17,736 Steps to a Perfect Life

  I was 11 when this came out and I can remember reading all the controversy around it - the nudity, and how “adult” and “frank” it was. It says something about the presentation of sex in cinema that it still seems that way.

Sharp, creative cinematography and editing, and some remarkable images. But also a lot of dialog that sounds like Pronouncements getting lobbed back and forth, and which frequently I couldn’t parse.

All the leads are good, and with the exception of Jennie Linden they’re all very good; I don’t think it was the fault of any of them I sometimes couldn’t understand their characters’ motivations.

Oliver Reed isn’t given much of a range of emotions to run through, but does a lot of good work in close quarters: it’s probably as impressive a performance as I’ve ever seen from him.

I laughed at Alan Bates’ spiel about eating the fig - because it was unexpected, and funny. I also laughed at Reed’s flashing back during sex, to his mother snickering at his father’s funeral - because, well, I thought that was only me!

[Within the last several months I've seen both Reed and Linden in (different) early-60's Hammer psychological thrillers. Reed's turn in Paranoiac had a lot to do with making it the best of the series. However it took me about three tries to get through Nightmare, where Linden's schoolgirl is an insufferable drip - who cares if your protagonist is being persecuted if you don't like her? I wouldn't have bothered if the b&w 'scope photography hadn't been so sweet and I wasn't such a sucker for the genre]

I found the appearance of the distinctive-looking German artist in Switzerland a bit distracting, then realized why: he was an assassin in From Russia with Love, which I’d probably seen seven times before I was 14 (in pre-video days). Plus I’d read recently that Reed had been considered as Connery’s replacement for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service…given all this I was expecting the ferret-faced bastard to close in on Reed’s sled during the downhill sequence.

Remarkably abrupt ending - not complaining, just surprised.

What I learned from this film

Personal troubles or no: it’s still better to own the mine than work in it.