The Appointment (1969)

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writers:

Antonio Leonviola (story)
James Salter (screenplay)

Release Date:

23 May 1969 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The lawyer Federico Fendi has reasons to believe that his wife Carla in secret is Rome's highest paid prostitute. |

Plot Keywords:

Secret | Lawyer | Marriage | Beautiful Woman | Deceit

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Omar Sharif	...	Federico Fendi
Anouk Aimée	...	Carla
Didi Perego	...	Nanny
Fausto Tozzi	...	Renzo
Gigi Proietti	...	Fabre (as Luigi Proietti)
Paola Barbara	...	Mother
Inna Alexeievna	...	Old woman on train (as Inna Alexeieff)
Ennio Balbo	...	Ugo Perino
Daniela Calvino
Ermelinda De Felice	...	Fishmonger's Wife (as Linda De Felice)
Angelo Infanti	...	Antonio
Serena Michelotti	...	Lucia
Monica Pardo	...	Olghina
Rodolfo Valadier
Lotte Lenya	...	Emma Valadier

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Sweden:Btl | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Bisentina Island, Bolsena Lake, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Martin Poll Productions

Trivia:

Michel Legrand composed the first score for this film, but it was rejected in favor of a score by John Barry, aided by Don Walker. When it was first aired on U.S. television, the CBS network had Barry and Walker's score replaced with a completely new score by Stu Phillips. Only the music by Barry and Walker is heard on the film today.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Lionpower from MGM (1967)

Lost in Translation

This is easily the poorest film Sidney Lumet ever directed. When it came out it was, as best I remember, savaged by the critics and got very little release. Now, seeing it all these years later, I can understand why MGM buried it.

Strike one was trying to turn Omar Sharif into a romantic leading man. He was mysterious in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, wooden in FUNNY GIRL, and here he just looks lost. I'm in a good mood, so I won't make any jokes about his moustache. But he seems totally disconnected from everything going on around him.

Strike two is a Jewish man from New York trying to be very European. Nobody understands New York city as well as Lumet. Woody Allen runs a good second, but Lumet has the edge here.

The wooden stake through the film's heart, though, is actors who are not native speakers of English trying to speak a language not their own. That creates so much distance that meaning and nuances of speech get lost.

And clothes from the 1960's look ridiculous today. Just watch the original THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR to see how styles have changed.

It would be interesting to see how Lumet feels about this film today. If I've seen a mention of it in the many articles about and tributes to Lumet, I don't recall it.