The Driver's Seat (1974) User Reviews

It works on a certain level

[Chricke-2 · 6/10 · 29 June 2004]

This obscure movie, which has been so unfairly panned by the critics of its time, actually manages to deliver what I believe was the intention, a disintegrating world of a psychotic woman. As viewers, we are somewhere in the middle of two layers of realities, the one being the compulsive psyche of the main character, Lise, portrayed by Liz Taylor, and the other one being the absurd and incoherent events in her surroundings. I quite like this film, I had expected a B-movie with second rate production values, but I was at least partly mistaken, the cinematography is effective in painting the psychotic state of mind, example; Lise turning to her right, framed in the left side of the screen, when addressing someone. Another scene, where Lise is attempting to get in touch with a woman she befriended just recently, who may be stuck in the lavatory from some illness, we see Lise at the same time completely absorbed by her own mirror image, disconnected from any real emotional concern over the lady that might be in peril. Maybe some think these are cheap means of making a weird and psychotic setting, still the movie makes the viewer access the process of disintegration of Lise. Furthermore, some scenes are chillingly before its time regarding terror events and crimes; terror do pop up everywhere these days, and maybe a modern day public can better identify themselves with a confused and disintegrating persona as Lise. We can barely understand our own feelings and our driving forces - how can we then understand the complexity of the human society in terms of terror and conflicts?

Fascinating...for both good reasons and bad

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 2 October 2005]

Presented out of sequence (either a trenchant move or merely ineptness), this Elizabeth Taylor melodrama, adapted from Muriel Spark's novel by director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi and Raffaele La Capria, is rather seductive on its slim budget and fascinating in its wrong-headedness. Filmed in Italy, the story concerns a mentally disturbed woman on the hunt for the perfect man to be her...murderer? The film has such a loopy, surreal quality, you can almost feel something extraordinary happening here but without the necessary talent to make it a success. Taylor is actually attempting something (rather than just posing), but one can only wonder what she made of this script and her odd, underwritten character. Most bad films are simply boring or uninspired, but "The Driver's Seat" has an almost accidental reverse-magic. On first glance, the construction of the picture appears to be amateurish--and Taylor set adrift--but Griffi has moviemaking fever and his film is almost always interesting. ** from ****

Experimental Elizabeth Taylor vehicle is both fascinating and boring

[gridoon2024 · 5/10 · 20 January 2013]

It's fascinating, because it's quite unexpected to find one of Hollywood's greatest female stars - an actress who defines "star" - not just peripherally involved, but leading such a shoddy production (even the location filming in Italy feels cheap, plus there seems to be a lot of dubbing). And it's boring, because there are many long, pointless sequences which add nothing to our understanding of this woman's actions. I did like the use of non-linear narrative - it helps you stay with the picture expecting (or hoping) that a major event awaits you at the end of it. But no, the only thing that happens is what you know will happen all along. So ultimately the non-linearity turns out to be much ado about very little. Despite all that, Taylor does still project some of her star power even in a film like this. ** out of 4.

Liz's Last Great Role

[dwingrove · 17 December 2003]

I confess to being rather bemused by the Muriel Spark novel this was based on, but the Giuseppe Patroni Griffi film is seductive indeed. It offers the last significant role for that most iconic screen presence, Elizabeth Taylor. As in her two late 60s films for Joseph Losey, Taylor in The Driver's Seat is both the apotheosis and the wreck of the grand Hollywood diva she once was. She plays - like Katharine Hepburn in Summertime or Vivien Leigh in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone - a neurotic middle-aged woman adrift in Italy. Only her goal here is not Sex but Death. She comes in search of a man who will ritually tie her up, stab and kill her.

Cruel fun has been poked at the (admittedly) hideous wardrobe Taylor sports throughout this film. Proof, if any were needed, that film critics on the whole do not read books. Every detail of these garish clothes has been copied faithfully from the novel. Her vile dress sense is meant as an outward sign of Taylor's disintegrating psyche, and her desperate need to stand out form the drab and over-regimented world that she (like most of the film's viewers) is forced to inhabit.

The same is true of the often absurd dialogue. "When I diet, I diet - and when I orgasm, I orgasm!" That's how Taylor fends off an amorous businessman (Ian Bannen) who tries both to lure her into bed and to convert her to a macrobiotic diet. If you watch The Driver's Seat with your eyes open, it becomes clear that the whole film takes place inside a mind that has lost all reason. Realism was never the aim here, so it's poor logic to gripe when Realism is not the result.

