Best-selling author Tyvian Jones has a life of leisure in Venice, Italy, until he has a chance encounter with sultry Frenchwoman Eva Olivier. He falls for her instantly, despite already having wedding plans with Francesca Ferrara. Winning Eva's affection proves elusive; she's more interested in money than in love. But Tyvian remain steadfast in his obsession, going after Eva with a fervor that threatens to destroy his life.
Stanley Baker ("Tyvian") is a rough man from the Welsh mining school of hard knocks who has written an internationally recognised bestseller. When he finds himself in Venice, not only is he, culturally, a fish out of water but also finds himself the target of a mysterious and manipulative Jeanne Moreau ("Eve") who quickly ensnares him in a web of charm and seduction rendering him impotent to her toxic power over him. It's beautifully shot on location but otherwise I found it all a little pretentious. Both principal characters polarise and epitomise the worst in each other - and of society in general. His poor, downtrodden fiancée "Francesca" (Virna Lisi) is probably the only person in the film with whom you could possibly empathise; and frankly I think she would be far better advised to leave them both to it and explore the Murano glassworks instead. It is quite an interesting historical retrospective of life in Venice in the early 1960s, but otherwise I think Joseph Losey has rather over-indulged himself.
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