Peter Van Greenaway (1929–1988)

Hugely entertaining psychological thriller about John Morlar (Richard Burton), a man who has the "ability" to cause catastrophes; Dr Zonfeld (Lee Remick), the psychiatrist who tries to convince him he's simply delusional and French cop on exchange in London, Detective inspector Brunel (Lino Ventura) charged with investigating Morlar's apparent murder. All this plays out against a set of astronauts lost on the dark side of the moon, a jumbo jet crashing into central London and a plot to kill in the Royal Family by collapsing Westminster Abbey on top of them a host of visiting world leaders. John Briley's screenplay (from Peter Van Greenaway's novel) is incident-packed and frantic with a quasi-serious approach to telekinesis and pseudo-science. Despite the myriad plot streams, director Jack Gold manages to keep control of the picture delivering some cleverly constructed pacing and some elaborate flashback sequences. There are some dodgy special effects but these are compensated for by the suspense generated by Gold during these effect sequences. Richard Burton is excellent in the lead role, with a manic glint in his eye and his sonorous, perfect diction chewing brilliantly on some doomed and depressing dialogue. Nothing too strenuous is asked of Lee Remick and Lino Ventura but they go about their business in solid fashion. The cast also contains a host of great character actors including Harry Andrews, Michael Hordern and Derek Jacobi. All this adds up to a clever '70s psycho-drama that has some great classic touches and a feeling of dread and suspense from beginning to end.… (altro)