Every shot, in fact, is stylised to the level of a dream. The opening - where Taylor prowls through a gallery of naked store mannequins. Her shopping trip with an elderly widow (Mona Washbourne) - which winds through a quasi-surreal labyrinth of mirrors and white walls. The final deadly 'climax' - in a phantom Villa Borghese, conjured out of mist and moonlight. The camerawork by Vittorio Storaro seems to drain all colour out of the landscape, until Taylor and her iridescent shawls are the last remaining sign of life.

It was all too much for critics and public back in 1974. Nowadays, the extreme alienation that oozes from every frame - and a socio-political background of blank-faced consumerism, terrorist attacks and rabid police and airport security - may well strike more of a cord. It's no accident that Andy Warhol turns up as a corrupt diplomat. The Driver's Seat is truly a film for the modern age.

I'm not interested in sex. I'm interested in other things.

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 2 March 2009]

***SPOILERS*** Actress Elizabeth Taylor pulls out all the stops in playing the very unstable and self-destructive Lise who's life seems to have been shattered for reasons that's never really explained in the movie.

Lise is on a trip to Rome from her home in London not just to see the sights and go shopping for clothes but also meet the man of her dreams. That man Pierre, Maxence Mailfort, shows up unexpectedly as the person sitting next to Lise on her flight to Rome. Sensing that there's something very wrong with her Pierre bolts from his seat, as the plane was airborne, to get away from Lise who was making a play for him. This leads to another passenger Bill (Ian Bannen), who's a crazed health nut, trying to pick Lise up and take her to his hotel-room to party.

Lise having nothing at all to do with the lecherous Bill has him arrested by the police in having him framed as a drug dealer with his stash or drugs being nothing more then some dozen plastic bags with his favorite rice & vegetable mixture. It's later in the movie, after he was released by the Rome Police, that Bill tries to rekindle his relationship with Lise only, after getting kicked in the groin, to find out that she already has a boyfriend the scared of his own shadow Pierre.

Later in the movie Lise gets involved with this grease monkey Carlo, Guido Mannari, after she was almost killed in a terrorist attack on a visiting Middle-Eastern diplomat. Like Bill Carlo ended up on the short end of the stick in his trying to seduce Lisa, as he was supposedly driving her to her hotel, as well as ending up in police custody-as a suspect- in what he knew about what happened to her later in the movie. As things turned out Lise finally did track down the elusive Pierre through his aunt Mrs. Fiedke, Mona Washbourne, whom she met by chance in shearing a taxicab! Finding Pierre staying at the same hotel that his aunt was it soon became obvious what Lise wanted from the shy and terrified, of her, young man and it had nothing to do with romance!

Looking far slimmer then she looked in years the gorgeous, at age 41, Elizabeth Taylor was never better with or without her clothes on. In fact Miss Taylor showed much more skin in "The Driver's Seat" then she did in her famous wet swimsuit scene in the 1959 sexy and psychological shocker "Suddendly Last Summer". The ending of the movie may well shock many viewers in how sick and deranged Lise really was. The person who was shocked most of all was Lise's dream man Pierre who was both seduced and forced to carry out her bizarre and murderous plan!

Elizabeth Taylor Goes Shopping

[wes-connors · 3/10 · 14 February 2010]

Beautiful and buxom Elizabeth Taylor (as Lise) is looking for something, but it is not sex. She does not want sex, and repeatedly asserts, "I don't want sex!" But, Ms. Taylor invites, "You can do anything you want afterwards, just (censored) me!" Some of the lines uttered by Taylor in this movie are really funny. On a plane, she asks Ian Bannen (as Bill), "You look like Red Riding Hood's grandmother, do you want to eat me?" Unlike Taylor, Mr. Bannen is interested in sex. He tells her he needs an orgasm every day. Taylor talks about orgasms, too. Other men making an impression on Taylor are Guido Mannari (as Carlo) and Maxence Mailfort (as Pierre). And, Mona Washbourne (as Helen Fiedke) is a sleepy shopping companion.

