FOUR STARS FOR EWA AULIN -- TWO FOR LAME 60'S SATIRE
Added 3/5/2010
This 60's satire, treasured among cult film fans of a certain age is hard to find but still available in a crisp, widescreen transfer. It's a feminine -- but definitely not feminist -- take on Voltaire's "Candide" as imagined through the dirty-old-man mode of screenwriter Buck Henry, and based on Terry Southern's once scandalous novel of the same name. As the ads once said: "...Everybody wants a taste."
Fate sends naive, voluptuous, high-schooler Candy Christian (Ewa Aulin) on a journey of sexual discovery. Along the way, she encounters a surprising array of big name stars (Richard Burton, Walter Matthau, Marlon Brando, James Coburn, John Huston, Charles Aznavour among others), all of whom want to sample delicious, innocent Candy.
This uneven burlesque is sometimes sweet, barely shocking, often embarrassing and worth a look at a retro genre of pseudo naughty farce. From the perspective of the 21st century, it's a time capsule that mirrors elements of the distant sexual revolution. It's a glossy attempt at what low budget video porn would later exploit in far more explicit, tedious, mind-numbing detail.
Christian Marquand directed. The music is by Steppenwolf and The Byrds! And whatever happened to the luscious Ewa Aulin?
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A 60's Cult Classic
Added 8/16/2008
The title character of this wacky, uneven comedy, Candy Christian, has a beguiling innocence and nubile figure that entices every man she meets. Her manner with them is inquisitive and soft.
The men are prominent and include Doctor Krankheit, a famous neuro-surgeon (James Coburn) and the Indian guru Grindle (Marlon Brando). They urgently want a piece of Candy, but their feelings for her are ambivalent because their desire is confounded by their professional etiquette or dignity, like a skin they wear as a matter of career survival, but which is incongruent with making love to such a free spirit. As a result, they are strict and controlling, as if to banish doubt. Coburn is good; Brando is a far cry from his Terry Malloy and Stanley Kowalski roles and is the funniest person in the movie.
Film critics generally derided the movie when it appeared in 1968. Some of their criticisms were correct; instances of sloppy casting and mediocre acting; but the critics may also dislike movies that satirize middle-aged professionals confronted with something risque. Truffaut's "The Soft Skin" and Rohmer's "La Collectioneuse" deal with similar predicaments, albeit not as flamboyantly or unevenly.
Recreational drug use may have contributed to "Candy's" uneveness, but the soundtrack by Dave Grusin and the Byrds is memorable, as is the countercultural, psychedelic aura of this cult classic.
Check it out but don't tell the wife!
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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This movie is dam awesome
Added 6/12/2006
This film will be too dated and confusing for most, but if you are into the sixties you should understand it. Fans of the avant-garde should dig it as well. We follow a hot Nordic woman on a voyage of sexual discovery. Or so the blurb says, in reality it's pretty much just a drug influenced 60s post-modern avant-garde nihilistic... well whatever -- lets just say it rocks. Not too heavy on the nudity as you would expect, but it delivers. The music is great and the best thing about this movie is you never know what will happen next. It's actually not that dirty of a movie, especially by today's standards. This movie has an all-star cast. And speaking of stars, our pal Ringo Starr makes an appearance. If your into this sort of thing you're love it, but if your the kind of person that has trouble keeping up with the plots of today's' films, do yourself a favor and pass it by and rent "The Italian job" again.
5 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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"Give us the little chicken!"
Added 6/8/2006
This film is certainly like no other movie you've seen. You can tell from watching it that it could never have been made before or after the years between 1967 and 1970. It brings to mind "Casino Royale" and "Barbarella", but "Candy" is better.
This is a psychedelic "Candide" story. Our heroine, Candy, travels around the world and encounters a number of men, all weirder than the last. The supporting cast is excellent. Walter Matthau plays a sex starved general, Richard Burton a pretentious, self obsessed, alcoholised poet. Ringo Starr plays the Mexican gardener and Marlon Brando makes a hilarious performance as an Indian guru.
The film is two hours long and the story is thin, but it kept my interest up. It is filled with humour that is sometimes too dry for its own good, but whether you laugh with the movie or at the movie, it's still lots of fun. This is a one-of-a-kind movie that's not for everybody's taste, but it's definately worth checking out.
4 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Saw this at the Drive-In years ago
Added 5/10/2006
I read the book and this wasn't as funny. Richard Burton took this role because he was drunk most of time. I don't about the rest of the cast, but I assume they were too. Ewa must have flown back to Sweden to do swedish porn or where ever she came from because I never saw her in anymore movies here. The book was hysterical, and with all the talent involved it really should have been a much better movie. Too bad.
2 out of 7 people found this helpful.
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