Films in Warner's Martini Movies: Wave 3

Model Shop (1969)
French New Wave director, Jacques Demy, best known for his stylish musical "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," reunites with French star Anouk Aimee (their first pairing, 1961's "Lola") to direct his first film in America. Gary Lockwood plays shiftless but innocuous George Matthews, who can't seem to get himself worked up about anything: the girlfriend he's about to lose, his soon-to-be repossessed car, or even his draft notice. Until one day, he sees the beautiful but detached model (Aimee), and he begins to follow her: Los Angeles, from the beach at Malibu to the mansions of Beverly Hills to the cheap strip joints along Santa Monica Blvd., is critically examined as the tale unfolds, and its locations reflect the disaffection of its characters.

The Buttercup Chain (1970)
Cousins, Franz (Hywel Bennett) and Margaret (60s superstar model Jane Asher), are very close, and after years of being separated at school, they reunite to vacation together. When Franz decides Margaret should have a lover, Fred (Sven-Bertil Taube) amicably joins them, and Franz takes up with one himself. But the foursome encounters sexual and cultural complications as they meander across Europe. The reticent Margaret is slow to take up with Franz's candidate, and in the meantime, Franz's lover Manny (Leigh Taylor Young) intervenes. This story of the entanglements of unencumbered, beautiful and cosmopolitan young people as they search out their identities and test each others limits is in some ways a traditional coming-of-age story, but at a time of changing attitudes and sexual mores. Director Robert Ellis Miller ("The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter") was nominated for the Golden Palm at the Cannes International Film Festival for this film.

The Pursuit of Happiness (1971)
By the time Michael Sarazin landed the role of William Popper in "The Pursuit of Happiness," he had displayed his Actor's Studio credentials in a number of roles on stage and screen, and was a perfect choice to play the appealing, young lead in this anti-establishment story. Popper, who comes from privilege, has his eyes opened to social activism on the college campus by his girl friend, Barbara Hershey. When a traffic accident forces Popper face-to-face with the judicial system, his principles and counter-culture lifestyle are put on trial. Directed by Oscar nominee Robert Mulligan ("To Kill a Mockingbird"), and based on Thomas Rogers' book.

Summertree (1971)
Although best-known as an actor, Michael Douglas's strongest mark on Hollywood in his early career came as a producer of films such as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "The China Syndrome." "Summertree," which he starred in as well as produced (along with his father Kirk Douglas), examines the Vietnam War and its consequences on the soldiers drafted to fight and the families they leave behind. Jerry (Douglas) is an attractive, all-American male, who debates his options upon receiving his draft notice. Co-starring Jack Warden, Barbara Bel Geddes, Brenda Vaccaro and a young Rob Reiner, the film was directed by veteran actor-composer-director Anthony Newley.

Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973)
Directed by three-time Oscar nominee Alan J. Pakula ("All the President's Men," "Klute"), this funny and, at times, agonizing, road trip is a rich character study about the alienation and isolation felt by the younger generation in the post-revolutionary '60s era. Awkward and shy, Walter Ebbetson (Timothy Bottoms) is exiled by his rich father to a bicycle tour across Spain. Walter -- miserable in his own skin -- makes those around him even more uncomfortable as he suffers through the ordeal of the tour. He escapes the cyclists, only to become entangled in the life of a fellow tourist, the introverted Lila (Maggie Smith). Meanwhile Lila happens to be suffering from her own anxious tics and insecurities. The two find themselves locked in an uncoordinated and clumsy affair, two misfits who find companionship in unlikely partners.