The Second Coming of Suzanne (1974)

User Rating:

3.9/10   

Director:

Michael Barry

Writer:

Michael Barry (writer)

Release Date:

October 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Jared Martin plays an aspiring film maker obsessed with the idea of Christ as a woman, and tries to film his vision with Sondra Locke as his subject...

Plot Keywords:

San Francisco California | Film Making | Crucifixion | Independent Film

Cast

Sondra Locke	...	Suzanne
Paul Sand	...	Artist
Jared Martin	...	Film Maker
Richard Dreyfuss	...	Clavius
Gene Barry	...	Jackson Sinclair, the TV Commentator
Gregory Enton	...	Heathcliff, Logan's Film Group
Penelope Spheeris	...	Margo, Logan's Film Group
Rudy Lavalle	...	Cameraman, Logan's Film Group
David Moody	...	Soundman, Logan's Film Group
Robert Feero	...	S.F., Logan's Film Group
Kari Avalos	...	Dorothy
Philip Schultz	...	Fenton
Gloria Stockton	...	Fat Lady
Charles Shull	...	Doctor
Winifred Mann	...	Helen

Also Known As:

Suzanne

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R | UK:15

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Barry Films

Trivia:

Record producer Mickie Most originally conceived this as a vehicle for Paul McCartney in the role of Clavius, but he was offered the role during the time of the break-up of The Beatles in 1970 and declined it. When Most met up with McCartney he later described him as "looking a bit like Jim Morrison after a bender".

Soundtrack:

Suzanne

I feel the need to defend this film...

This movie is hardly ever brought up, but when it is I feel the need to fervently defend it. But that is not an easy thing to do when faced with the reality of quality of the film. I have no problems with slow films, in fact I love films that are delibrately difficult and slow paced, I consider it athlectic movie-going to watch things like Syberberg's "Hitler", or things like "Out 1" "Berlin Alexanderplatz", or movies of conventional length but maddingly slow like "The Disappearance" or the films of Bresson or Terrance Malick. This film is slow, and I can't take any points off for that, but at times it does feel like there is no purpose to the pacing. The most used word to describe the film is pretentious. There is not doubt the film "flirts" with pretension, but I feel there is validity to the idea, the plot and the story, but I can understand why people might be turned off by it. It is frivolous in its poetics, and if you are a person concerned with the immediate or the political, you'll probably hate this movie, but if you like loose or experimental narrative and ambiguity of motive this film will appeal to you. Two things the film has going for it is one; the acting. It's uniformly strong, and Richard Dreyfuss is in it more than most people will tell you, but he isn't the start as the box art would lead you to believe. And two; the use of music. Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" is use to great effect in the film, and in a way that is the truest visual representation of the meaning of that song. But above all the greatest thing about the film is the concept it plays with. A man obsessed about making a film about the second coming of Jesus, but as a woman. it is fascinating to watch this unfold, but I do have to adimit the pay off is disappointing. In the hands of someone like Nicholas Roeg, Bunuel, Bresson, or Malick this might have been one of the greatest films of all time. As it is now it's an interesting film, and an infuriating viewing because your left wondering what could have been.