Coming Apart

A man hides a camera in his apartment which records his sexual experiences and mental breakdown.

I saw this one on Wikipedia on a list of FF movies sorted by date recently. I like watching oldies so why not? What's especially interesting is that it's from 1969 and only the 2nd FF film on the list.

So, this one really blurs the lines between "a film of a man having a mental breakdown" and "a porno with a plot". At least I thought so. There was a real lot of sex and nudity. At one point, the man reveals how he disguises the camera behind a mirror by showing it to another mirror. I appreciated that, it makes it plausible. Towards the end, he sits in front of the camera and talks at which point it's apparent that he's having a mental break. Then it's a bunch of arguing with I think an ex-wife. Other than that, it's just a bunch of sex scenes.

This movie really didn't hold my attention at all. Found myself hitting the fifteen second button a lot. It just wasn't good. Also, I didn't exactly think the hidden camera he made was believable. Nobody wondered why there's a thick box with a mirror pointing exactly at them like 6 feet away? I guess not.

This definitely checks the "found footage" box for me although it wasn't clear how the footage was obtained or edited, more of implied that he had a breakdown. It just wasn't very good. It's interesting to see some elements of modern FF movies in this one, and I did enjoy that. I just doubt I would watch it again.

Like Blair Witch, this could seem like an authentic documentary for the less informed. However, it's a clever piece of film making. Rip Torn plays a psychiatrist with emotional problems who feels he can solve them if he secretly films himself with his female patients/lovers/pick-ups. There are those who may not have a lot of patience with the program as it's shot entirely in a small apartment room. Other viewers won't be able to watch it without experiencing memories of their own romantic life because Torn's character isn't to different from most men. I see a lot of myself in him. He's always on the prowl for a new conquest. He grows tired of the women who fling themselves at him and he constantly desires the ones who don't.

This is the only movie made by Milton Moses Ginsberg.

The conceit of 'Coming Apart' is that the film is footage from a hidden camera placed by a married psychiatrist in his Manhattan flat-away-from-home to document sexual encounters with various women, as a way (perhaps) of rebutting against the mistress who broke his heart and not incidentally lives in the same building.

Rip Torn is the psychiatrist, Joe Glassman, Viveca Lindfors is the mistress, Monica, and Sally Kirkland is a young former patient, Joanne, slowly coming unhinged and projecting her failures onto Joe.

In its voyeurism and genuinely objective cinema vérité style (the camera never moves, unless Joe is positioning it for another encounter), it resembles some of the films of Andy Warhol, but this is more resonant because Warhol's films depicted a counterculture, while this one depicts something closer to normal. 'Coming Apart' is absolutely gripping and fascinating to watch in a way that most ordinary films, edited and filmed with a point-of-view, are not. The camera just sits there, the scenes unfold, and I entered a sort of hypnotic state. The movie makes a clear illustration of the function of cinema as voyeurism, and also a convincing argument for voyeurism as the purest form of truth on film. The filmmaker, Milton Moses Ginsberg, has made a movie predicated as much on film theory as on personal experiences. In the latter respect, it is uninhibitedly candid, and often very painful. The actors give performances that are naked and free of affect, and this is particularly true of Sally Kirkland, who is barer here than any of Lars von Trier's heroines, and it's a brave performance.

Because the dramatic elements are so intense and effective, this is not merely an exercise or an experiment, because it transcends its form. The symbolism is a bit heavy-handed at times, but it isn't unsuccessful. Joe is the ultimate self-reflective individual, looking inward, looking at himself, filming himself, somehow vacant and lacking a distinguishable personality, with a large mirror behind the couch on which he sits (a courtesy to the viewer, as well) -- how could his surname be anything other than "Glassman"? That he is a psychiatrist adds another layer of provocation. A vicious cycle is depicted. Joe's instability makes it impossible for him to responsibly treat his patients, and the instability of his patients makes sexual intimacy with them dangerous to his own already fragile psychological state.

The movie is not perfect, and it gradually introduces jump cuts (accompanied by a thundering snapping sound) and presents the final scene in slow-motion. While these things are dramatically effective, they are inconsistent with the parameters established by the movie's conceptual conceit and therefore constitute a severe flaw -- being, the introduction of a point-of-view, of a director's manipulation of the material. While it can't be overlooked, it can be excused, I think, in the face of this extraordinary film's many other merits.

'Coming Apart' was not well-received, yet I think it would have been were it a European film. There are things that European filmmakers can get away with but American filmmakers cannot, and 'Coming Apart' is daring, penetrating, and probably, in its way, ahead of its time. Sadly, it was buried for over 25 years and Milton Moses Ginsberg had to settle for a career as an editor. This is unfortunate, as I'd love to see the filmmaking career he might have had.

Rip Torn is very good as Bill, a Psychiatrist whose life is literally "coming apart". And what's worse, he's filming it. Shot mostly from one static vantage point, the entire film takes place in a New York City high rise. We watch as Bill's life unfolds in front of us. His dysfunctional marriage, his trysts with women patients, and so on. Truly a fascinating little film, perhaps way before it's time, and unjustly ignored.

I was walking down the street in New York in the late 60's and I passed a small movie theater, one of many at that time, and posted on the marquee was "Coming Apart" starring Rip Torn. I thought that was pretty funny so I went in. From the very beginning to the end I was mesmerized by the screen. In a small dark theater the beginning is very disturbing, and the monologues and dialogs that followed were no different. This portrait of a man and his thoughts or experiences is a dark and sometimes brutal portrayal of his enclosed existence, seeing that the only reference we have visually is his apartment. I don't know what was more disturbing, his relationships or his thoughts. The movie flows from darkness to his little girl neighbor to Sally Kirkland bouncing on his knee to the incident with the drag queen and everything else in between to fade out. When I left the theater I was exhausted and disorientated. It is almost forty years later, I've never seen the film again, and I'm still struck by it. Seeing that film at that time and living in New York then is probably why the film had such an affect on me.