DAISY MILLER
Directed by PETER BOGDANOVICH
Screenplay by FREDERIC RAPHAEL
This adaptation of one of Henry James' shortest and most popular works contains, in cameo, a theme that winds through more elaborate novels like The Ambassadors: the ineluctable tension between European and American cultures that leads to corruption. What Peter Bogdanovich's movie is mostly about, however, is flirting.
Great chunks of dialogue and narration have been lifted from the book, like so many concrete blocks, and deposited onto the screen. They arrange themselves as a series of hurdles, which the actors negotiate with disheartening...