Keep your remote control handy to re-play the opening "dressing room" scene, because you may do a "double-take" upon seeing Taylor looking sexy in a very revealing see-through bra. Also note, the title "Identikit" is a misnomer; while made in Italy, "The Driver's Seat" is basically an English language film.

The main attraction is watching Elizabeth Taylor essay another of her most unusual 1970s roles. She is not entirely successful, and may have abandoned all hope of continuing a serious acting career with this one. Taylor had been, for a solid decade, one of the Hollywood's most respected actresses - but, sometime after "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1966), she began to falter. There were, still, occasional interesting roles and moments; but, the missteps hurt Taylor's reputation. Critics would drool over each new Elizabeth Taylor film project (most with companion Richard Burton) because, frankly, their reviews were an opportunity to be more (perversely) entertaining than the films. Ironically, Taylor put film critics in "The Driver's Seat".

*** The Driver's Seat (5/20/74) Giuseppe Patroni Griffi ~ Elizabeth Taylor, Ian Bannen, Guido Mannari, Mona Washbourne

Arthouse Curio Spoiled From The Start

[TheFearmakers · 7/10 · 8 January 2022]

Since this Italian-shot art film... looking science-fiction futuristic with hypnotic phosphorescent interiors from an ominous airport to a vibrant shopping mall... stars screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, it's considered an utter travesty...

Yet THE DRIVER'S SEAT is actually a unique, sparse yet hallucinatory neo noir in which the central plot's completely spoiled from the online description all the way back to the back of the VHS tapes:

A woman travels through Italy to find someone to kill her... But are we really supposed to know that?

Taylor's Lisa... a temperamental middle-aged lady (colorfully dressed like for a circus, one neighbor scoffs)... to an unaware audience, seems to be looking for (while randomly auditioning for) the perfect LOVER as opposed to KILLER...

Each visited locale is investigated by detectives in a non-linear timeline, running concurrently with the immediate past where she's dodged by a quiet handsome Italian, attacked by a brash aggressive one, briefly joined by an old British woman (Mona Washburn, originally intended for Bette Davis) and bothered by a rambling vegetarian (Ian Bannen) while her destiny carries both plot and character, hence the title...

A shame that the DRIVER is revealed before the ride even begins.

No Brainteaser

[philosophicaliasons · 1/10 · 17 January 2016]

This is a poorly executed (pun intended) movie, period. Though I had no prior knowledge of the film's plot, I figured it out less than half-way through the movie. A coveted letter-opener, a beloved slasher novel repeatedly held to her chest, and every character she's met is still alive and being interrogated; it wasn't difficult to realize the plot.

I feel it's important when watching a film to develop some sort of attachment to the characters, it's what promotes interest in the film's outcome.

Elizabeth Taylor's character is bland at best with a side-effect of exhibiting some kooky behavior around similarly kooky characters, so her behavior doesn't necessarily stand out from the crowd. Ultimately, we're left as we began--knowing nothing about her character. What motivates her?

If she wants to die, than why doesn't she just kill herself? Why does she need to travel to Rome to seek a murderer? Why force a guy to kill her, who's begging not to kill her? Does she want him to get caught and spend the rest of his life in prison for a reason? What's their mystical connection all about? And why is every other guy she meets the stereotypical caricature of a perverse, horny creep? I could go on...

There are far more questions than answers at the end of this film, but you don't really care about the answers. Instead, the film ends with you coming to the realization that you've just wasted roughly 2 hours of your life. If the film had been entertaining or artistically provoking, perhaps it's inadequacies in story-telling could be forgiven. There aren't even any shots of Italy's beautiful scenery to offer this film a saving grace. It's just pure crap.

Underground cult classic

[Falconeer · 8/10 · 21 November 2006]

