Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Turtle on Its Back (1978)

Director: Luc Béraud

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

A splendid, unsettling first feature from writer Béraud, about a bad case of writer's block. Béraud's achievement lies in finding a visual and visceral language to describe the process of writing as work (more perspiration than inspiration, and more neurosis than either). After sketching the tense domestic relations between financially supportive girlfriend (Lafont) and impotent writer (Stévenin), the film follows the writer off the rails, sliding into a delirious nightmarish journey through a night-town whose torments and triumphs, though vividly real, may also represent the creative process itself.

Author: JD 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Luc Béraud

Producer: Luc Béraud, Hubert Niogret

Cast: Jean-François Stévenin, Bernadette Lafont, Claude Miller, Virginie Thévenet, Véronique Silver full cast

Duration: 109 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.