Coming Apart

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.