In Search of Gregory

1969 "Sister, Brother, Lover... a most irregular triangle."
5.4| 1h30m| en
Details

Young Catherine Morelli, who lives in Rome, goes to Geneva to find romance at her father's wedding. There she begins a near nymphomaniac pursuit of a mystery man called Gregory.

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Vic Films Productions

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Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.
Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
Portia Hilton Blistering performances.
wes-connors Beautiful blue-eyed Julie Christie (as Catherine Morelli) flies to Geneva for the latest wedding of father Adolfo Celi (as Max), who pronounces himself healthy enough for ten wives. Papa promises Ms. Christie might meet her ideal man - tall, dark, and handsome Michael Sarrazin (as Gregory Mulvey). So, Christie goes "In Search of Gregory". First, she re-connects with brother John Hurt (as Dan). After Christie's bra and panties scene, she listens as Mr. Hurt relates how Mr. Sarrazin's "Gregory" gave him a driving lesson.This hair-raising driving sequence features Sarrazin climbing out of the speeding car's passenger seat, climbing over the windscreen, and crawling back in to take over for frightened driver Hurt. You probably should NOT try this trick at home, but it's fun wonder how it might work… anyway, it occurs about 20 minutes in, and is the highlight of the movie. Unfortunately, after this exciting introduction, Sarrazin's "Gregory" is made lame, Hurt turns from scared to lost, and Christie simply models chic outfits until a slightly picked-up ending.***** In Search of Gregory (11/69) Peter Wood ~ Julie Christie, Michael Sarrazin, John Hurt, Adolfo Celi
mukava991 Contains Spoiler.This tale of emptiness, boredom and longing is empty, boring and long (even at 90 minutes, it's long). Co-scripted by Antonioni's collaborator Tonino Guerra (whose credits include L'AVVENTURA, LA NOTTE, BLOW UP) this film resembles that director's work superficially. It's about an idle rich girl Catherine (Julie Christie), whose father (Adolfo Celi) lures her to his fourth or fifth wedding in Geneva by telling her he will introduce her to a fascinating young American named Gregory. At the Geneva airport she sees a poster of an auto-ball player (Michael Sarrazin) and from there on she visualizes Sarrazin when she fantasizes about Gregory. All of the fantasy sequences are insipid and dull; they wouldn't even be worth watching as reality. In the course of the next hour she interacts with her somewhat incestuous, wimpy brother (John Hurt, several years before his breakthrough in THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT), her father, her father's new bride (Paola Pitagora) and various bit players in her frustrated search for Gregory. But the object of her romantic fantasy has always just left or was expected to show up but hasn't. At one point on her wild goose chase she ends up in a room containing crates of canned Alpine air(!). The warehouse employee opens one for her and of course it is empty. This moment seems to sum up the whole film. From the opening credits onward a pop song is either sung or played in various arrangements as instrumental underscoring. It's actually pretty catchy in a precious 60s sort of way. ***SPOILER***: Catherine finally gives up on meeting Gregory and heads back to Rome. At the Geneva airport she encounters Sarrazin and has a soulless tryst with him at the airport hotel. He is revealed not to be Gregory. After they separate she calls her brother who happens to be on another phone with the actual Gregory but doesn't bother to tell her so. The brother, an immature neurotic who cannot deal with complexity or challenge of any kind, puts the two phones down side by side and walks away, leaving Gregory and Catherine's disembodied voices buzzing at each other without their knowledge. It is then revealed that Catherine and Gregory are standing in adjacent phone booths at the airport (though the camera never lets us see Gregory's face). Catherine hangs up and steps onto an automatic sidewalk and glides away, alone in the huge, cold, impersonal airport. All this just to reiterate the trite observation that modern people are lonely and isolated? This pretentious piffle is worth seeing only because of the magnetic presence of Julie Christie who was at the height of her fame when it was filmed in the summer of 1968. It was deemed so bad by Universal that they delayed its US opening until the spring of 1970. It played in very limited release (definitely in New York City, but perhaps nowhere else) and then vanished until recently when it began appearing on cable channels.
vandino1 The always appealing Julie Christie and a very young John Hurt help this otherwise unworkable curiosity. It starts off badly with Brit pop star Georgie Fame warbling a second-rate ballad over the opening credits with a remarkably off-key voice. We begin with Julie Christie in Rome getting an invitation from her father to attend his fifth wedding (taking place in Geneva). But I must admit the invitation is delivered in one of the most bizarre bits I've ever seen or heard of. The invite is on a recording in the shape of a large postcard, and for some reason, Christie's friend has a turntable in the dashboard of his sports car, and he plays the postcard for her. It's so odd it's almost worth catching the film for this alone---and since it's in the first scene you can skip the rest of the movie.And the rest of the movie fumbles its central premise: Christie becomes obsessed with a man she never meets, the title character. Too bad he's embodied by the Lurch-like dullard Michael Sarrazin. This character should be dynamic and charming and all the things a woman like Christie's character should fantasize about, not a vacuous lump like Sarrazin. His casting sinks the film. If anything, it would've been better to have made Christie the object of a man's obsession---now that would be more believable. Still, it's a nice idea for a set-up, as the stories of Gregory mount up and turn him into a Harry Lime-like mystery man. But the confusion starts early as Christie sees a poster of Sarrazin at the airport and for some unknown reason seems to think that is Gregory (or is she already half-delusional and the film is really about a neurotic young woman?) This continues throughout as she fantasizes about Gregory with Sarrazin's face, even though there is no definite determination that Gregory looks like her Sarrazin-shaped mental picture (we never see the real Gregory). Then, as an illogical late-movie trick, she runs across Sarrazin at the airport and thinks it's Gregory (as do we) and takes him to bed. Turns out he's NOT Gregory, but a complete stranger, yet he looks just like the picture of Gregory in her head. That's the kind of weird idea that could work in a novel, but on film is all wrong. As is this film, including a second helping of Georgie Fame at the end, continuing his off-key warbling. Incidentally, this film was partly made by Universal Pictures U.K. branch but obviously looked like such a dud that Universal in the U.S. never gave it any kind of release here. No loss to cinema.
John Seal So much promise, so little delivery. Considering how much talent was involved in this production, one would expect a great deal more--but there are precious few highlights in this muddled Euro flick. Julie Christie looks good but barely breaks a sweat, Adolfo Celi over-emotes, Michael Sarrazin phones in his performance, and only John Hurt seems to be making much of an effort on camera. None of them are done any favors by Tonino Guerra's bloodless screenplay, and the photography of Otto Heller and Giorgio Tonti is unimaginative at best. The print currently airing on Sundance also seems washed out--the film looks like it was shot in Eastmancolor, but wasn't--and Georgie Fame's theme tune is genuinely wretched. Is there anything here to recommend? Well, Hurt is good, but his character is peripheral to most of the action, and Ron Grainer provides some good music for a bizarre recording sequence that imagines the title character as a wacky hybrid of composers Harry Partch and David Whitaker. Only recommended for hardcore admirers of la Christie.