THE SAILOR FROM GIBRALTAR
UK, 1967, 91 minutes, Black and white.
Jeanne Moreau, Ian Bannen, Orson Welles, Vanessa Redgrave, John Hurt, Hugh Griffith, Umerto Orsini.
Directed by Tony Richardson.
The Sailor From Gibraltar is a film that got lost in the mid-1960s. It was directed by Tony Richardson who had won an Oscar for best film for Tom Jones in 1963 after his initial films of kitchen sink dramas including Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer. He made a number of smaller films at this period including Mademoiselle with Jeanne Moreau. He then moved to the ironic The Charge of the Light Brigade and made a number of films in the United States, including a number of telemovies.
The film was based on a novel by Marguerite Duras, a prolific novelist and film writer who was the author of such films as Hiroshima Mon Amour. The screenplay was adapted by writer, Christopher Isherwood (I Am a Camera).
The sailor from Gibraltar is played by Ian Bannen who had a career as a character actor rather than as a star. His girlfriend is played by Vanessa Redgrave (wife of Tony Richardson). However, the sailor meets a mysterious woman played by Jeanne Moreau who is looking for a sailor from her past. They set sail to look for this sailor, aboard a yacht owned by Orson Welles.
The sailor may exist only in the mind of the woman.
There is an international supporting cast as well with Hugh Griffith and Umberto Orsini. Eleanor Brown and John Hurt are listed in the cast – but, it is suggested, that they do not appear in the final print.
A curiosity item of the 60s.
1. The significance of the title, Its use? The atmosphere of myth, goals, reality? Their interrelation?
2. The significance of the credits, their tone, black and white photography, Panavision, music? Appropriate to the mythical and real tones of the film?
3. The importance of technique: the narrative, the styles of editing, subjective photography?
4. The focus on Allani an ordinary man, the strengths and weaknesses of his character, the pessimistic overtones, his capacity for happiness? The details of his life, its significance, his dreams, work? The relationship with the girl? The tour, no response, escape? His being fascinated, callous? The reality of love and real feeling? The idyll and its effect on him? Jealousy, the role of the sailor, the search and the illusion? How did we leave Allan finally? How much insight did he gain?
5. The role of Anna - The mystery about her, the talk of a sailor for Anna, the reality, the ship, the story and the quest? The hold on lovers? Insight? How do all these things apply to Vanessa?
6. The presentation of the girl: her ordinariness, liveliness, optimism? How satisfied was she and happy? her domination? The tour, telling Allan? Love and disappointment? The significance of the slap?
7. The sailor of the title, the sailor of reality, the symbolic sailor?
8. Comment on the exotic people In the supporting cast who helped?
9. The contributionz of the backgrounds of Italy, Greece, Alexandria?
10. The importance of the atmosphere of the ship, of the sea, the visual presentation of this?
11. What were the main lines of interest in the film, its skill in presenting and exploring these? Was the film in any way pretentious?
