THE MAN WHO ENVIED WOMEN

(director/writer: Yvonne Rainer; cinematographer: Mark Daniels; editors: Christine Le Goff/Yvonne Rainer; cast: Jackie Raynal (French Intellectual), Anne Friedberg (Woman in Diner), Larry Loonin (Jack Deller), Trisha Brown (Trisha), William Raymond (Jack Deller); Runtime: 125; MPAA Rating: NR; Zeitgeist Films; 1985)

“It aims to jolt us out of our lethargy by its angry tone.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Minimalist film-maker of the sixties and seventies, Yvonne Rainer(“Lives of Performers”/”Privilege”/”Journeys from Berlin”), an avant-garde dancer and choreographer, presents this experimental semi-narrative film that has some angry comments on living in Manhattan, the housing shortage, gentrification, the pseudo-cultural setting for intellectuals, abortion rights, the political climate, the dynamics of a widespread changing family structure, and the class battle between the poor and the middle class. The story is built around the break-up of a marriage between a self-satisfied womanizing university professor, Jack Deller (interchangeably played by William Raymond & Larry Loonin), and a struggling artist Trisha (Trisha Brown). The narrative unfolds by giving a shout-out to the speeches and rants of those influential modern-day artistic voices ranging from Raymond Chandler to Luis Buñuel.

It aims to jolt us out of our lethargy by its angry tone. In that aim it gloriously succeeds.

REVIEWED ON 11/5/2014 GRADE: B