Five years earlier, and this elliptical oddity would not have been made. The period spanning the early 1960's is an era of transition for American movie audiences, as the old studio system with its emphasis on the literal and the linear begins to break down and the more complex European New Wave finds its way into America's urban centers. It's not surprising, I suppose, that Robert Rossen, a Hollywood veteran with an international perspective, would experiment with this more indirect style in a production like Lillith.
Now, I think the film deals provocatively with the distinction between derangement and insanity, so I want to pursue that thread for a bit. Lilith is deranged, but not insane. She simply has a different way of wanting to leave her "mark" (referred to in the movie) on the world. In short, her 'range' of perception is not normal. In effect, it's a desire to use her body (also mentioned) to merge with beautiful aspects of that world. Thus, she pursues diverse forms of interplay available in her confined setting-flute playing, tapestry weaving, Vincent, Yvonne, adolescent boys, painting, nature, etc. Indeed, as the list shows, she is sexually undisciplined in the conventional sense, as shown in the intimate scene with the first boy, which is truly unsettling. However, she's amoral rather than immoral since the whole notion of sexual morality (fidelity to one person or gender, along with age considerations) makes no sense given her basic compulsion. Thus, she's a de-ranged wild card in a well-ordered social world and must be kept apart for, at least, pragmatic reasons.
Now, it could be argued that my account so far fails to separate her 'disorder' from insanity and that Lilith's insanity is simply an extreme form of nymphomania. But consider the mention made of experiencing the world through a "fine instrument". Now, it's well known, for example, that dogs hear sounds that humans cannot because of a more refined sense of hearing, similarly with smells. Then too, at a more theoretical level, the lowly snail must experience the world differently than we do, and who knows what features of reality reveal themselves to even the snail's-eye view. Thus, it may well be that Lilith is in possession of a more fully developed sensing organ than the rest of us. More importantly for the movie's sake, that organ is not just attuned to the world, but to a particular aspect of it-namely, to beauty and the beautiful. Thus her perceptual 'range' is greater than the normal, and in that sense, she's not so much 'de'-ranged as she is 'plus'-ranged; though to conventional belief she may appear insane.
Take a look at the list again. One thing the items have in common is beauty, whether human or non-human or the pursuit of the beautiful in one of its artistic forms. So, when Lilith stares through the diffusing prism, in that aesthetic sense, she's contacting beauty in the form of rainbow colors that she not only sees but feels (mentioned in the film) in what may even be a near-religious sense. Thus, Lilth's disorder is not based on a departure from reality as ordinarily understood (insanity), but on its ironical opposite-a heightened experiencing of what the rest of us only experience in weakened form. She emerges, then, as an exceptional individual whose amoral behavior results not from a deficiency, but from a world defined by the impersonally beautiful-a world in which jealousy, for example, has no place (mentioned in the movie). Hence, when she bends down to kiss her reflected image in the lake, it's not what it appears, a narcissistic act of self-love, but a kind of communion revealed to her by a lovely image that just happens to be herself.
Now, contrast her "disorder' with Vincent's growing obsession with his mother and those who resemble her, namely, Lilith and the blonde girl at the bar. I'm in no position to psychoanalyze him, but his problem looks more like incipient insanity than derangement. He's clearly got a fixation on Mom. In that sense, his desire to work at the asylum can then be viewed as an effort at tracking a mysterious Mother afflicted by her own dark mental problems. Thus, possessing Lilith becomes a way of possessing a mother who is at once strange and unknown to him (he puts her picture beside Mom's on his bedside table). As his obsession with Lilith-Mother grows, he comes to reject an overture from a former sexual attraction, the dark-haired Laura (Walter). He even steals the hand-carved box from Lilith, thus sabotaging her emerging relationship with Stephen (Fonda). (Note that the plain- looking Stephen has found a way to Lilith's heart by giving her an object of beauty.)
Now, Lilith may be amoral, but she's not unethical-she disapproves of lying (mentioned), for example. Thus, when Vincent's lies and jealousy lead to Stephen's death, her aesthetically ordered world is shattered, and she collapses into total dysfunction (a memorable image). At the same time, Vincent loses his moorings- Lilith and Mom have slipped forever beyond his grasp. And in what may be a sop to convention and the upbeat (it's still 1964), he reverses course off asylum grounds to ask for help. In his case, there may well be a cure; for Lilith, however, there is none since she is by nature attuned to a heightened world. She is, after all, of exceptional-perceptual-range and not insane.
As I see it, the tragic figure here is Lilith, ultimately destroyed by an exceptional sensibility and an attraction to Vincent's physical beauty. Had Vincent's quest for his mother not led him into her world, she could have remained at peace with her artistic pursuits. Thus, it's not her world that destroyed his; it's his more 'normal" world that destroyed her. As Vincent, Beatty is all conversational pauses and silences that are perhaps meaningful, but given his generally diffident manner, it's hard to tell. That's perhaps as it should be. On the other hand, Seberg's Lilith is a beguiling figure with a mysterious smile and an inner life that appears elusive and just beyond our grasp. And that's definitely as it should be.
