Acting
James Mason slumming gloriously, Jean Seberg wasted but magnetic.
Direction
Romain Gary's only film—novelist's eye for lurid detail.
Production
Rotterdam and Rome locations reeking of authentic 1971 sleaze.

Director
Romain Gary
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Romain Gary directed this after winning a fake Oscar—he'd already won Best Original Screenplay as 'Emile Ajar,' a pseudonym he kept secret even from his wife.
Released months before Seberg's mysterious death; her FBI-targeted activism makes Emily's victimhood feel queasily prophetic.