Sidney Lumet directs Richard Burton, Peter Firth and Jenny Agutter in this adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s acclaimed play where a child psychiatrist attempts to diagnose a young man with an unhealthy obsession with horses.

As close to Ken Russell or Nicolas Roeg as any American director has ever got. This is as much psychosexual nightmare as it is battle of wills. Burton gets a meaty role as the shrink whose own weaknesses, doubts and vulnerabilities are exposed by his investigation. There’s lots of seedy nudity, suggested perversion and the climax… well, I’d rather not have experienced the ending… it does piss the seat a little. Still, powerful stuff I’m never going to revisit.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Through A Glass Darkly (1961)

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