SEXTET (A SEVERED HEAD)

UK, 1970, 97 minutes, Colour.
Lee Remick, Richard Attenborough, Ian Holm, Claire Bloom, Jennie Linden, Clive Revill.
Directed by

Sextet is another name for Iris Murdoch's 'A Severed Head'. Iris Murdoch combines the wit and eccentricity of the amoral world of Evelyn Waugh with her philosophical background as an oxford lecturer who has written on questions of will and Sartre. A Severed Head is anamoral comedy of changing partners which raises questions about what makes true relationships, who dominates whom, and why we make such a mess of loving. There are also digs at psychologists and a mysterious and macabre touch with oriental religious overtones in the character of Honor Klein. If the film is taken as literal and realistic, it could well disturb and offend. If it is taken as satire and exaggerated posing for the sake of telling a story and pointing a moral, then it will be taken as it was intended. Lee Remick does her best with an English accent and style; Claire Bloom is in the spirit of the whole thing as the odd Honor Klein. The rest of the cast is quite good. If you like Iris Murdoch's work or if you enjoy discussing interesting satire, Sextet is worthwhile.

1. What is the point of this film?

2. If it is taken as "straight" realism, the characters can seem pitiful and their behaviour disgusting. If the film is taken as "elegant satire and comedy of manners (in the manner of the novel, or of Evelyn Waugh or Muriel Spark), the perspective is quite different and the film takes on a different level of meaning, How true are these statements? Is the film made with taste and sensibility?

3. Why is everything seen from Martin's point of view? (He is bumbling, comic, ordinary, deceitful; yet he seems more sympathetic than the others).

4. What is the moral (and morals) of the ending?

5. An Iris Murdoch theme is the conflict of will between men and women, with the women conquering. Is this apparent in the film?

6. How ironical is the attitude of Antonia and Palmer as they want Martin to be free to come to them as he wishes. as they impose their guilt on him (e.g. telling him not to feel guilty for spilling the wine when he never felt guilty)? Comment on the sequence where he interviews Palmer and leaves, defeated. ("If he says civilised"')

7. Antonia - self centred and scatty. Does she have any real feelings? "I feel awful, and pouting and crying? Inconsistent: "How can I?" and then does it. Her capacity to draw everyone to herself, her mothering of martin and her attitudes to the house and the dog.

8. Martin - did he have any character? Was he a victim. small, imagining Honor, Palmer and Antonia making love? Why did he slap Honor Klein?

9. Palmer - was he too much of a caricature, instead of a character? Soft-sell psychologist, "lucid and honest, yet quietly overbearing, imposing his will and controlling others? What was your reaction on his being discovered with Honor Klein?

10. Georgina - ordinary. yet over-romantic, suicidal. Her meeting of Antonia. It seems she started as a character and turned into a caricature. Is this true?

11. Alexander - artistic. Martin says he handed on his girls to him. but Georgina te77s Martin he took them. Does this sum up Alexander?

12. Honor Klein - did you understand her? Don, oriental, her wig, her mysterious poses, like a pagan goddess? What did her sword mean (and 'severed heads')? She was attractive, fascinating, yet repellent?

13. She talks to Martin of severed heads offered to deities because of the unknown and for protection. There is a lot of speculation on the real and unreal. What is real - anything?

14. Did you notice that some characters (especially Martin and Honor Klein) had signature music when they appeared? How did this comment on their characters?

15. Why did the partners finish as they did? Do you see any future for them?