Lilith

Synopsis: Lilith is a about a mysterious young woman in an elite sanitarium in Maryland, who seems to weave a magical spell all around her. A restless, but sincere young man with an equally obscure past is seemingly drawn into her web. As time passes, their relationship deepens and intensifies, and the differences between them begin to blur, leading to a shocking, but oddly logical conclusion.
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Robert Rossen
Production: Sony Pictures Entertainment
 
IMDB:
7.0
Rotten Tomatoes:
100%
Year:
1964
114 min
167 Views


Hi.

Oh, thank you.

Can I help you?

Can you tell me where

I can find a Miss Brice?

That's me.

Well, I'm Vincent Bruce.

Please come in.

Won't you sit down?

- Would you like some coffee?

- Yeah, thank you.

- How do you take it?

- Black.

Well, we can begin either with your

telling me all about yourself...

...or my telling you all about us.

Which would you rather do?

I'd better tell you about me. You may

not want to bother with the rest of it.

All right.

There's not really very much to tell.

I've been out of the Army for a while.

I guess I've never had a job

that I was really interested in.

You live here in Stonemont,

don't you?

I've lived here all my life...

...and I was always kind of curious

about this place.

Why?

I don't know. I guess I just was.

Are you interested in a permanent job

or just some sort of summer work?

No, I mean a permanent job.

I want to do some kind of work where

I can be of direct help to people.

And that's why I decided

to come here.

Get out of here.

Get out of here.

Vincent, I'd like you

to meet Mr. Polakis.

- Hello.

- This is Mr. Bruce.

It's not as disturbing

on this floor, is it?

Somehow insanity

seems a lot less sinister...

...to watch in a man than in a woman,

doesn't it?

I thought it best

to show you the worst first.

Young man.

- Are you a new patient?

- No, I'm just a visitor.

I may go to work here.

Tell me, have you read

Dostoyevsky?

I've read Crime and Punishment,

and Brothers Karamazov.

Oh, have you?

Tell me, do you believe it?

Do you believe that if there is no God,

there can be no such thing as virtue?

No.

- Do you?

- No.

I do hope you'll come and work here.

We shall be very great friends.

I hope so.

You handled that very well.

- Have you done a lot of reading?

- Some.

When you're in the Army,

you've got nothing but time.

It's a lot different

from a state institution, huh?

Most of these people come

from very wealthy families.

They pay several thousand dollars

a month to keep them here.

Hi, Miss Brice.

Are you going to have lunch now?

It's a nice day, isn't it, Miss Brice?

I hope you have a nice lunch,

Miss Brice.

You have a very nice-looking friend.

It certainly is a nice day,

isn't it, Miss Brice?

Yes, Miss Glassman. It's a lovely day.

Of course, at first you'll be nothing

but an orderly, more or less.

It's long hours, terrible pay.

It's dirty, often degrading,

sometimes dangerous.

Do you know why you work here?

- Maybe I shouldn't ask you that.

- No, no. That's all right.

It's something that all of us

who work here have to ask ourselves.

And we're better off

if we can answer it...

...as honestly and as thoroughly

as possible.

I hope you will too.

Miss Brice.

Think about it this evening.

If you don't change your mind,

I'll see you in the morning.

- Hi.

- How are you?

- I'm fine. How are you?

- Fine.

- I heard you were back.

- I've been back for a while.

I'm glad. They told me

you were wounded or something.

Yeah, or something.

- Gee, you look good.

- Thanks. So do you.

Did you get my letter?

- How is your husband?

- He's very well, thanks.

He's working with the electric

power company right now...

...hoping to be office manager

in the fall.

- Right here in town, huh?

- Yes.

All your letters never once mentioned

anything about us or our future.

- Didn't I?

- No.

Since we never really had any

understanding of a romantic nature...

There's my bus.

I hope you visit us sometime. I'd like

you to meet Norman, my husband.

- I will. I will.

- Bye.

I can have the job if I want it.

- Do you?

- Yeah.

- You've had no training.

- They'll train me.

I want the very best for you.

You know that, don't you, Vincent?

Nothing to be ashamed about

working in an insane asylum.

Nothing wrong

with curing sick people.

Or is there, Grandma?

I'm not hungry.

Vincent.

If your poor mother knew

about this job...

...I think she would be very happy.

This was their greatest moment...

... their moment of triumph...

... over the bodies

of wounded and dying men.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You'll die.

