The Party
1968's THE PARTY was not what I was expecting. At least the first two thirds of it. Director/co-writer Blake Edwards reteamed with Peter Sellers for a film with the tagline "If you've been to a wilder party, you're under arrest!" What would that suggest to you , invisible audience? For most of the running time I wondered if maybe I was seeing some long lost director's cut. It didn't feel like a Hollywood movie. THE PARTY resembles more an American stab at Jacques Tati. Slapstick, but very understated. An unfocused eye, wandering the frame. Improvisation to the point of film rollout. Sellers quite controversially plays an accident prone Indian actor called Hrundi V. Bakshi. It's another of those "they could never get away with that now" things. The brownface used by the make-up department sends the "woke" folks into a real tizzy. I find this silly. Just as I do when any actor attempts to play someone of a different color, ...