Now, I think the film deals provocatively with the distinction between derangement and insanity, so I want to pursue that thread for a bit. Lilith is deranged, but not insane. She simply has a different way of wanting to leave her "mark" (referred to in the movie) on the world. In short, her 'range' of perception is not normal. In effect, it's a desire to use her body (also mentioned) to merge with beautiful aspects of that world. Thus, she pursues diverse forms of interplay available in her confined setting-flute playing, tapestry weaving, Vincent, Yvonne, adolescent boys, painting, nature, etc. Indeed, as the list shows, she is sexually undisciplined in the conventional sense, as shown in the intimate scene with the first boy, which is truly unsettling. However, she's amoral rather than immoral since the whole notion of sexual morality (fidelity to one person or gender, along with age considerations) makes no sense given her basic compulsion. Thus, she's a de-ranged wild card in a well-ordered social world and must be kept apart for, at least, pragmatic reasons.
Now, it could be argued that my account so far fails to separate her 'disorder' from insanity and that Lilith's insanity is simply an extreme form of nymphomania. But consider the mention made of experiencing the world through a "fine instrument". Now, it's well known, for example, that dogs hear sounds that humans cannot because of a more refined sense of hearing, similarly with smells. Then too, at a more theoretical level, the lowly snail must experience the world differently than we do, and who knows what features of reality reveal themselves to even the snail's-eye view. Thus, it may well be that Lilith is in possession of a more fully developed sensing organ than the rest of us. More importantly for the movie's sake, that organ is not just attuned to the world, but to a particular aspect of it-namely, to beauty and the beautiful. Thus her perceptual 'range' is greater than the normal, and in that sense, she's not so much 'de'-ranged as she is 'plus'-ranged; though to conventional belief she may appear insane.
Take a look at the list again. One thing the items have in common is beauty, whether human or non-human or the pursuit of the beautiful in one of its artistic forms. So, when Lilith stares through the diffusing prism, in that aesthetic sense, she's contacting beauty in the form of rainbow colors that she not only sees but feels (mentioned in the film) in what may even be a near-religious sense. Thus, Lilth's disorder is not based on a departure from reality as ordinarily understood (insanity), but on its ironical opposite-a heightened experiencing of what the rest of us only experience in weakened form. She emerges, then, as an exceptional individual whose amoral behavior results not from a deficiency, but from a world defined by the impersonally beautiful-a world in which jealousy, for example, has no place (mentioned in the movie). Hence, when she bends down to kiss her reflected image in the lake, it's not what it appears, a narcissistic act of self-love, but a kind of communion revealed to her by a lovely image that just happens to be herself.
Now, contrast her "disorder' with Vincent's growing obsession with his mother and those who resemble her, namely, Lilith and the blonde girl at the bar. I'm in no position to psychoanalyze him, but his problem looks more like incipient insanity than derangement. He's clearly got a fixation on Mom. In that sense, his desire to work at the asylum can then be viewed as an effort at tracking a mysterious Mother afflicted by her own dark mental problems. Thus, possessing Lilith becomes a way of possessing a mother who is at once strange and unknown to him (he puts her picture beside Mom's on his bedside table). As his obsession with Lilith-Mother grows, he comes to reject an overture from a former sexual attraction, the dark-haired Laura (Walter). He even steals the hand-carved box from Lilith, thus sabotaging her emerging relationship with Stephen (Fonda). (Note that the plain- looking Stephen has found a way to Lilith's heart by giving her an object of beauty.)
Now, Lilith may be amoral, but she's not unethical-she disapproves of lying (mentioned), for example. Thus, when Vincent's lies and jealousy lead to Stephen's death, her aesthetically ordered world is shattered, and she collapses into total dysfunction (a memorable image). At the same time, Vincent loses his moorings- Lilith and Mom have slipped forever beyond his grasp. And in what may be a sop to convention and the upbeat (it's still 1964), he reverses course off asylum grounds to ask for help. In his case, there may well be a cure; for Lilith, however, there is none since she is by nature attuned to a heightened world. She is, after all, of exceptional-perceptual-range and not insane.
As I see it, the tragic figure here is Lilith, ultimately destroyed by an exceptional sensibility and an attraction to Vincent's physical beauty. Had Vincent's quest for his mother not led him into her world, she could have remained at peace with her artistic pursuits. Thus, it's not her world that destroyed his; it's his more 'normal" world that destroyed her. As Vincent, Beatty is all conversational pauses and silences that are perhaps meaningful, but given his generally diffident manner, it's hard to tell. That's perhaps as it should be. On the other hand, Seberg's Lilith is a beguiling figure with a mysterious smile and an inner life that appears elusive and just beyond our grasp. And that's definitely as it should be.