Some Call It Loving (1973) User Reviews

The Very Thought of You. . . .

[filmbuff-31 · 5/10 · 20 June 2007]

For those who would trash this film as so much convoluted garbage--Freudian or otherwise--I have only these words: The Very Thought of You. The scene in which this song is included is the only thing which makes this film worth watching. Of course, the inclusion of the song, good as it is, cannot save this film from the trash heap.

The concept is imaginative enough. The story concerns what appears prima facie to be a familiar theme, but which incorporates the kind of surrealistic realism that was characteristic of John Collier. His characters are dreamers with noble ideals and high expectations. Only to find that the real thing, once encountered, is nowhere near what they had imagined. Another story by Collier in this same mold, by the bye, is "The Chaser," which did become a Twilight Zone episode.

The well-read viewer will probably be able to overlook the bizarre elements which clutter this film for just a moment and appreciate its sublime theme. In the end, however, the bizarre elements drown out any attempt at profundity. The viewer, like the characters in the film, is left feeling vaguely disillusioned, if not outright cheated.

The song deserves mention immediately because I believe that the sentimental romanticism of The Very Thought of You expresses very well the intention of the film's director. As envisioned by him, the song lingers in memory. Unfortunately, the director's intention is out of step with the writer Collier's original intention and it shows. The whole production is out of sync with its purpose. This is not a good film. I'd give it one and a half stars, and that's for the song.

Update of the Sleeping Beauty story

[bchabel · 3/10 · 1 March 2000]

It has been more than a quarter century since I saw this movie. it is not a good movie. It is, however, one of the more bizarre films you will ever see. It has stayed in my memory all these years while other clunkers are gone. Richard Pryor's turn as a wino-philosopher and Zalman King as a jazz musician-prince defy description. And its has a nuns dancing scene with Carol White. Because of the cast and treatment, this truly may be a one of a kind experience.

best

[noonward · 3 June 2014]

An obscure oddity, chastised and forgotten in its time. A different take on the Sleeping Beauty story which is complimented with interestingly composed shots, surreal characters, narrative peculiarities and great music. It's a warm piece of Americana that invokes weird nuns, freak carnivals and a rambling Richard Pryor. Basically all the stuff that makes America great. Despite the strange elements inherent in the movie, it still comes off as artfully dramatic. Love cannot be forced and no one is perfect for one another, the film explores how futile it is to make this happen when a man has the perfect opportunity to mold a sleeping beauty into his ultimate love. It is somewhat a shame that the film hasn't found an audience outside of Rosenbaum's essential 1000 and some Cinemageddon weirdos as it could easily slot itself into the fanbase cult of Harmony Korine and beyond. Watch it at 3am and let it mesmerize and sedate you.

A strange and often disconnected puzzle of a film.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 17 March 2016]

"Some Call it Loving" is hard to describe but I'll try. It's a bit like an art film (such as something by Bergman or Fellini) combined with a porno film with little porn...along with an LSD trip. The results are bizarre, unique and incredibly confusing. What does all this mean?!

The film begins with Robert (Zalman King...a Marjoe Gortner lookalike) seeing a strange carnival attraction. It seems that a pretty young woman has been sleeping for 8 years and audience members can pay to come up and kiss her...and try to awaken her. Soon you realize that the man who 'owns her' is more than willing to allow guys to pay to do far more...and he expects that is what Robert wants when he comes to see her later. However, he's obsessed with her in a strange, non-sexual way and he buys the girl from him! Soon, after bringing her home, she awakens and he is smitten by her and vice-versa...though for a lot of the film their relationship is non-sexual. Instead, Robert walks around almost as if in a catatonic state himself...watching all sorts of weirdos. Two weirdos are his 'girlfriends' though they are clearly lesbians and kinky ones at that. Another is his junkie friend (overplayed badly by Richard Pryor). None of these people or vignettes make ANY sense and after a while you start to realize that everything and the disconnectedness of it all is highly reminiscent of a dream- -as if it's not the girl who is asleep but the audience...or at least they are watching someone's dream. Surreal beyond belief and late in the film there are finally some nude scenes (but they are amazingly non- sexy). The entire concoction is nonsensical and bizarre...so much so that it has 'cult film' written all over it but it's also not something the average viewer would care about in the least. Additionally, its bizarro religious symbolism is bound to offend many, many viewers.

My advice is that if you want to watch porn, find a better and sexier film. If you want an art film, try "The Seventh Seal" or "8 1/2" as they are much more clever and artsy. Or, if you want a film that utterly confuses you, by all means try "Some Call it Loving"...but I wasn't a fan by the time the film ended.

