1969 - JUSTINE, an odd mess of a film

Justine was one of those troubled projects.  The film was based on a series of novels called "The Alexandria Quartet," which was condensed into one film by the screenwriter Lawrence Marcus. The original director Joseph Strick wanted to shoot the film in Morocco.  He was canned by 20th Century Fox and veteran director George Cukor was brought in to finish,or in this case salvage the film.

 Cukor did what he could with this film.  He had a lot of issues with Anock Aimee as the title character Justine.  Aimee was apparently fairly difficult to work with.  He didn't care for the leading man Michael York who he thought was too bland.  He was also stuck with the footage Strick had filmed and the studio wanted the production brought back to Hollywood where they could get some control over the final version.  That Cukor was able to finish this mess and turn it into a somewhat coherent fiom was probably a tribute to his professionalism.

 

Well the plot, Justine has something to do with an enigmatic woman who every guy is enamored with. She is married to a banker living in Alexandria, Egypt but having an affair with the Michael York character.  There is some kind of subplot about the Coptic religious sect running guns to Israel to aid in their struggle with the British.  But it's rather hard to understand exactly what is going on.

 

The film has a fairly good cast, beside Anock Aimee.  Dirk Borgarde,  Anna Karina, Philippe Noiret and "Dean Wormer" himself John Vernon.  George Cukor knew how to stage scenes so the film looks good.  Fox gave the production a healthy budget but the final result didn't really get any love from the critics and the audience stayed away.

The running time 116 minutes.