ZITA Movie Review

Young, shy Ann (Joanna Shimkus) learns that her adored Aunt Zita (Katina Paxinou) is dying, but she's unable to accept the idea of parting from her great friend and confidant, the woman who has meant everything to her since her childhood. Ann finds it too heartbreaking to remain in the house with the deathly ill Zita, so she runs off into the Parisian night, looking to lose herself in the clubs and cafés, and meeting a young man in the process. When Ann returns home, she's able to face what she encounters there through newly opened eyes. This delicate, quietly contemplative film was directed by Robert Enrico, best-known for his brilliant 30-minute adaptation of Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (the only film Rod Serling ever “outsourced” for his long-running CBS-TV series, The Twilight Zone). Joanna Shimkus turns in a sweet, sympathetic performance as the young woman who understands the need to break from her childhood but is afraid to do so. Jean Boffety's cinematography of the city at night is both otherworldly and intoxicating, and François de Roubaix has contributed a haunting, melancholy musical score. The rarely seen Zita is a little knockout, but beware the widely circulated dubbed version at all costs.

NEXT STOP … Forbidden Games, Late Spring, When the Cat's Away

1968 ?m/C Suzanne Flon, Katina Paxinou, Joanna Shimkus; D: Robert Enrico; C: Jean Boffety; M: Francois de Roubaix. NYR