Like some of the others that have commented on this film I first watched this about 20 years ago and have seen it a few more times since then and I'm not sure what it is about this but it's definitely an intriguing mess. Story is about a Wisconsin girl named Elizabeth Carlson (Nastassja Kinski) who leaves college and heads to New York City where after getting a job as a waitress is discovered by a fashion agent who makes her into a very successful model.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** While this is all going on she notices a strange man following her (Rudolf Nureyev) and eventually has to confront him and learns that his name is Daniel Jelline and he wants to kill a terrorist. They engage in a romance and she follows him to Paris but gets upset when she discovers that he used her to try and get closer to Rivas (Harvey Keitel) who's the terrorist and plotting his next act of destruction. Elizabeth notices a woman from New York that was watching her and recognizes her as one of the members of Rivas gang and they strike up a conversation which results in her getting the opportunity to meet him. After Rivas lets her go she immediately goes to get Daniel and this leads to a violent and bloody conclusion.
This was the third film that James Toback had written and directed and he was still riding the critical praise of his first film "Fingers" but he seemed to bite off more than he could chew with this story. First off, nobody believed Kinski was a girl from the Midwest and she never appeared at home until she arrived in Paris. Keitel is woefully miscast as a terrorist and after multiple viewings of this film I was never sure if he was supposed to be a Parisian or something else. I've heard everyone describe Nureyev's performance as wooden and stiff but with his dark eyes I always compared him to Dracula and every time he spoke he would either speak in metaphors or recite something poetically. But with all that, this film has always been something of a curiosity and for some reason I cannot get myself to admit that this is a bad film. There's something alluring and intriguing about the story and I think it has to do with the casting of Kinski who has often been described as a force to reckon with. At one point Kinski does a dance by herself and with her unique screen presence one can't help but be absorbed by her character. Toback's script and film has such high aspirations and is so ambitious that for most of us it commands some sort of attention. Many future viewers will simply reject this after one viewing and not think twice about it but for those of us who watched Kinski and Toback rise to they're abilities in the early 80's this clumsy film has always been something of a curiosity.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** While this is all going on she notices a strange man following her (Rudolf Nureyev) and eventually has to confront him and learns that his name is Daniel Jelline and he wants to kill a terrorist. They engage in a romance and she follows him to Paris but gets upset when she discovers that he used her to try and get closer to Rivas (Harvey Keitel) who's the terrorist and plotting his next act of destruction. Elizabeth notices a woman from New York that was watching her and recognizes her as one of the members of Rivas gang and they strike up a conversation which results in her getting the opportunity to meet him. After Rivas lets her go she immediately goes to get Daniel and this leads to a violent and bloody conclusion.
This was the third film that James Toback had written and directed and he was still riding the critical praise of his first film "Fingers" but he seemed to bite off more than he could chew with this story. First off, nobody believed Kinski was a girl from the Midwest and she never appeared at home until she arrived in Paris. Keitel is woefully miscast as a terrorist and after multiple viewings of this film I was never sure if he was supposed to be a Parisian or something else. I've heard everyone describe Nureyev's performance as wooden and stiff but with his dark eyes I always compared him to Dracula and every time he spoke he would either speak in metaphors or recite something poetically. But with all that, this film has always been something of a curiosity and for some reason I cannot get myself to admit that this is a bad film. There's something alluring and intriguing about the story and I think it has to do with the casting of Kinski who has often been described as a force to reckon with. At one point Kinski does a dance by herself and with her unique screen presence one can't help but be absorbed by her character. Toback's script and film has such high aspirations and is so ambitious that for most of us it commands some sort of attention. Many future viewers will simply reject this after one viewing and not think twice about it but for those of us who watched Kinski and Toback rise to they're abilities in the early 80's this clumsy film has always been something of a curiosity.