Richard Lester

Petulia

Director Richard Lester Composer John Barry Cast Julie Christie, George C. Scott, Richard Chamberlain

Masters

Edition 2025

Classics Classics: Fractured Visions: A Nicolas Roeg Retrospective

105' - 1968 - Drama, Romance - Format: DCP - Dialogue: Spanish, English

Arguably the definitive film of—and about—the sixties, Petulia follows Archie Bonner, a middle-aged man who enters an impossible love affair with a wealthy woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. As Lester wraps the story in a flashy, fragmented structure, Roeg masterfully captures the film’s non-linear narrative, the characters, their inner lives, and the world they inhabit on camera—a blueprint for his later work as a director.

Is Petulia the definitive film of—and about—the sixties? While The Graduate, Easy Rider, and Zabriskie Point became iconic landmarks of the era, Petulia slipped under the radar, ending up as a little-loved, rarely seen cult film—an artifact occasionally referenced but seldom revisited. In this at once tender and confrontational romantic drama about a middle-aged man, Richard Lester tells the story of Archie Bonner (George C. Scott), a married doctor who enters into an impossible love affair with Petulia Danner (Julie Christie), a wealthy woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. Lester wraps the film's fairly minimal plot in a fragmented structure that felt flashy and innovative in 1968—but also brilliantly captures the characters, their thoughts, their emotions, and the world they inhabit. You can't help but wonder whether Roeg's final work as a cinematographer might be the blueprint for his later, more complex experiments with non-linear storytelling in films like Performance, Don't Look Now, Bad Timing, and Eureka.