A Safe Place

1971 post-psychedelic drama

Rating: 12/20

Plot: A hippie girl interacts with three males--a Central Park magician, a guy with glasses, and a guy with a mustache.

Really? That's the poster you're going with, A Safe Place?

This might break my 2017 record for laughing at a movie that isn't really supposed to be funny. At least I don't think it is. But the Henry Jaglom experimental editing in this thing got to be too much for me, and every time I saw Orson Welles closing his eyes and opening them again in an attempt to make an animal disappear, I just couldn't help myself.

With an old-timey score and lots and lots of repeated, seemingly senseless dialogue, this movie irritated my son who was in the room but not paying attention. Edith Piaf, Buddy Clark, Fred Astaire, Vera Lynn. I kind of dug the music, but of course, I'm downright elderly.

I'm too old for the experimental montages in this. I know that. This bounces around narratively, juxtaposes conversations from different time periods, and has frequent quick shots of things that don't matter a single bit. It's fascinating for about ten minutes, but once the novelty wears off and you realize you're going to be watching over 90 minutes of the same thing for reasons that you can't figure out, you're likely to just end up kind of annoyed.

I love that Tuesday Weld though. I would have loved a girlfriend like Tuesday, free-spirited and confusing, the kind of girl who doesn't use oven mitts. She's good enough here, mostly because she creates an aura of mystery. Or maybe I was just confused by the editing. Phil Proctor, one of her two love interests, seems equally baffled by her. Jack Nicholson tries his best to keep up and gets a great moment where he takes an enormous bite from what is either a sandwich or a hot dog.

I hope it was a sandwich.

Orson Welles appears to have just rolled off a park bench where he was sleeping to shoot his scenes. He makes a ball levitate and plays chess with himself, and I think he's speaking in some sort of accent. I'm not sure because my son was loudly complaining during the duration of this movie. But watching him try to make those animals disappear? That was real magic, my friends.

Definitely a product of its time, it might be a curiosity for fans of neo-hippie counter-culture films or Orson Welles or Jack Nicholson. It's laughably avant-garde, often much sillier than I suspect it's supposed to be, and just not a very good movie. Still, I can't say I'm disappointed that I invested the time.