Sidney Lumet shines when it it comes to filming a story in an enclosed place: "twelve angry men","murder on the orient express" "dog day afternoon",etc .He is virtually unable to highlight the splendid Italian landscapes ;even the sea looks muddy !
Omar Shariff had just made "Mayerling" which was not a masterpiece but was not boring."The appointment "is tedium itself,the actors move slowly in the luxury places and are not given a single chance to shine;Anouk Aimée ,whose best movies are French, is cast in a part close to that of "model shop" :a model and a luxury prostitute,suicidal, never a smile lightens her face.The subjects were already treated ,and in a much better way ,by Luis Bunuel ("Belle De Jour",high class prostitution),and "El" (jealousy).Lotte Lenya (everybody remembers in "from Russia with love")plays a sinister go-between , an art lover who admires Mussolini and fascism.And there is a pointless scene in which an old lady Shariff meets on a train tells him that she enjoys traveling by train cause she was born on a train.Absorbing huh?
Omar Shariff had just made "Mayerling" which was not a masterpiece but was not boring."The appointment "is tedium itself,the actors move slowly in the luxury places and are not given a single chance to shine;Anouk Aimée ,whose best movies are French, is cast in a part close to that of "model shop" :a model and a luxury prostitute,suicidal, never a smile lightens her face.The subjects were already treated ,and in a much better way ,by Luis Bunuel ("Belle De Jour",high class prostitution),and "El" (jealousy).Lotte Lenya (everybody remembers in "from Russia with love")plays a sinister go-between , an art lover who admires Mussolini and fascism.And there is a pointless scene in which an old lady Shariff meets on a train tells him that she enjoys traveling by train cause she was born on a train.Absorbing huh?