Lilith
NR, 115 min.
Directed by Robert Rossen, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Rene Auberjonois, Gene Hackman, Anne Meacham, Jessica Walter, Kim Hunter, Peter Fonda, Jean Seberg, Warren Beatty.

In his last film, writer-director Robert Rossen (The Hustler, All the King’s Men, Body and Soul) meant to shock viewers with its portrait of disorder in a mental hospital. A young Warren Beatty plays an idealistic occupational therapist, who takes a job in the hospital only to fall in love with one of the patients. Jean Seberg (Breathless) is the mad paramour, a young woman trapped in her own dream world and driven by her need for love. She’s a schizophrenic who seduces her therapist. The lighting of inventive emigrée cameraman Eugen Schüfftan lends a poetic touch to this literal l’amour fou.

This article appears in June 30 • 2000.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.