Wednesday, June 3, 2009

a bitter fruit



it was ages ago when i first discovered the actress patricia gozzi. as years passed i retained only a haunting memory of an amazing film i saw. from time to time images would come into my mind which i was unable to place. recently the mystery was solved. the movie i had seen as a young teen was called 'rapture.' it starred patricia and dean stockwell and after all this time i was able to see it once more.
'rapture' was made in 1965. dean stockwell is wonderful as a man running from the law who stumbles into a garden one rainy night and dons the scarecrows suit of clothes. when the landowner's emotionally undeveloped young daughter discovers him she pretends to believe her scarecrow has come to life. this film is tender, beautiful, and very hard to find, but not impossible. over the years patricia gozzi has attained true cult status. she abandoned working as an actress after a handful of films. she is astonishing. some believe she was the greatest actress ever, even eclipsing garbo. considering she only worked between age 10-23 it is a strong belief. personally, i tend to agree.
her most beloved role is as the orphaned child in the exquisite 1962 academy award winning foreign film, 'sundays and cybele.'

2 comments:

nipper said...

oh wow! (love saying that, everytime i hear 'falling is a form of flying' from ours truly....

to have lil patricia up there with ms. garbo says a lot. So let me see if i could pick your top five favorites....1. Julie Christie 2. Greta Garbo
3. Patricia Gozzi 4. Richard Burton 5. Mary Urn neck to neck with marlon brando. wild guesses!

nipper said...

aside: bottom photo; dean must have sired nik kershaw and passsed on his gene for radiomusicola an l.a. california essence.
amazing resemblance.