I gutted it out. But only because the FF on my pvr didn't work

[skuhl-67904 · 1/10 · 3 February 2016]

Truly an awful movie in every sense of the word. The story had no meaning beyond some high school type vapid comments. And the best one word description would be pretentious. In fact they even quoted Hamlet's Polonius but, in the incorrect context. But I can forgive all of that. I have a fondness for weird, experimental films. But, the one thing I can't forgive is boredom. The characters move at the speed of a glacier. They walk to one room then back for no reason. "Just get bloody on with it" I hollered at the screen. Boring boring boring. And don't figure you can throw in one line from my beloved Hamlet and figure that makes you 'artistic'!

Skip this slow placed clunker and go watch eraserhead .

Had Twilight Zone Stayed on the air to the 70's

[lobianco · 7/10 · 14 February 2002]

You would end up with "Some Call It Loving" One of the most truly unique films that you will find - if you can. Features a rare performance by Richard Pryor and Tisa Farrow - Starring Zalman King. Actor of "Blue Sunshine" and other B- movie horror films of the 70's like "Galaxy of Terror" - Later to bring us such hits as "9 1/2 Weeks" and the "Red Shoe Diaries". Zalman portrays and eccentric jazz musician who one day happens upon a carnival sideshow. Lured in by a carny barker he witnesses a human exhibition. A sleepy beauty - A real life girl who apparently due to a rare medical condition maintains a constant state of sleep. The wealthy musician so taken by the girl, he decides to buy her off the carny. It turns out that this is NOT the only girl in his human collection. Back at the mansion are two more unique women.

Many films have delt with the Sideshow and Carny theme but few are able to capture the real seedy and underlying themes of Freakshows as well as this film does in the first 5 mins. . Logan Ramsey (walking tall) plays the sideshow owner - giving one of the most convincing performances of a true seedy carny. Add to this a pair of lesbians - a Blonde Bombshell Fetish Cheerleader - Richard Pryor as a strung out Jazz Drummer - Plus - some nunexploitation - Add a pinch of Saxaphone driven Jazz and you got yourself a film from 1973 unlike any other - If this film came out now it would take Sundance by storm. Simply put the film deals with the idea of creating the perfect woman or chasing after the idea of the perfect woman. One uncorrupted from the realities of the world. An eerie twisted Twilight Zone feel - It's interesting to see how Zalman went from this to 9 1/2 weeks. Which also deals with obtaining human passion.

Weird, and creepy

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 24 August 2018]

SOME CALL IT LOVING is a weirdly arty, '70s-set updating of the Sleeping Beauty storyline, featuring 'erotic romance' proponent Zalman King in the main role. He plays a mildly creepy guy who gets hold of an ever-slumbering woman from a fairground (she's played by Tisa Farrow, of ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS fame) and engages in a kind of slow-burning romance with her. This is a stately and dialogue-focused film which, truth be told, simply isn't very interesting despite some thematic depth. Farrow sleepwalks through her role - apologies for the pun - and King creeped me out. Richard Pryor and Carol White also appear in support.

a weird film worth seeing because of its strangeness

[tharsis-1 · 7/10 · 6 September 2005]

It happened that i have seen this film just tonight at the "Etrange Festival" in Paris, an annual festival of strange, odd and weird films. It is its thirteen edition and Some call it Loving (or Sleeping Beauty as it is called in France) fits perfectly in the usual tone of the festival. Its weirdness stems from its incoherent and incomprehensible plot, fantastic tone and incredible casting: Zalman King as the lover, acting worse than even the producer Robert Evans when actor, Richard Pryor an alcoholic/drug addict/mad man, the sister of Mia Farrow (Tisa Farrow). The film is supposed to be a distorted story of sleeping beauty. And it is true: it is not a good film but its quality resides in its ability to dare nearly every thing with absolute seriousness: A pair of (tap) dancing nuns for example, and also a nearly gratuitous strip tease scene The film is filled with wooden dialog which resonates strangely in the often rich in-house set with a mawkish romantic music in the background. A film to be seen and appreciated with a second degree state of mind .

Strange, bizarre - such description doesn't even come close

[Balthazar-5 · 8/10 · 1 August 2006]

The cinema is such a magnificent art that it enables artists to minutely examine the darkest crevices in the human psyche. Here we have one of the strangest examples of this possibility.

Zalman King makes a superb central character of Robert Troy who brings a 'sleeping beauty' from a fairground to his West Coast mansion. It emerges that she has been artificially kept asleep - drugged by her fairground owner. The mansion to which she is brought is a cavernous affair populated simply by two women, whose relationship with Troy is never fully articulated. There are clear suggestions of necrophilia here as Troy's obsession with the sleeping girl become more explicit, but the film doesn't pursue these lines, leaving the audience to make connections and draw its own suspect conclusions.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the film is in the scene in which Jennifer relates to Troy how she had experienced being asleep and just remembering how the men in the fairground kissed her... and more. However, she had only the alternative of oblivion to compare these half-perceived experiences with so regarded them as precious, but Harris doesn't moralise.

