I had not seen the film before now, too afraid that Claire Bloom’s gorgeous Mary Quant costuming would not have a good and proper home. I also have an aversion to Robert Wise films–he’s the jughead who cut “Magnificent
Ambersons,” and added the bad ending while Orson was away shooting colored people in Brazil for “It’s All True.” In any case, Julie Harris’ kindness as an artist and Claire Bloom’s close friendship with the late Barbara Epstein made me simmer down and watch the film over a few days. It’s scary only if you have been close to someone who gradually begins to feel the terror of exclusion you’ve always felt, and you feel sad and anxious for them–for the waste land you will share together, or not. Claire was adorable as the preying mantis lesbian, but the relationship between Julie and Claire felt more sibling like than anything to me. But that might be where I am right now. Siblings sharing varying degrees of confusion and fear about the “family,” and exclusion in the family-as-group, shaped the film for me, but I may be re-writing. And I adored Claire’s large black haired head while dressed in varying degrees of internal and external blackness.
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