock and be esoteric during the 70's. The plot, such as it is, concerns a woman sought by the police who wanders around, looking for the right man to kill her. Anyone who doesn't know what "going south" means might not realize her intent at first, but unless they're a diehard Elizabeth Taylor fan, I can't imagine they would care one way or the other what she's up to. Basically Taylor is in her "strange" phase, the anti-MGM star, and here she is becoming blowsy and given to wild and tasteless patterns in clothes and frizzy hair, her milieu during this period along with kaftans, but even when shrieking like a harridan or filmed with unforgiving, show-every-bump-on-the-complexion lighting (as is the case here), Taylor is still an amazingly beautiful woman on a scale that few have ever come close to. This is not one of her better performances, however; it is an excuse to show her clutching her own breasts and writhing on a bed and rolling around in seedy encounters with equally seedy men who spout such "clever" lines as, "I need my daily orgasm" and being as weird and self-indulgent as possible. Andy Warhol even makes an appearance. About as deep as a night at Studio 54 and every bit as banal. Only for those who like Elizabeth Taylor at her strangest or who have a prurient curiosity about seeing the actress in a see-through bra in one scene. She has been served better in other films, trust me. A bomb and a bore.

The 60's film industry had some real gems and it also had some self absorbed mindless rambling celluloid trips that made you wonder what was in the blood stream of those who made them. This falls into the latter category. As a child of the 60's, I grew up loving even the lame products but this one is really stupid. The presence of Andy Warhol and Liz Taylor makes it seem like a project where all of their 'beautiful people' cronies got together to make a movie, the way you and your gang in your neighborhood put on a show using dad's old suits and the rusted farm implenments from the barn for props. The plot makes no sense, Taylor's purpose in the film plot is look good while wandering through it and the inevitble payoff in most 60's angst ridden films comes up at the end. I won't give it away, just believe me, it isn't worth the trip.