Very well executed

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Dreadful neurotic film dealing with wealthy people in a sanitarium. Perhaps, I'm being too nice. It's really the nut house.Hollywood just seemed to exploit these films. "The Snake Pit," and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" were far better because they dealt with why people ended up in the way they did as well as an answer to what was going on. This mess of a film did not.Gene Hackman's brief role was impressive and probably got Warren Beatty to think several years later that he would be perfect for the part of Buck Barrow in "Bonnie and Clyde."Jean Seberg and Peter Fonda play residents of this house of loony tunes. The group therapy sessions are memorable with accusations being made while people scream out. This is pure insanity and hell at the same time.As Dr. Brice, Kim Hunter makes a huge error in hiring Warren Beatty to work at this place. Where were his references? Are they trying to show that nobody really wants to work in these kind of places? We eventually get to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" as it becomes increasingly obvious that Beatty belongs there as one of the residents. Seberg does quite a wonderful job as the sexually oppressed, neurotic woman unable to deal with reality about her. Ditto for Fonda, who gives a gem of a performance as an intellectually repressed individual. When Vincent Bruce (Beatty) falls for Seberg, he sees Fonda as a rival so tragedy results.The black and white texture serves as a reminder of the dreariness and hopelessness of life in these mental institutions.The writing has a lot to be desired. We hear references such as: "Is insanity sadness?" or "My mother cried all the time." Response: "Was she sad?" She might have been had she gone to see this frustrating, tedious film.

A well-composed cast helps build the web of mystery and misery that is the cornerstone of this unusual story. Beatty is a rather aimless young man, a flunky at practically everything he's ever attempted, who is hired at Hunter's mental asylum and begins training as an occupational therapist. Once there, he meets various wealthy, but mentally disturbed, inhabitants such as insecure, fixated Fonda and austere, suspicious Meacham. His primary interest, however, is in Seberg, the title character, who stays locked away in her upstairs room, rarely venturing out, but who not only is very attractive, but often seems completely normal. She isn't though. She has her own world in which "people" speak to her and she has even created a language of her own. She also has a fascination with water and a fondness for pre-teen boys. As Beatty struggles to help her come out of her shell, he finds himself deeply attracted to her, something that isn't helped by her seductive gestures and remarks. Before it's all over, there is some doubt as to who is more in need of mental help, Seberg or Beatty! Beatty, in his physical prime, gives a halting, stifled sort of performance. Sometimes it works, but other times it is frustrating to endure. Fans of his will surely be more tolerant of his work in the film. Seberg is beguiling and captivating despite an awkwardly arranged fall that sometimes looks like a mullet. It's a brave, committed, varied performance, which ought to have garnered her more acclaim than it did. She is, at certain points, mesmerizing to behold. Fonda is bookish and vulnerable; a far cry from the rebel persona he would eventually cultivate as the decade ended. Hunter is a stable, knowing presence. Meacham is intriguing and mysterious. She would later go on to have a memorable run on "Another World" as the quirky maid to The Cory Family. Making her film debut, and turning in a memorably tense and dejected performance, is Walter as one of Beatty's former girlfriends. Her crass, doughy, obtuse husband is played to perfection by Hackman in an early role, which is basically his feature film debut as well save one previous bit as a cop. (It paid off when Beatty later remembered him and used him in "Bonnie and Clyde.") There's plenty of symbolism on hand from the start. Seberg seems encased in a spider web thanks to the chain link fencing on her windows. Notice, also, when Beatty takes her to a jousting tournament (!) in which he has to take a lance and guide it into increasingly smaller rings. The mood of the film is helped immeasurably by the musical score and by the striking black & white photography. Also, filming the story on location in Maryland provided an ambiance and atmosphere that couldn't have been achieved the same way on a studio set. Those familiar with Great Falls (and even those not) will enjoy seeing the footage of them during one of the patient picnics. The film makes a point of not giving the viewer all the information he or she needs in order to follow the story easily, though many baffling questions and situations are soon cleared up. However, there are still many moments left so ambiguous or confusing that one wishes for just a little more exposition here and there to help fill in the gaps. It might not be a wholly satisfying film, but it is nevertheless a captivating one. Busy character actor Auberjonois appears briefly as a horse wrangler who hands over the steed to Beatty.

O. K., very good b. and w. cinematography, and a good acting by Beattty, but no so much of Seberg. She was very good in "Bonjour Tristesse", for instance, but not here. The blame: ¿director?, ¿awful dialogue? Metaphors and symbols are obvious: Seberg playing the flute is an "enchantress", the grid in the window is the "spider web" where Beatty get trapped, Beatty was in love with his mother and Seberg was in love with her brother, the doctor and Kim Hunter are his actual father and mother, the water is the death, the dirty water is the sin (Seberg and the lesbian in the cottage), the ubiquous lesbian woman is the evil, Beatty entering in the woods (first shots of the film) is descending into the hell, Hackman and Harper "are not happy in their marriage", etc., etc. ¿Rossen's remorse by his behaviour in front of the Mc Carthy commission?In any case, ¡too much!

Lilith was the last film of director Robert Rossen, and some consider it his neglected masterpiece. Best known for realistic films such as All the King's Men(49) and The Hustler (61), Lilith is certainly the most beautiful and provocative film Rossen ever made, and Eugen Shufftan's stunning b&w cinematography, Kenyon Hopkin's seductive score, Aram Avakian's astute editing, and Richard Sylbert's superb production design all contribute to the film's strange allure. Rossen was apparently influenced by the European art house films of the early sixties, and the grounds of the elegant asylum recall the hotel in Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad(61), and like Resnais' film, Lilith is a high-toned, poetic enigma. Released by Columbia Pictures in 1964, Lilith was a critical and box office failure, that is still largely unknown. Beatty plays a therapist who finds Lilith's madness seductive, and his growing love for her ends in death, and results in his own madness. Though Beatty 's performing is hesitant, uncertain, and awkward, Jean Seberg as Lilith, and Peter Fonda as a patient who loves her are excellent. The interesting supporting cast includes Gene Hackman and Jessica Walter. While not a film for everyone, Lilith is an unusual film that stays in one's mind. Lilith's depiction of mental illness is more subdued and realistic than most Hollywood films on the subject. It lacks the feeling of exploitation present in films such as The Snake Pit, Suddenly, Last Summer, The Caretakers, Cuckoo's Nest, and Girl Interrupted. Recommended.