This strange little film has a small but devoted cult following, due to it's haunting atmosphere, obscure storyline, and a hypnotic performance by the Great Elizabeth Taylor. She stars as Lise, a spinster who makes a decision to go on a holiday, a trip that will be her last, to Rome. Dressed in a psychedelic outfit made up of every color in the rainbow, she is a peacock, using colors to attract a certain man. A man that will fulfill her darkest wish. The viewer must wait until the end of the film to find out just exactly what the crazed Lise is looking for. The ending is pretty gruesome, and not expected. But before we get there, Taylor, as Lise, gives us a guided tour of a very different looking Rome, as well as a tour of her own warped and desperate psyche. This film is what art-house cinema is all about. As far away from Hollywood as you can hope to get, there has never been a film quite like this one. Taylor exudes such an intense feeling of loneliness here, so much so, that some will find this to be a somewhat depressing film experience. But this is not a 'feel-good' film, although it is filled with some truly hilarious one-liners that you might find yourself repeating with friends who you watch this with. Some critics call this Taylors worst film, but that is utterly preposterous. It doesn't have the glossy, expensive look of her earlier Hollywood films, but then again this is a much darker and more serious film than say, "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof". Also she isn't as young and beautiful here, but if she were than the tale would not be so sad, and the desperation of this woman would make no sense. 'Identikit' is filled with familiar actors, all in totally memorable performances. Ian Bannon is hilarious as one of Lise's companions. Guido Mannari, a familiar presence in countless Italian exploitation movies is cast here as a lecherous mechanic who attempts to rape Taylor in a car. His performance is over-the-top sleazy. And veteran actress Mona Washbourne is priceless as the impromptu shopping companion of Lise, forever looking for the perfect gift for her nephew. Strangely, the shopping center sequence with Washbourne and Taylor, is one of my favorite scenes in all cinema. I don't know why, but I never get tired of listening to the strange conversation between the two eccentric characters as they wander around that modern-looking Rome shopping mall. And it is fitting that Andy Warhol has a cameo here, as both this film, and Warhol, are bizarre entities indeed. Also worth mentioning is the dark, moody background music, which compliments the feeling of the film perfectly. 'Identikit' is not for people who enjoy mainstream cinema. If 'Pretty Woman' is your idea of a good film, then you will most likely find this dark, murky film deplorable. But for fans of the precisely weird, i recommend this little-known gem. It is available as a 'cheapo' DVD. I paid around $5 dollars for it. Don't expect anamorphic widescreen here. In fact this looks like it was copied directly from a video tape. But for this film, it is somehow fitting. And I am grateful, and surprised that it is available at all. And incidentally... Do you have a gun?? Because if you did, you could shoot me...

Madness, Macrobiotics and Murder

[MogwaiMovieReviews · 7/10 · 28 November 2023]

Quite mesmerizing film of a Muriel Spark novel, a grippingly nightmarish journey of a deranged woman travelling to Rome in search of her own death. The film has a fairly unique and dreamlike atmosphere all it's own, with every event heightened and irrational, filtered through the fevered consciousness of a frizzy-haired and panda-eyed Elizabeth Taylor. You can't, at any time, ever be sure what is supposed to be real and what isn't: every person she encounters is presented how *she* sees or imagines them, rather than how they objectively *are*, and as a result the film is so strange that even a couple of appearances by a white-suited Andy Warhol, as an English lord(!) seem perfectly reasonable and unsurprising.

Taylor is splendid in this highly unexpected and out-of-character arthouse role - her last great one: a madwoman striding around a world of her own making in a truly awful dress. It must have taken some courage for such a glamorous Hollywood icon to present herself in this unflattering a light, for she was still at the time a strikingly attractive woman, just slightly over the hill and going to seed, which she plays up and accentuates throughout.

Those looking for a simple and easily-digestible narrative may find it all very pretentious and frustrating, but I found I was thoroughly absorbed by every scene up until the very end, which looked good but I didn't feel resolved the story in a satisfactory-enough way.

It's definitely not for most, but if you're a fan of other classics in the 'Crumbling Female Psyche' genre, such as Mulholland Drive, Persona or Repulsion, there's a lot here to like.

7½/10.

It doesn't get any worse than this...

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 2 November 2012]

Political intrigue in Europe is the motivation for this trashy excuse for a crude screenplay, a frizzled hairstyle by its leading lady and some of the worst dialog I've heard in the pile of bad 1970's movies. The main problem, other than the confusing narrative (concerning the suicidal self-loathing character played by the legendary Elizabeth Taylor), hideous acting and rancid characters is that the film seems to be taking itself way too seriously without realizing how bad it all is. Like a selfish human being who lives through ego yet lacks any amount of self esteem, it exploits its ridiculousness in the viewer's face and never lets go. The only scene with any sense of depth was a car bombing that results in a realistic scene of mass destruction.

