StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

DKosty123 There are lots of reasons this is an excellent film. Jean Seberg is number 1. This is by far a great performance by the actress. She seems to be happy in this mental institution as a patient who is an extreme danger to grown men and a predator on young boys. Her past includes a brother's death which she says was because he would not pay attention to her which is means she might have killed him because of that. Mentally Ill indeed.Warren Beatty's Vincent character almost did not happen. Peter Fonda was supposed to have the inside track for this role, but wanted to be Stephen in support instead. Kim Hunter's Dr. Bea Brice seems to at times have eyes for Vincent and so does Jessica Walter (Laura). Gene Hackman (Norman) is a mystery for much of the film until one night when Vincent actually meets him. Vincent returns from the service to get a job in a private mental hospital. He meets and becomes too involved with Lilith, a patient there. She works on destroying him and at the same time has a fling with a female patient and tries to seduce a young boy. Her appetite seems to be insatiable. While there is lots of physical stuff between Vincent and Lilith, she is always longing for something more normal. She is happy but not satisfied. Vincent develops a horrible tangle with her, and Stephen (Peter Fonda) is trying to get her attention too. This film directed by Robert Rosen is an excellent character study about mental illness which at the time this film is made was still a mystery to most. Very well worth viewing for the acting and the subject matter.

dglink "Lilith" is a strange film, not a bad film, but definitely strange. Vincent Bruce, played by a handsome youthful Warren Beatty, seemingly drifts into a job at an expensive rest home for the mentally disturbed, who are wealthy enough to reside there. Although credentials are not discussed, the young man is hired to attend patients. The supposedly elite home is as equally lax about patient care as it is about professional qualifications, and Beatty is soon involved in a relationship with an attractive young patient, Lilith Arthur, played by Jean Seberg. Beatty and Seberg go bike riding in the country, climb rocky waterfalls, and roll around in the grass, not to mention spending time alone together in Seberg's room, all unsupervised by those supposedly in charge.The film squanders a number of talented performers in undemanding roles: Kim Hunter, Peter Fonda, Gene Hackman, and Jessica Walter. The talented and Oscar winning Hunter seems to sleepwalk through her part as the home's head of staff, and Fonda tries with a thankless portrayal of unrequited love. While Beatty is passable, but undistinguished, as the troubled young Vincent, the film's key role, Lilith, is beyond the grasp of Jean Seberg. The film may have come alive in the hands of a Joanne Woodward or a Kim Stanley, but Seberg fails to suggest the inner demons Lilith is supposed to possess. Her admittedly beautiful face glows, but suggests nothing more than superficial emotions. Among the other cast members, only Gene Hackman reveals the nascent talent that would carry him on to more demanding parts and two Oscars in far better movies.Robert Rossen, director of "All the King's Men" and "The Hustler," takes a self-consciously arty approach in both his direction and his script, adapted from a novel by J. R. Salamanca. Rossen's dreamlike sequences and obsession with water are visually appealing, but often confuse, and he fails to ignite any chemistry between the icy Seberg and the moody Beatty. However, lensed by Eugen Schufftan, who won an Oscar for his cinematography on "The Hustler," "Lilith"'s bleak black-and-white images capture the sterile rest home interior and the variable cloudiness and rain of the surrounding landscape. However, neither Hackman nor Schufftan can save "Lilith." Lacking an actress with the depth to portray Lilith's complexity, the plodding film comes off as merely...strange.

wes-connors Handsome Warren Beatty (as Vincent Bruce) returns to his smallish Maryland town, fresh from military service. At home, he watches war movies and drinks beer. His grandmother encourages Mr. Beatty to accept a job at the local mental institution (or "insane asylum"), to give his life purpose and make his mother proud. Beatty faces his first workplace crisis by saving likable, but nutty Peter Fonda (as Stephen Evshevsky) from killing himself over beautiful, but schizophrenic Jean Seberg (as Lilith Arthur).Soon, Beatty reports, to superiors, of an inappropriate attraction between himself and Ms. Seberg. He feels Seberg is attempting to seduce him; and, he has considered accepting. In a world quite unlike this one, Beatty would be immediately removed from the case - but, herein, he is urged to continue as seductive Seberg's one-on-one companion. You wouldn't suspect Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg of anything untoward while hiking, biking, or horseback riding all alone, would you? When schizophrenia is described, it's obvious Seberg is the "mad spider" who will catch Beatty in her web. And, so, the therapist and patient fall in love. But, Beatty gets mad when he catches Seberg romping in the hay with her Lesbian lover Anne Meacham (as Yvonne Meaghan). Beatty calls Seberg a "dirty bitch" and makes passionate love to her, while girlfriend Meaghan presumably listens at the barn door. As you can imagine, this scene ends too soon… It all sounds silly… well, it IS SILLY, but "Lilith" is shot beautifully, by acclaimed director Robert Rossen (his last film) with accomplished cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan. Beatty and Seberg do well in the often obvious, sometimes complex leading roles. You can enjoy Jessica Walter and Gene Hackman, in early roles, as Beatty's ex-girlfriend and her colon-troubled husband. And, Mr. Fonda's truly fine characterization might have attracted a "Best Supporting Actor" nomination, if "Lilith" had been more critically acclaimed. The film really should have been a more subtle allegory.****** Lilith (9/20/64) Robert Rossen ~ Warren Beatty, Jean Seberg, Peter Fonda

bandw This is an unusual film that has a young Warren Beatty playing Vincent, a Korean War veteran, who is taken on as an occupational therapist at a mental institution for wealthy patients. If for no other reason this is worth watching for its improbable and disparate cast: besides Beatty there is Jean Seaberg as a patient (Lilith), Kim Hunter as a doctor on the institution's staff, Peter Fonda as the introverted patient Steve, and Gene Hackman as the husband of one of Vincent's previous flames.A good percentage of the scenes are filmed in extreme close-up, particularly the ones between Beatty and Seberg. The black-and-white photography is well suited for this, since facial expressions carry more force in black-and-white.It's hard to pin down what the problems are that the patients have. Perhaps that is the nature of mental illness, but the patient's peculiarities struck me as a bit exaggerated. There are sexual undertones running throughout (well, in the case of Beatty and Seberg more than undertones). Steve fancies Lilith and makes timid attempts to attract her and convinces himself, wrongly, that there is hope there. Vincent's presence seems to release a sort of pan-sexuality in Lilith. Not only does she take up with him, but she also has a lesbian connection with another patient and displays an ill-defined affinity for pre-pubescent boys. Waterfalls and running water turn Lilith on and there is a scene where she looks at her reflection in a lake and kisses the image, another indication of sexuality running wild I guess.Vincent himself is no model of sanity. There is a connection between his feelings for his dead mother and those for Lilith, whose appearance bears a striking resemblance to his mother. Beyond that, Vincent has a lot of unresolved issues that are only hinted at. Precise character analysis is not what this movie is about and you are left wondering just what it *is* about. One thing for sure, dealing with sexuality in a mental institution is not an exact science.There is a lengthy sequence where Vincent and Lilith go to a fair and Vincent enters a jousting contest where horseback riders use their lances to pluck small rings from suspended metal mounts. This has to be one of the oddest sequences in all of moviedom.When it was over, my reaction was (and is), "I'm not sure what to make of this movie."