The IFI will launch Adaption: Edna O’Brien on screen in the IFI on Monday September 17 at 6.30pm followed by an Irish Film Archive Screening of Zee and Co.
AN UPPER-CRUST COUPLE LIVING THE HIGH-LIFE IN POST-60S LONDON, ZEE (ELIZABETH TAYLOR) AND ROBERT BLAKELY’S (MICHAEL CAINE) LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP IS BEGINNING TO LEAVE ROBERT LONGING FOR SOMETHING MORE.
Setting his sights on unassuming country girl Stella (Susannah York), Zee soon catches on and quickly begins scheming to bring the newfound romance crashing to the ground.
Elizabeth Taylor gives her fans their money’s worth with her all-out, often vulgar, but totally committed performance. Edna O’Brien’s screenplay — which the writer has said was mauled in the filming and editing — has much more than the requisite number of zingers in its excellently bitchy dialogue; at times, it also has something to say about the emptiness of contemporary life and the difficulties people have really relating to each other.