Poor Liz. She hadn't had a good movie in years ("Taming of the Shrew", 1967, being the last one.) This ranks along with "Boom!", "Secret Ceremony", "X, Y, and Zee" and "Ash Wednesday" as one that has to be seen (only once, though) to be believed. Even appearances by Andy Warhol, Mona Washbourne and Ian Bannen are embarrassing, as is such dialog as "When I diet, I diet. When I orgasm, I orgasm. I don't believe in mixing the two cultures." Nobody but Liz was out to destroy her career at this point. No wonder she drank! But la Liz survived, rising back up through turning to the theatre and becoming a major champion in the fight against AIDS so she can be forgiven these cinematic turkeys. The cruel wags of the 70's and 80's would have to find another victim for their vicious barbs.

Save yourself two hours of torture (unless you are like me determined to see every movie every major star has ever done). Liz had bad films that successfully pass the camp quotient, but this one doesn't get that honor, just simple disgust.

OUTSTANDING FILM...VERY UNDERRATED

[yikes7todd · 10/10 · 23 January 2002]

I have been watching and enjoying Elizabeth Taylor films all my life and this is one of her best. I think this film is one of the most underrated films of all time. It is flawless in every aspect...story, directing, set, music, clothes, and of course acting. The beautiful and talented actress Elizabeth Taylor does not walk through this one. She gives it her all, as well as does everyone else involved in this work of Art. This is not a spoon fed piece of sugar, rather a serious and artistic look at the psychology of a "person".

Incredible

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 7 January 2023]

Apocalypse NowMuriel Spark sold her novel The Driver's Seat as a whydunnit instead of a detective story. The movie that was made from it, Identikit, by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi somehow goes from a rambling narrative of a woman who has lost or is losing her mind -- you knew it, f.giallo -- that eventually transforms at the end into an image straight out of the form.

Griffi also made Metti, una sera a cena (Love Circle), which stars Tony Musante and giallo queen Florinda Balkan, as well as Addio, fratello crudele ('Tis A Pity She's a Whore), The Divine Nymph which has Tina Aumont from Torso and La Gabbia which had contributions by Fulci and is called an erotic thriller but come on we know what that means.

This was written by Griffi along with Raffaele La Capria.

What's incredible about this movie is that it finds Liz Taylor -- 45-year-old Liz, mind you -- playing Lise, a lonely woman from Germany that has come to Rome to find a dangerous liaison, a fatal attraction, dare I say a strange vice to call her own.

Everyone she meets either wants to have sex with her or is afraid of her, like the British businessman (Ian Bannen) who tries to pick her up on the plane and offers that he must orgasm every day on his macrobiotic diet; an Italian man (Guido Mannari) who seems perfect if distant and a would-be French lover (Maxence Mailfort).

There's also the presence of the days of lead looming over everything, as a moment after she lands in Rome, Lise is nearly killed in the crossfire as the police open fire on a protestor and a bomb has cleared all the shoppers away from a mall except for Lise and a doddering elderly woman (Mona Washbourne) in a role that Taylor wanted Bette Davis to play, but Bette said no thanks to a film without a completed script.

Yet the true explosion is within Lise, a woman who won't have it any way but hers, screaming at a salesgirl -- while her one-time biggest star in the world breasts are exposed to the unflinching camera -- that she refuses to purchase an outfit that has been treated with stain-resistant chemicals. How dare they believe she's the type of woman to make such a mess?

This is all told in a way that is both episodic and all over the place, as detectives attempt to understand why Lise was killed along with all of the people that she's traumatized along the way. It all looks gorgeous, though, as cinematographer Vittorio Storaro is best known for shooting The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, Apocalypse Now, The Last Emperor and Dick Tracy.

At the end, is it a giallo? Well, that fog coming from the trees as -- spoiler warning -- Lise directs her would-be lover and killer in how to properly bind her hands and stab her isn't far off from the way most women have to direct their lovers so that they don't end up penetrating the crease in their leg and never make their way inside them. Liz was just fresh off her first divorce from Richard Burton and it feels like she's exploding all of her hatred and frustration in this role and man, I only wish that I knew more of this Liz and not the sad last days of tabloid headlines and Larry Fortensky.

One last giallo connection: Franco Mannino also did the music for Murder Obsession.

My favorite thing about this movie? Andy Warhol walks in and takes over a one-minute scene as a British lord.

