''Puzzle of a Downfall Child'' is a 1970 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Jerry Schatzberg Jerry Schatzberg (born June 26, 1927) is an American photographer and film director. Career Schatzberg was born to a Jewish family of furriers and grew up in the Bronx. He photographed for magazines such as ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'', ''Esquire ...

and starring Faye Dunaway, Barry Morse,

Viveca Lindfors Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter Lindfors (December 29, 1920 – October 25, 1995) was a Swedish stage, film, and television actress. She won an Emmy Award and a Silver Bear for Best Actress. Biography Lindfors was born in Uppsala, Sweden, the da ...

, Roy Scheider, and Barry Primus.

Plot

A beautiful but disturbed young woman lives alone at a beach cottage, reliving her past, a life of delusions and lies. Lou Andreas Sand is a former fashion model whose life has gone into a downward spiral, including drug use and a nervous breakdown. She tells an acquaintance, Aaron Reinhardt, her story for a film he is planning on her, but the details do not ring true. Lou evidently had a lover who abused her, and a penchant for sex with strange men. Along the way, she became engaged to marry Mark, an ad executive, but apparently jilted him on the day of their wedding, leading to her descent into drugs and an attempted suicide.

Cast

* Faye Dunaway as Lou Andreas Sand * Barry Primus as Aaron Reinhardt *

as Pauline Galba * Barry Morse as Dr. Galba * Roy Scheider as Mark * Ruth Jackson as Barbara Casey * John Heffernan as Dr. Sherman *

Sydney Walker Sydney Walker (May 5, 1921 – September 30, 1994) was an American character actor of stage and screen and voice artist, with a career that spanned over five decades. Early life Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Walker developed an interest in ...

as Psychiatrist * Clark Burckhalter as Davy Bright * Shirley Rich as Peggy McCavage * Emerick Bronson as Falco * Joe George as 1st Man in Bar * John Eames as 1st Doctor * Harry Lee as Mr. Wong * Jane Halleran as Joan *

Susan Willis Susan Crobaugh (August 27, 1925 - May 14, 2009), better known as Susan Willis, was an American actress. Willis was born in Tiffin, Ohio Tiffin is a city in and the county seat of Seneca County, Ohio, United States. Developed along the Sandus ...

as Neighbor *

Barbara Carrera Barbara Carrera (born Barbara Kingsbury) is an American actress, model and artist. She starred in the films ''The Master Gunfighter'' (1975), ''Embryo'' (1976), '' The Island of Dr. Moreau'' (1977), ''Condorman'' (1981), ''I, the Jury'' (1982) a ...

as T.J. Brady * Sam Schacht as George

Production

The film was Schatzberg's first foray into feature-film making; at the time, he was primarily known as a fashion photographer and had directed a few commercials. Schatzberg initially worked with French screenwriter

Jacques Sigurd Jacques Sigurd (15 June 1920, Paris – 21 December 1987, New York City) was a French screenwriter. Selected filmography * ''All Roads Lead to Rome (1949 film), All Roads Lead to Rome'' (1949) * ''Leathernose'' (1952) * ''The Lovers of Midnight' ...

, who had written a script involving a woman having an abortion, but the collaboration came to an end due to creative differences. Carole Eastman, whose unused draft for ''

Petulia ''Petulia'' is a 1968 British-American drama film directed by Richard Lester and starring Julie Christie, George C. Scott and Richard Chamberlain. The film has a screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus from a story by Barbara Turner and is based on t ...

'' Schatzberg had enjoyed, was approached to write a new screenplay, and only the title from Sigurd's script was kept on the insistence of Schatzberg. Eastman based the new script on recordings Schatzberg had made of his friend, model

Anne St. Marie Anne St. Marie (1926–1986) was an American fashion model, also known as Anne Sainte-Marie, and one of the leading models of the 1950s. She was born in Los Angeles County on June 16, 1926. St. Marie was married to the photographer Tom Palumbo un ...

, while Aaron was in part based on Schatzberg himself. The phrase "downfall child" came from a friend of Schatzberg's who had recounted a nightmare where she was trying to save a child falling from a building. The name of Faye Dunaway's character is an allusion to

Lou Andreas-Salomé Lou Andreas-Salomé (born either Louise von Salomé or Luíza Gustavovna Salomé or Lioulia von Salomé, russian: link=no, Луиза Густавовна Саломе; 12 February 1861 – 5 February 1937) was a Russian-born psychoanalyst and a ...

Theatre

The movie was adapted as a two-character play by

Elisabeth Bouchaud Elisabeth Bouchaud (born Tibi) is a French physicist, playwright and actress born 1 March 1961. She is a member of Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA), and works at Ecole Superieure de Chimie et Physique de la Ville de Paris. Since 2015, s ...

(in French) and put on at ''La Reine Blanche'' (Paris) in 2017.

References

External links