Queenie in Love

Kollek's determinedly eccentric, New York-set comedy-drama comes across like a franker, more bawdy version of Annie Hall. The statuesque Geffner plays Queenie, a spoilt little rich girl who's trying without much success to be an actress while living in a rundown apartment and paying the bills by working with disadvantaged children. Rather than marry any of the wealthy types lined up by her parents, she sets out to seduce near neighbour Victor Argo, a gruff, chain-smoking old-timer with a very weak heart. There are some tremendous comic set pieces (if you like watching pensioners with an appetite for S/M, this is the film for you), as well as some flamboyant character performances, but it's hard to keep patience with the wilful, meandering narrative or to warm to the unctuous psychoanalyst who turns out to be pulling all the strings behind the scenes.