I Watch Films: The Medusa Touch
A French police inspector on exchange in London is called to a murder scene, but it turns out the man (Richard Burton) involved is not dead. Instead he’s in a coma. As he investigates he finds out about his past; he was a writer and a very pessimistic one, including writing sharp and cynical satires of people in power (this plot line sort of peters out, but the authorities are very interested as they are not sure where he got his information from). Part of the darkness is because his life was marred by disaster.
Interviewing his psychoanalyst the inspector finds out that he believed that he caused the disasters; from there we get into psychic powers and the film takes off into the supernatural with Richard Burton’s intense stare causing death and destruction wherever he goes (in the past).
It’s a very dystopian 70s London, the news is all bad (a plane has crashed into a tower block which the characters keep driving by, the Achilles 6 space mission has gone wrong stranding the astronauts in space, there are protesters and stuff) and there are moments of interesting domesticity. A dark film, and a curious one, but rewarding.
Watch This: For a slightly silly supernatural thriller that works best with the small scale disasters
Don’t Watch This: For fast paced action or great, screen-filling special effects.
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