DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS

US, 1986, 99 minutes, Colour.
Bette Midler, Richard Dreyfuss, Nick Nolte, Little Richard, Elizabeth Pena.
Directed by Paul Mazursky.

Down and Out in Beverly Hills is another of Paul Mazursky's satiric comments on the American dream and lifestyle. In the late 1960s he satirised Southern Californians with Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. He returned to this area in successive films including Blume in Love. His range of films includes Harry and Tonto, Alex in Wonderland, An Unmarried Woman, The Tempest, Moscow on the Hudson. With this film he is back in Southern California - satirising the trendies of the 1980s.

His screenplay is based on the Jean Renoir 1930s film, Boudou Saved From Drowning. While Renoir's films (like The Rules of the Game) take artificial looks at society and offer critiques, Mazursky blends both the artificial and the realistic. It does not always work well - audiences would tend to look at the film realistically where it should be seen as a fable.

Bette Midler is subdued as the fashionable wife. Richard Dreyfuss returns to his excellent timing as a comic actor as the husband. Nick Nolte is persuasive as the shuffling bum who enters the household and transforms people's lives. Unfortunately the end opts for American pandemonium and sweetened finale.

1. The popularity of the film in the mid-180s? For American audiences? World-wide audiences?

2. Paul Mazursky and his capacity for observation, satire? The contribution of the stars?

3. The look of Beverly Hills, for rich and for poor? Affluence, Venice still trying to live in the '60s? The contrasts? '80s styles and fads? The contemporary score, songs? The use of songs from the past - especially by Little Richard for comparisons with his presence in the film?

4. The original: Renoir, France in the 1930s? How well translated to the U.S. of the '80s? The blend of realism and lack of realism? The film as a fable?

5. The intercutting of the two focuses during the credits and opening sequences: Jerry and his dog, the life of an L.A. bum, wandering, garbage tins, shabby and dirty, his beatnik dog, Kerouac? Kerouac abandoning Jerry, following the fashionable jogger? Jerry's search and desperation, his decision to drown himself in the pool? The contrast with entering Dave and Barbara's house, their affluence and style? The bringing of the two parties together? The crisis?

6. Nick Nolte's portrait of Jerry - a persuasive intellectual bum? His story and stories? The stranger who enters the family and changes everyone? Telling people what they want to hear? Allowing them to be selfish, enlivening and changing them? His stories about film-making, festivals, his sister with leukaemia, Linda Evans and Dynasty? His attempt to drown himself, clashing with Dave, the rescue? Revived, uninhibited? His being transformed, haircut, shave, clothes, eating? His being fussy? His friendship with bums - Al sitting down in the restaurant with him? The reactions of each of the family to him? Dave and his taking Jerry to the factory, his going to Venice and meeting the 1960s types and relaxing? Barb and her hostility, massage, sexual fulfilment? Max and his anxiety, Jerry urging him to communicate and tell the truth to his parents? Jenny and her not eating, the sexual liaison? Carmela. sexual relationship, buying the books and her being interested in socialism? The Iranian boy and the gift of the apple - and his father's appreciation of the money? Jerry relating with dogs, with Matisse and control, training him? His not wanting to work? Ups and downs in the family? The truth - and people having a sense of betrayal? The final party, Santa Claus as a symbol of Jerry? Dave chasing him through the house? Into the pool, the police, ousting him? The family waiting in the street -and his return? on what conditions? A credible portrait of this eccentric character?

7. Dave and his wealth, middle age, uptight, his story about coat hangers and his successful firm, his car, house, portrait of himself and Barbara? Relationship with Barbara - falling out of love? Max and the video for communication with his parents? Tensions in the night, the visit to Carmela, passion? The arrival of the police? His deals with the Chinese? The factory, going to Venice and relaxing? Change of attitude? Suspicion of Jerry? Throwing the party? His reaction to Max and his friends? A man of anger - captured in Maxis video? Final exasperation at the party, the chase? Finally relenting? The comment on the upwardly mobile Beverly Hills millionaire?

8. Barbara and her stuffy manner, her gurus and fads? Her friends and relations? Angry with Jerry? Attacking him? The massage and sexual encounter? Her eating and drinking again? Suspicion with Carmela? The party and her relenting?

9. Max as the mixed up L.A. teenager, his continually filming people, his communicating to his parents via the video - the succession of images in his video including slapstick comedians, sex, nuclear and social issues? His being around the home. capturing his parents' anger and communicating that to them'?' Jerry persuading him to tell the truth? The androgenous group and their make-up, dress? His father's reaction?

10. Jenny as smart and fashionable, not eating? The visit to her parents' for Thanksgiving, the boyfriend and his drugs? The break? Meeting Jerry and the transformation?

11. The portrait of Carmela, the Hispanic maid in the L.A. households? Barbara learning Spanish? The sexual relationship with the husband? Friendship with Jerry, her interest in political books?

12. The range of fashionable friends. the Thanksgiving Dinner, the parties, walking over hot coals? The guru

13. The gurus and their influence, money? The dog psychologist and his treatment of Matisse as if he were human?

14. The black neighbour, the police alert and his anger, the similar Rolls Royce, snobbery about the Iranians coming into the area? The party and his playing the piano? Little Richard and the soundtrack of 'Tutti Frutti as well as his '80s playing?

15. The importance of the dogs: Kerouac as the Beatnik dog, abandoning Jerry to go to a more fashionable household? Matisse and his anger in the house, the treatment that he got, relating to Jerry - tricks, swimming and diving? The film's close-ups on Matisse’s reactions to all the situations - his not needing a dog psychologist!

16. The portrait of Beverly Hills society, money, ostentatious, happiness, unhappiness, values, trends and fads? A legitimate target of satire?

17. The pandemonium of the ending - American loud humour? Persuasive? The soft finale and welcoming Jerry back?