Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills: A Review

 

SCENES FROM THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN BEVERLY HILLS

There was once a television show that celebrated the lavish lifestyles of those with money to burn. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous relished in selling viewers "champagne wishes and caviar dreams". I thought of this television show while watching Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills. An effort at sophisticated comedy, Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills would have been funnier if it had been played straighter.  

Claire (Jacqueline Bisset) is a recent widow who is planning a comeback with a revival of her old sitcom Hillary. She invites her friend and neighbor Lisbeth (Mary Woronov) to stay with her for the weekend while her house is being fumigated. Also coming is Lisbeth's son Willie (Barret Oliver), in remission for cancer. An unexpected guest is Lisbeth's playwright brother Peter (Ed Begley, Jr.), who in turn is bringing his new wife To-Bel (Arnetia Walker). Claire's daughter Zandra (Rebecca Schaeffer) is not keen on much of this, and oddly not big on attending the wake for her late father, Sidney (Paul Mazursky). Perhaps she would if she knew that Sidney pops in to see Claire from time to time, much to Claire's constant irritation.

One person definitely not invited is Lisbeth's soon to be ex-husband Howard (Wallace Shawn) but come he does anyway. Observing all this is Juan (Robert Beltran), Claire's butler and Frank (Ray Sharkey) Lisbeth's chauffer. Juan owes a gangster $5,000 and he wants it by the following Monday. Looking to find a way to raise cash in a hurry, Frank offers Juan a bet as to see who will seduce the other's employer first. If Juan sleeps with the divorcee Lisbeth first, Juan will get the money. If Frank gets to the Widow Lipski first, Frank will get to have sex with Juan.

In the lurid weekend in which various couples hook up and past liaisons are exposed, things go all over the place. We get porn tapes, people losing their virginities to their relations by marriage and disastrous complications. Who will get what he/she wants?

I get where director Paul Bartel (who cowrote the story with the film's screenwriter Bruce Wagner) wanted to take Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills. I think they were aiming for some kind of modern French farce, full of strange entanglements and clever comments flying at us. It seemed to be almost a class take on Dangerous Liaisons, where it was the servants who were playing sex games with their employers versus members of the Ancien Regime aristocracy. I think, however, the execution is what kills the potential the film has.

The main issue is that everyone is playing things so broad, with some passing into straight-up cartoonish behavior, that it becomes forced. It draws attention to the falseness of things. It also suggests that everyone in front and behind the camera thought they were being far cleverer than they were. Of particular note is Edith Diaz as Rosita, the maid who spouts out bizarre Aztec mythology to people who ends up in bed with Willie (though technically this would the second woman he'd slept with that night). She plays it as I presume as she was directed to, which was big, broad and exaggerated. It is not funny when you tell people how funny something is.

About the one time that I did if not laugh at least smile while being a bit surprised is when To-Bel has a chat with Dr. Mo Van de Kamp, played by director Bartel. Dr. Mo, who is Claire's self-proclaimed "thinologist", informs the gold-digging To-Bel that her playwright husband is actually quite poor. His plays have flopped, and Van de Kamp informs her that Peter has been living off a trust fund that he describes as "niggardly". While the word usage is technically correct, the black To-Bel gives Mo a side glance at his statement.

As just about everyone is so exaggerated, it is hard to judge whether the performances are good. At the least, it is hard to know if they would have been better had Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills opted to tone down the camp. Bisset certainly was game to be camp, fully aware that things were meant to be broad. Walker's To-Bel was also quite good, the closest thing to a sensible person even if she was the one relegated to appear nude the most. Sharkey was appropriately sleazy, though I think the scene where she drugs Claire's drink and deceives people into thinking they had sex would be controversial today. Making him also get an ostensibly heterosexual man to agree to have a one-night stand too might not be seen as funny today as it was then.

As the central character, Beltran too seemed in on the joke. It sadly did not convince me that he was Juan, the character. Instead, I saw Robert Beltran, the actor, playing Juan, the character. 

The dark shadow hanging over Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills is due to circumstances outside anyone's control. Rebecca Schaeffer, whose small role as Claire's daughter showed her promise as an actress, was seen in the film by her stalker. Enraged at the sight of the My Sister Sam actress as a promiscuous teen, he eventually found the actress and murdered her. While Schaeffer's tragic death sparked needed reforms and protections against stalking, it still is disconcerting to know that this film caused such a horror so at odds with the supposed sexual hijinks.

Separate from that, Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills in my view would have been better and cleverer if it had opted to be more grounded in reality instead of playing to the back row. A good comedy is aware that it is funny without having to announce it. There is promise in the material. However, the end result was anything but chic. 

DECISION: D+