My DVD of Just Like a Woman (1967), pre-ordered months earlier and delayed because it was in the same order as The Devils (1971), arrived two days after its director, Robert Fuest, died. Come to think of it, I think Ken Russell was still alive when I ordered The Devils. An obituary double feature.
Above: Career best performance. Career worst hair.
I was very keen to see Just Like a Woman, Fuest’s first feature, even though I wasn’t expecting it to be particularly good. I had an idea it was a swinging London sex comedy, not the kind of material he was associated with. For that, you’d have to look at his art-deco grand guignol comedies The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and its sequel from the following year, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, and also at his pop-art masterpiece, The Final Programme (1973). Michael Moorcock, original author of the novel that one derived from,...
Above: Career best performance. Career worst hair.
I was very keen to see Just Like a Woman, Fuest’s first feature, even though I wasn’t expecting it to be particularly good. I had an idea it was a swinging London sex comedy, not the kind of material he was associated with. For that, you’d have to look at his art-deco grand guignol comedies The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and its sequel from the following year, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, and also at his pop-art masterpiece, The Final Programme (1973). Michael Moorcock, original author of the novel that one derived from,...
- 4/12/2012
- MUBI
Director who blended sophistication and sickness in the horror film The Abominable Dr Phibes
With its mix of pop art, sophisticated humour, pulp science fiction and English eccentricity, the television series The Avengers was among the most influential and significant products of "swinging London" in the 1960s. Robert Fuest, who has died aged 84, cut his teeth on the series under the aegis of the writer-producer Brian Clemens, initially as a production designer when the show was produced "as live" in the studio in black and white and co-starred Honor Blackman with Patrick MacNee, then as director when the series had moved on to colour, film and Linda Thorson.
As designer and director, Fuest learned how to achieve style on a budget – making a great deal of the show's famously minimalist aesthetic – and he carried this over into his best-known works as a film director, the two Dr Phibes horror movies of the early 1970s,...
With its mix of pop art, sophisticated humour, pulp science fiction and English eccentricity, the television series The Avengers was among the most influential and significant products of "swinging London" in the 1960s. Robert Fuest, who has died aged 84, cut his teeth on the series under the aegis of the writer-producer Brian Clemens, initially as a production designer when the show was produced "as live" in the studio in black and white and co-starred Honor Blackman with Patrick MacNee, then as director when the series had moved on to colour, film and Linda Thorson.
As designer and director, Fuest learned how to achieve style on a budget – making a great deal of the show's famously minimalist aesthetic – and he carried this over into his best-known works as a film director, the two Dr Phibes horror movies of the early 1970s,...
- 3/27/2012
- by Kim Newman
- The Guardian - Film News
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