Watch Lilith For Free

Memorable, crazy movie

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A beautiful sensitive film. Lilith recalls the way insanity was treated in mid 20th century America. The story revolves around a young soldier, possibly going through PTSD, who gets a job as an Occupational Therapist Trainee in a plush Sanitarium recalling the era of Chestnut Lodge and McCleans. Chestnut Lodge was famed for treating patients with psychoanalysis rather than shock treatment. Most of the patients at these hospitals were wealthy, as they are in this film. Their money allowed them to reside at the hospital for long term stays. Today,in-patient treatment of mental illness is dictated by behavioral/cognitive therapy. The hospitals do not allow a patient to be indulged, as they are in this film. Most in-patient treatment of mental illness is provided by general hospitals, and not the resort sanitariums of yesteryear, where Lilith stayed.The agrarian setting is magnificently filmed and gives the movie a surrealist feel, very dreamlike. The pace of the movie is slow and I would not recommend it for fans of action films unless their tastes can embrace the "art house" films of 1960's thru 1970's. This movie brought to mind the great work of Tennessee Williams plays/movies.The movie is basically carried by the acting of Jane Seaberg and Warren Beatty. They are two very attractive, seductive characters who are perfect for the lensing of the film. There were times when I would get tired of Beatty's handsome face and trying to read his non-verbal messages. This was especially true in the scene where he is visiting an old girlfriend and her husband. I found it agonizing to watch the friendly (but rather Rubish) husband trying to engage Beatty into chat.On the whole this is an excellent movie, the likes of which we see little today. I would recommend it for people who loved Suddenly Last Summer, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and Member of the Wedding. As mentioned earlier it also serves as a chapter on the history of medicine, showing how mental illness was treated in 1950's, for those who had the wealth to buy the best and brightest treatment of its time. Right now, I'm going to try to find some other films similar to this and the films mentioned above. I don't think I will have and easy time of it.

The mental institution in this film, called "Poplar Lodge" I believe, is modeled on Chestnut Lodge, a Bethesda, Maryland institution famed for early attempts to establish interpersonal relationships with (rich) psychotic patients. This fits the institutional style depicted in this film. Hopwever, the main characters do not seem to be mentally ill so much as metaphores for the madness es in our society. The perception that sexual expression represents evil or crazy behavior, not changed all that much from the time this film was made, frequent wars, and the way sensitive people are brushed aside as others hustle toward dubious goals, are all personified as forms of madness. Okay so far.But the film does not quite work. The character played by Anne Meacham, seething with barely suppressed sexuality, works, but Lilith, played as a golden haired all American, girl next door beauty, doing and saying odd things, making up her own language, seeing herself as an outside observer of our society, is a character which doesn't hit home. She seems more quirky than mad. That she drives men into destructive actions seems somehow unlikely. At the most, she may be a catalyst for their weaknesses to be expressed.Jean Seberg doesn't personify madness. She seems just bemused. Warren Beatty conveys a lack of inner direction, a developing depression, and strange longings by looking blank, seeming inarticulate, and acting as if he has no idea of the direction his next step will take. All of this slows this film down to a very languid pace, frequently accompanied by a relaxed bop-along jazz score. Thus, the film is too slow, a long windup for a soft pitch. It is hard to feel much tension, even though it is clear that there is supposed to be a lot of tension. Nice try, but no cigar.

Often very haunting and beautiful, 'Lillith' is a hard film to put your finger on. After seeing it five days ago I'm still not entirely sure whether I really liked, but I was indeed fascinated by it. Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg as the title character both turn in interesting performances as the nurse and patient in a mental institution. Beatty slowly gets caught in Seberg's web, with her madness described as a state of 'rapture'. Is she better off existing in her own world? Is she happier? Some gorgeous black-and-white photography in this one, especially the shots of Seberg and Beatty making love for the first time. And the lesbian scene seemed really strong for the time period.

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.