SYNOPSICS
A Severed Head (1971) is a English movie. Dick Clement has directed this movie. Lee Remick,Richard Attenborough,Ian Holm,Claire Bloom are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1971. A Severed Head (1971) is considered one of the best Comedy movie in India and around the world.
The wine taster and merchant Martin Lynch-Gibbon is married to the shallow and spoiled Antonia Lynch-Gibbon, and loves his mistress Georgie Hands. Antonia is under therapy with Martin's best friend, the psychiatrist Palmer Anderson. One day, Antonia decides to ask for a divorce from Martin, to live with Palmer, but they want to keep Martin as their friend. When Palmer's sister Dr. Honor Klein comes from Oxford to stay with her brother, she discloses the affair of Georgie, who was her student, and Martin to Palmer and Antonia. Meanwhile, Martin's brother Alexander Lynch-Gibbon has a love affair with Georgie, and Martin falls in unrequited love with Honor, but he discovers a secret about Palmer. Who will stay with whom in the end?
A Severed Head (1971) Reviews
La Rhonde with wit.
This stylish sophisticated high comedy on sexual desire and the nature of love is highly recommended. Witty and charming, it boasts an outstanding cast of actors. Not your regular cup of tea, these three couples not only manage to swap mates a number of times between them; but manage to do it with such flair that you cannot help but enjoy the ride along the way. It may not be everyone's taste, but if you are looking for something more than a run of the mill romantic comedy; this is for you. In some ways, it could be considered a version of "Bridget Jones Diaries" for people who have actually read Jane Austen and not just seen the adaptations. Murdoch was a powerhouse in her time, and this shows you why.
Off-putting at first
A movie about six people who are constantly shifting sexual alliances and expect each other to remain calm and polite about it all. This movie really irritated me for the first hour or so, in particular Lee Remick's self-absorbed and extreme flightiness, as well as Richard Attenborough's odious civility. But by the time it was over, I was won over by its offbeat approach and ultimately rather scathing critique of the seeming British need to retain manner and form despite the repulsive behaviour of one's peers. And for me, Claire Bloom steals the film as a morbid anthropologist who looks like she just stepped out of a Modigliani painting.
British Humor
The wine taster and merchant Martin Lynch-Gibbon (Ian Holm) is married with the shallow and spoiled Antonia Lynch-Gibbon (Lee Remick) and loves his mistress Georgie Hands (Jennie Linden). Antonia is under therapy with Martin's best friend, the psychiatrist Palmer Anderson (Richard Attenborough). One day, Antonia decides to ask for the divorce to Martin to live with Palmer, but they want to keep Martin as their friend. When Palmer's sister Dr. Honor Klein (Claire Bloom) comes from Oxford to stay with her brother, she discloses the affair of Georgie, who was her student, and Martin to Palmer and Antonia. Meanwhile Martin's brother Alexander Lynch-Gibbon (Clive Revill) has a love affair with Georgie and Martin falls in unrequited love with Honor, but he discovers a secret about Palmer. Who will stay with whom in the end? "A Severed Head" is an unfunny British comedy about infidelity that maybe satisfies the British humor. The story is awful and wastes a wonderful cast with names such as Lee Remick, Richard Attenborough and Ian Holm among others. It is impossible to give a single laugh after 98 minutes running time. My vote is four. Title (Brazil): "Amantes Infiéis" ("Unfaithful Lovers")
The title is AWFUL but the film is .........
I had to watch this film recently and expected to see HORROR film. A SEVERED HEAD!? h-e-l-l-o? Only to find out this is a comedy... I THINK? Very dry, very British. The confusing title would be explained at the end of the film as the character Honor quotes: "Go back to reality Martin,... I am an object of terrible fascination to you, A Severed Head such as primitive tribes used putting a morsel of gold on it's tongue to make it utter prophecies, as real people you and i do not exist for one and other." I know, huh? I didn't get the correlation either. Seeing there are only 3 user comments (at the time of this review) I feel bad for so many films like this. So many thousands of films that took so long to make and so many actors gave great performances only to fall into the abyss of obscurity. Worth watching though if only for Lee Remick who is absolutely stunning and quite a skilled dead pan comic.
for all its faults a severed head almost makes it
As previous reviewers have noted, this is not a horror film, but a comedy based on an Iris Murdoch novel. Curiously, what should have been pitched at a farcical level comes across flat and the humor, such as it is, very British and very dry. Murdoch's novel itself reads as a near-farce, tongue in cheek, without a demand from the reader to suspend disbelief, but to go along for the ride. The portentousness of the "severed head" comment and the perverse exotic erotic goings on of Honor Klein (Claire Blooms in the film--and she does look like a Modigliani!)--all read like symbolic trappings intended to indicate some deeper meaning (it ain't there.) The film comes across restrained, if not nearly constipated, thanks mainly to Ian Holm's performance. His character, our triply-cuckolded protagonist, is frankly a quite unsympathetic character, really a nasty little man throughout. In fact, it is difficult to work up much feeling for any of these characters. Formally, this is just this side of a filmed stage play (scripters Priestly and Murdoch having adapted screenplay from a stage play), it plays like it, and makes it a mediocre film experience. Having said all that, there is something , or there are some things that keep it going on the DVD player: Lee Remick is actually trying to do farce, which is whatis called for, while Claire Bloom is intriguingly exotic and erotic(a creation of Murdoch's. If you're somewhat anglophilic, you'll probably enjoy this, trailing its clouds of "swinging sixties London" glory behind it, a kind of last gasp I suppose.