I love the f.giallo because it's not always about murder. Sometimes, as in Footprints On the Moon, a movie that this shares the new Severin House of Psychotic Women box sex with, it's all the female heroine can do to stay sane.

ElizabethTaylor's worst movie ever

[highwaytourist · 1/10 · 30 March 2007]

My, oh, my, how Taylor's career fell apart. How else could she have been persuaded to appear in this Grade Z Eurotrash? There isn't much that happens in this movie, but it's all preposterous. And what's worse, none of it is interesting, not even enjoyably bad. She plays this spinster who goes out wearing garish clothes that would embarrass a K-Mart shopper and behaves strangely. She meets a lot of nutty people and looks for someone to murder her. If she really wanted to die, she could have watched this movie and died of boredom.

The only reason to see this movie is to see how low even the highest star can fall. Why did she agree to do it? I can't imagine any reason she could find to star in it, unless she was offered a huge salary and a daily All-You-Can-Eat buffet.

"IT TAKES ONE DAY TO DIE, ANOTHER TO BE BORN"

[MGMboy · 26 April 2004]

Elizabeth Taylor reportedly said those words to her director Griffi when she came on the set the day after she left Burton for their first divorce. So with that mindset she went to work on one of her most unusual, daring and controversial films. From the moment 'The Diver's Seat' begins you know you are in a strange place. In Europe the movie was called 'Idendikit' so, with two names tagged to it thus making it schizophrenic from the first it easily falls into the realm of the ambiguous art film genre of the late 60's and early 70's. It's star, Elizabeth Taylor, appears here in one of her most remote and dangerous roles. She plays Lise a woman who is consumed by insanity and the desire to find the ultimate lover, the be all and end all of boyfriends you might say. As the film opens you are presented with a shattered view of a woman on the edge of something terrible. The camera moves past bald mannequins in a disjointed way. Is this Lise's view of others or is it a reflection of her ultimate fate? Upon being told to take a holiday from work after causing a scene in the office the film opens with her preparations to take flight to Rome. The film jump cuts from past to present as the police in Rome try to reconstruct her final fatal holiday in terrorist gripped Rome. Even Rome comes off as off kilter. This is not the Rome of Audrey Hepburn or Marcello Mastroianni but a city one hardly recognizes from the lack of typical filming locations one associates with 'Made In Rome!' movies. Director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi succeeds in presenting a uniquely Italian cinema verite film of the Muriel Spark novel. This is a unique film and very much of it's day. Its non-linear, experimental, almost documentary style will be hard to get into for any one not used to movies of this sort. But it is well worth the effort. So strange and challenging a film it is that it left the opening night audience at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival in stunned silence. The cast is well chosen and gives some oddly memorable performances. Ian Bannan as the macrobiotic sex-nut who tires to pick up Lise on the plane to Rome seems almost as mad as she is. It is a wickedly off kilter wild-eyed performance. The charming and always wonderful Mona Washbourne is sweetly touching as the woman who befriends the mad Lise and in doing so leads her to meet the man of her dreams. But the glue that holds it all together is provided by Miss Taylor who tops off her short list of insane characters from Susanna Drake to Catherine Holly with this daring and shocking portrait of Lise. She opens up as an actress that at the time would have been unthinkable to most of her contemporaries from the old M.G.M. days. That's one of the wonderful things about her film career. She came from an era in old Hollywood where she was trained and groomed to be glossy and perfect. But as times changed so did she and in doing so became much more than an MGM glamour girl, she became an actress with guts. In 'The Driver's Seat' she shows her chops as an actress and her willingness to accept challenges in her roles and in Lise she found a great one. One stunning image of her is when in her loud madwoman dress and raccoon painted eyes she challenges the airport security to frisk her. In that scene she seems totally there, totally gone, and totally in control as an actress.