Although the British video that I watched (I had seen the film in the cinema before) promotes the fact that Richard Pryor is in the cast, he is, in fact, the weakest part of the film - playing a drug/booze-crazed friend of Troy. Carol White also has a strange part as the possibly Lesbian dominatrix, who regularly dresses as a nun in the weird role-playing games that pass for life in the mansion.

Visually the film concentrates on darkness with many strange chiaroscuro effects in the mansion lit by dim chandeliers and candles. When Jennifer (Sleeping Beauty) and Troy take a trip, it is mainly shot at night in anonymous, faceless locations. It seems to me that one of the few real clues to the heart of the film is in the choice of Nat King Cole's 'The Very Thought of You' as the key musical motif. This points, it seems to me, to the notion of the film being a reflection of the way that love enters and distorts the mind of the lover.

Finally, in this extraordinary film - made by one of Kubrick's closest associates of the time - we see mystery in almost every aspect. Where, if at all, does the flashback with which the film opens end, for example? There are relatively few movies that make you think that there is a whole new area of human existence, but this is one of them. It may be tacky and lacking in 'taste and decency' on occasion, but this is cinema of the fine line between decadence and depravity - it isn't 'nice', but it's, to use another Nat King Cole title, unforgettable.

Lost gem of 70's cinema!

[anghart · 8/10 · 21 August 2015]

Much maligned in the US, "Some Call It Loving"is a film that's not going to be for everyone...or suite everyone's tastes. But that doesn't mean it should be ignored, because at its core lies a well- made, deliberately told film about loneliness, love and dark desire.

As with most of director James B. Harris's films, the pic is centered around a disillusioned loner who wants to change the status quo. In this case, a jazz musician who wants more from his relationships than the kinky game play that has become the norm in his mansion.

Although our "hero" is surrounded by comely women who want to throw themselves at him, he wants more. He wants love. Companionship. He think he's found it in a mysterious girl who he has awakened from a long sleep, but the girl may be more of a puzzle than he can handle.

This is a film more about style than story. And on that level, it succeeds well, with gorgeous cinematography and a haunting theme melody by the director's brother Bob Harris.

Overall, it's great that this lost little film has finally been given a significant release after spending 40 years in obscurity. For cinema lovers, it's worth checking out. For those who already admire in its renegade spirit and minimalist approach, enjoy the new release by Etiquette Pictures. It's everything we could have hoped for. Maybe one day Hollywood will wake up, and realize what a wonderful director James B. Harris is. We can only hope.

Interesting 70's oddity

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 10 November 2015]

Wealthy, but jaded and disillusioned jazz musician Robert Troy (a solid and subdued performance by Zalman King) purchases pure and guileless sleeping beauty Jennifer (sweetly played with charming wide-eyed naiveté by Tisa Farrow) from a carnival sideshow. However, Robert's attempts to shape Jennifer into the ideal girl of his dreams don't work out quite as planned.

Writer/director James B. Harris relates the unusual and absorbing story at a deliberate pace, offers a compelling and provocative cinematic meditation on the fine line between fantasy and reality as well as the impossibility of preserving innocence for perpetuity, comes up with several inspired moments of beguiling whimsy (for example, a dance set piece involving two women dressed up in nun's habits), and does an expert job of crafting a strangely haunting dreamlike atmosphere. The fine acting from the able cast keeps this picture on track: Carol White excels as Troy's sly and scheming distaff companion Scarlett, Richard Pryor contributes a touching turn as Troy's drug-addled struggling artist best friend Jeff, Logan Ramsey has a colorful bit as a seedy carnival doctor, and Brandy Herrod burns up the screen as a foxy nude cheerleader. Mario Tosi's sumptuous cinematography and Richard Hazard's gracefully elegiac score further enhance this movie's singular melancholy mood. Recommended viewing for aficionados of original and esoteric way out of the mainstream fare.

You don't dance? Oh, what a pity. Well then we'll dance, and you watch. You do watch, don't you?

[TedMichaelMor · 9/10 · 13 May 2010]

This is a magical film with intriguing iconography, engaging narrative, and solid performances. Carol White is splendid. Tisa Farrow also performs well. James Harris directs with great control and vision.

Some commentators find the film bizarre; however, I do not find it weird. Instead, the film is mysterious with the haunting Nate King Cole song framing the narrative. I found myself opening to new ways of thinking about what being a human being is.

The dialogue is formal, however. It sounds like a bad translation from Swedish and thus sounds pretentious, but it not pretentious, just a tad wooden. And that makes the film, in a way, seem more formal than realistic.