She dies.

Everybody dies.

Fourth floor.

- Good morning.

- Morning.

You take the third.

Polakis and Levitz.

And watch Dostoyevsky.

He's on his fresh-blood kick.

- Vincent Bruce, Bob Clayfield.

- We met earlier.

Accompany him for the week, observe

the way he deals with the patients...

...learn the Lodge rules

and procedures...

...and become generally oriented

to the hospital.

Come in.

- Good morning.

- Morning.

I thought you'd like to meet Mr. Bruce.

He's a new OT.

- Mr. Bruce, Mrs. Meaghan.

- Hello.

How do you do, Mr. Bruce?

- Please sit down.

- Thank you.

It's such a lovely day outside, we

thought you might like to take a walk.

Yes, it is a lovely day.

It's very kind of you,

but I cannot leave the building.

As you know, I have many enemies.

It'll be perfectly safe. Today,

there are two of us to protect you.

That's very kind of you.

Perhaps another day.

- Does Mr. Bruce play gin rummy?

- Sure, I play gin.

I should enjoy playing cards

for a while, if you have the time.

Good.

I'll be out in a little while.

- You wanna deal?

- Yes.

Cut, please.

She plays quite magically.

She made it herself.

Quite remarkable, isn't it?

Stop playing.

I said, stop playing!

I understand you've restricted

her playing to certain hours.

I think that's monstrous.

It was a staff decision. Some

of the patients complained, I believe.

Monstrous.

I don't feel like

playing cards anymore.

I'll be back in a minute.

Wanna play?

Yes.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Vincent.

Try to get her down here, will you?

Are you going on the picnic?

May I carry it?

- I don't know. May he, Mr. Bruce?

- Sure.

You're very perceptive.

I'm glad you came here.

- What nationality are you?

- I'm an American.

- No, I mean what descent are you?

- Mostly English, I guess.

Would you marry an English girl?

I mean, of English descent?

I don't know, I'm...

- Would you think I was Jewish?

- It never occurred to me.

Many think I am, but I'm Polish.

My grandfather was a priest.

I might get out of here soon. I'm

almost well. I might even get married.

Should I bring them back?

No. Stay where you are

untiI it lets up.

He says we can stay.

I never knew

you could paint like that...

...simply with grasses

and things of that kind.

They fade, but there are no colors

like them while they last.

I'd love to paint

or do anything like that.

How do you begin?

What is it that you do?

I don't do anything.

My hand just moves, and I follow it.

That's it.

Your hand moves, mine doesn't.

I can't trust my hands.

You must learn if you want them

to lead you to things you love.

No, I'm afraid I have

a scholar's mind, not an artist's.

It's a very different faculty,

you know.

You have the gift of tongues.

That's a great gift.

But it's nothing compared to you.

I've studied them. I know the grammar,

but you've invented one of your own.

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Robert Rossen

Robert Rossen (March 16, 1908 – February 18, 1966) was an American screenwriter, film director, and producer whose film career spanned almost three decades. His 1949 film All the King's Men won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, while Rossen was nominated for an Oscar as Best Director. He won the Golden Globe for Best Director and the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture. In 1961 he directed The Hustler, which was nominated for nine Oscars and won two. After directing and writing for the stage in New York, Rossen moved to Hollywood in 1937. There he worked as a screenwriter for Warner Bros. until 1941, and then interrupted his career to serve until 1944 as the chairman of the Hollywood Writers Mobilization, a body to organize writers for the effort in World War II. In 1945 he joined a picket line against Warner Bros. After making one film for Hal Wallis's newly formed production company, Rossen made one for Columbia Pictures, another for Wallis and most of his later films for his own companies, usually in collaboration with Columbia. Rossen was a member of the American Communist Party from 1937 to about 1947, and believed the Party was "dedicated to social causes of the sort that we as poor Jews from New York were interested in."He ended all relations with the Party in 1949. Rossen was twice called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), in 1951 and in 1953. He exercised his Fifth Amendment rights at his first appearance, refusing to state whether he had ever been a Communist. As a result, he found himself blacklisted by Hollywood studios as well as unable to renew his passport. At his second appearance he named 57 people as current or former Communists and his blacklisting ended. In order to repair finances he produced his next film, Mambo, in Italy in 1954. While The Hustler in 1961 was a great success, conflicts on the set of Lilith so disillusioned him that it was his last film. more…

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