The driver seat

[RaulFerreiraZem · 6/10 · 20 November 2023]

It's fine. At first i was quite impressed. I thought it looked very beautiful and the soundtrack sounded very good and eery. However as the film went on i started to get the impression that it wasn't going anywhere. Not that i wanted it to go somewhere. It's just one of those films where nothing really happens and it isn't about anything (all of which is good and fine) but the director is perhaps insecure about this nothing quality and decides to spice things up by throwing charades and hints at the audience. As if to say "no this isn't a film about Elizabeth Taylor walking around looking like Robert Smith all the while acting suspiciously and encountering all sorts of crazy people. No actually there is an explanation to everything". And i don't realy care about that. The things that i like about it have no need for justifications and the things i did not like about it only seem even more annoying when i think it is supposed to make sense in the greater scheme of the film. So to sum it up, the film looks very good, Elizabeth Taylor looks great and IS great in it, the overral mood of it is quite amusing and the soundtrack is pretty good. It is however occasionally quite annoying.

Very disturbing

[HotToastyRag · 1/10 · 19 July 2017]

Why, oh why, oh why did Elizabeth Taylor read this demented script and say, "I'll do it!" Not only is it a horrible, disturbing film, but for a woman who had experienced stalker issues during her heyday, making a film like this was downright dangerous.

I never like to give spoilers, but I'll just say this: The only person who will like this movie is that one person in the world who actually liked Looking for Mr. Goodbar. No one else should watch it. It doesn't matter that Liz is a beautiful woman. She's made dozens of films for you to choose from if you want to watch her beauty. For the love of God, skip this one.

Liz plays a mentally ill woman who never gives any insight to her character or why she's so messed up. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating. This woman should be in an institution. She's on vacation in Rome and meets several wacky people during her journey, and she purposely gets into incredibly dangerous and stupid situations with some men. If someone starts talking incessantly about how badly he wants to have sex with you, and you've told him repeatedly you don't want to, would you get in his car and let him drive you to a secluded park?

The Driver's Seat is all-around creepy. The movie splices back and forth between Liz's horrifically ominous encounters and police interrogations of the people she's met with. We don't know yet until the end why they're being questioned, but it's obvious from the get-go that something's rotten in Denmark. In the beginning, you'll want to keep watching to find out what the mystery is. Is Liz an escaped lunatic? Has she committed a crime? What's going on?

Please don't stick around to find out. This is an extremely upsetting movie to watch, especially if you actually like the beautiful star. I don't consider this a spoiler, since it's incredibly obvious every time she gets herself mixed up with a man, but there are some very disturbing sexual and violent situations. Unless you are an extremely sick person, you will be very shaken up by this movie, from start to finish. And not in a good way.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to graphic violence and disturbing sex scenes, I wouldn't let my kids watch it. Also, there may or may not be a rape scene.

It makes you want her to die quickly just that the film ends

[RodrigAndrisan · 5/10 · 26 April 2016]

Another film difficult to follow. The reason? Because it is boring to death. Instead of happening on screen, death, the death of Elizabeth Taylor's character, it overwhelms us, the audience, at least those gifted with discernment. I was in love with Elizabeth Taylor when I was a teenager, just'd seen her in The Taming of the Shrew, when it was at the peak of her voluptuousness woman (she was 35 then...). Here, at age 42, she still has some charm but, thanks to a scenario without a little salt and pepper, we all suffer from it, the actors, the fans, everyone. Giuseppe Patroni Griffi is a good director, he knows his job well(I enjoyed The Divine Nymph (1975) Divina creatura (original title) very much...) but, what can you do with a bad poor script? Not much! There is also a Andy Warhol in it, a small appearance in Klaus Kinski's style but, far from the great talent and personality of Kinski. Only for forever lovers of the unique Liz with those violet eyes .

Complex, beautiful, funny, and very strange.

[dmaxl · 10/10 · 20 July 2000]

Elizabeth Taylor is one of the most beautiful and exciting actresses ever to grace the screen. In this film she exemplifies these qualities, along with her talent for portraying a woman of wild abandon and audaciousness. Her work in this film will remain with the viewer long after the credits roll.

The film is almost impossible to describe. I saw it not long after seeing Luis Bunuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie...and I must say that I sensed some similarities between the two. While Bunuel allows mundane situations to evolve into surreal jokes and absurdities, and injects social commentary, The Driver's Seat portrays surrealism literally, in the form of a psychotic character who appears ridiculous and unintelligible, but in fact mirrors the chaos and violence of the society in which she lives.

Maybe some riffs would improve it

[trickydicky-56031 · 1/10 · 16 September 2019]

Wow! What a boring movie! Being a MST3K fan I'm no stranger to bad movies and I actually can find them enjoyable every now and then. But this one is a complete waste of time. Maybe some riffs would improve it but overall it is one hell of a stinker to watch.

