“Movie-making at its best…spellbinding. Something very fine, the likes of which are rare in this era.” — New York Daily News

Twilight Time
Starring: Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Gozzi, Dean Stockwell, Gunnel Lindblom
Directed By: John Guillermin
Composed By: Georges Delerue

What they say: A young girl’s lonely isolation under the watchful eye of her stern and bitter father is abruptly shattered by
the arrival of a seductive fugitive from the law.

What I say: Rapture is a film that is hard to forget. It has not been seen much (if at all) over the last few years, yet people that have seen it clamor to see it again. It’s not hard to see why. The film, a haunting coming of age story, is filmed in beautiful black and white cinemascope. If you have foolish friends like me (*cough*OMAR*cough) who are silly enough to ask “What could hi-def possibly do for an old black and white movie?” this is the one to show them. Despite being over forty years old, it looks like it could have been filmed yesterday. The attention to fine detail is amazing. The rich blacks contrast very well against the gray and white tones.

The film its self takes an uncompromising look at the struggle of growing from child to adult. At times the film can come off a bit creepy, as Joseph (Dean Stockwell) enters into an adult relationship with 15-year old Agnes (the incredible Patricia Gozzi). He is considerably older than her, but that gives power and weight to the film as it was not afraid to tackle this subject even back then.

Agnes cycles through love, anger, loneliness, pain and back again and she is magnificent in this role. Not to slight the other actors, but young Ms. Gozzi definitely steals the show in one of her few performances.

Also of note is the beautiful but haunting score by George Delerue. It is practically a character in the film, being as it does so much to set the mood. The score is available on the disc as an isolated track, and that is quite welcome.

Each Twilight Time release is limited to 3000 copies then they are gone! They are also exclusively offered by screenarchives.com. You can order this incredible disc here.

Film: 8/10
Blu-Ray: 9/10
Recommended!