Review by Justin Bateman
Stars Laurence Harvey, Julie Harris, Shelley Winters, Patrick McGoohan | Written by John Collier
UK certification 12 | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 100 minutes | Directed by Henry Cornelius
Based on John van Druten’s 1951 play which itself was based on Christopher Isherwood’s book The Berlin Stories, I Am A Camera follows the story of Isherwood (Harvey) and his time spent in 1930s Berlin. Although Nazism is on the rise, this is a time of great freedom in the German capital and attitudes reflect this. Sally (Harris) is a young English girl with little in the way of moral values and this seems to be at least one of the reasons she becomes friends with the young author.
The lack of drama in terms of action is compensated for by a series of theatrical turns by the supporting cast, although these do tend to come across feeling more than a little anachronistic. Times have changed so significantly since the film was made, never mind when the story was set that this is always likely to be the case.
Still, the performances of Harvey and Harris are first rate and their characters, flawed as they are, come across as believable if not always entirely sympathetic. An interesting period piece but by no means a classic.
EXTRAS The trailer and a photo gallery.