Doesn't Deserve The Rep It's Gotten

[Dweezilaz · 8/10 · 24 May 2009]

I first saw this movie on VHS with a friend. He used it for comedic commentary and I never really got to see it as it was intended. Years later I found it doubled with Lovers & Liars a Goldie Hawn movie that she made in Italy in the the dollar rack at Target.

Funny thing is, even with my friend's mindless babbling through the whole picture,the movie and very many of it's scenes are still vivid 20 years later.

Watched it again last night for the first time since and found it to be a totally enjoyable, atmospheric, creepy and unsettling movie. And strangely up to date. I don't think I have been so satisfied with the entire package of a movie in a long time. It has a lot more depth and storyline than the critics have given it credit.It doesn't deserve the drubbing it has gotten.

Having seen all three of Liz's "Overseas Adventures Series": "Nightwatch","Ash Wednesday" and now "The Driver's Seat",this one is the most interesting and entertaining of the set.

My first viewing of it was hampered by the performance of my friend trying to turn it into some "camp classic". He obviously believed the reviews and took them to heart.

If you have a preconceived notion of this movie, it's wrong. Watch closely and find out. You can't take your eyes off it and it's impact will linger for a long time after. Sonmetimes even 20 years !!!

One of Taylor's finest performances to the service of, well, not much.

[windrider15 · 5/10 · 5 March 2015]

Director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi clearly saw something Warholian in this psychological drama based on a popular novella at the time. The film focuses on the pointlessness of Taylor's Lise's life. But Lise is not through searching. Ostensibly embarking on an odyssey intended to end her life, Lise explores every happenstance and chance meeting with an intensity that is positively riveting. But Griffi is interested in the pointlessness of it all. Warhol himself even pops up in a brief role. But here is the rub. In a Warhol outing the heroine (usually Edie Sedgewick) is unaware of the pointlessness of her existence and is making every attempt to function within modern life. When the pointlessness becomes clear it is heartbreaking for the audience. Here our heroine, as lovely and fascinating as she may be is well aware of the pointlessness and intends to follow it. The result is, well, pointlessness. It can go nowhere else. And the disinterested observation approach taken by the director doesn't help. Taylor is brilliant in an otherwise (deliberately) empty film.

I was an extra in the airport scene

[jonathan_lippman · 1 December 2013]

You can see me walking behind her for a few seconds in around 22 minutes or so from the beginning and a few other shots of me from behind... she was actually very nice but well she was drinking and her language was a bit "rough" but lovely to see... I did hear her talk about her ending relationship with Mr Burton because they placed me in the airplane sequence in the row of seats in front of her so I heard her conversations with Ian Bannen between takes. She even mentioned that she usually wore her wedding ring in all her films and disguised it with stones during shoots but her ring was bare at this time.... it was a great experience and I even got paid a free lunches for two weeks.. Film barely released in cinemas. A gigantic flopperou

Putting 3 stars.

[gb-58187 · 3/10 · 4 February 2022]

Why?... I must precise I do like the 1970s' Taylor crapping. As well as John Waters did. On the other hand, this feature still remains one among her worst works (and mistakes) she's ever got through. Very dopey. Dame Taylor was a real talented actress and there are not questions about the performing act she gave. Even in this "junkie". When you are a strict artist, you make it anyway. Patroni Griffi has always been an overrated director and author, in my personal opinion. Enjoy "the vision".

A Good Subtle "Madness" Drama

[Rainey-Dawn · 8/10 · 8 February 2017]

The Driver's Seat, aka Psychotic, aka Identikit - of the titles of this film I think Psychotic fits the film best, followed by Identikit. I have to say Elizabeth Taylor is fantastic in this one - the role suited her quite well. Too bad she didn't make more films in this vein.

This is an artful film with subtle and a few quite "out there" psychotic episodes from Lise (Taylor) - not to mention the two men on the plane with her and Andy Warhol. There are some other weird characters too.

It's an intelligent type of "madness" movie that is not for just anyone. Some find the film boring because they don't get the subtle things going on. If you get subtle things in films then you will get this film. I guess you can call this piece of cinema an acquired taste. I get the subtleness so this is my type of flick.

8/10