Lilith (film)

Lilith is a 1964 American drama film written and directed by Robert Rossen starring Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg.

[2] Set in a private mental institution, Chestnut Lodge in Rockville, Maryland, the film tells of a trainee occupational therapist, a troubled ex-soldier named Vincent Bruce, who is fascinated by seductive, artistic, schizophrenic patient Lilith Arthur.

Vincent is successful in helping Lilith emerge from seclusion and leave the institutional grounds for a day in the country, and later escorts her on excursions in which she is alone with him.

[8] After the film's presentation at the New York Film Festival, the critic of the New York Times wrote a reserved review, praising the "striking images" and Jean Seberg's "fresh, flighty, fearsome performance", but faulting the lack of a "lucid demonstration of what the whole thing means" and weak acting by Warren Beatty and Peter Fonda.

[7] Reviews in later years were more sympathetic, calling it "ambitious" and "sadly underrated" (Chris Lloyd, Time Out)[9] and "a masterpiece" (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader).

[13] Jean Seberg was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.