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(Perry even employed Roy Lichtenstein as a visual consultant.)
That wasnt necessarily unintentional; Perry had a way with atmosphere.
It also offers a chance to catch up with one of Anthony Perkinss greatest performances.
A far cry from the gawky and boyish Norman Bates, B.Z.
is a floppy-haired, closeted Hollywood player slowly dissolving in his own nihilism.
Trapped in a sham marriage and unable to ever really be himself, B.Z.
responds to his personal despair with cheerful, devil-may-care snark.
Despite the light framing rig, the episodic narrative ofPlay It As It Laysis largely linear.
Marias emotional deflections work their way into the very form of the film.
A glimpse of Maria and Carters official divorce proceeding is even shorter.
When she shows up at his film set later, we might wonder if were watching a flashback.
Time keeps turning on itself.
Dialogue drifts in from offscreen sources, voice messages, phone calls.
Is Marias narration an internal monologue, or a confession and if so, to whom?
We can project our own anxieties into its emptiness.
Their work fit right in with the eras fascination with psychoanalysis and mental illness.
But for all their independence, their films also had classical cohesion.
That might shed some light on the films disjointed narrative and freewheeling style.
Its an essential picture.
