That Lester has chosen to make films that disregard certain audience or film executives' expectations, in spite of popular success, seems to have been a curse as well as a blessing. In 1973, I was working as the Assistant Manager of a Greenwich Village movie theater that was closed one night in order to be used as the location for a short film. Jack Gilford, who starred in A Funny Thing happened on the way to the Forum, had a role in the short. When I asked Gilford about his exerience working with Lester, he complained about Lester not respecting the stage show. Lester's seeming disregard for his source material has caused him to be unfairly maligned by the fanboys for his role in the Superman films starring Chistopher Reeves.

I didn't know that Lester was an uncredited producer on the first film in the series until I had read Steven Soderburgh's interview with Lester. I may be wrong about this, but when I saw the first Superman film, one comic scene in particular looked like something from one of Lester's films. I also suspect that Richard Lester had a far greater hand in the actual direction of the first film than either he or Richard Donner are willing to admit. And while I won't begrudge Richard Donner his Superman II DVD with his director's commentary, I have to wonder why there is no DVD with Lester discussing his work. I also was bothered that when Bryan Singer was about to shoot Superman Returns, he sought out Donner's blessing but not Lester's. What is often overlooked is that Richard Lester was the first choice to direct Superman. While Lester seems to have chosen to maintain distance from his films, a detailed, impartial examination of what the two Richards did on the first two Superman films would be a helpful cure to what sometimes degenerates into partisan bickering.

The overdue release of Petulia on DVD has reminded people of what a great filmmaker Lester was during his first peak of activity. With cinematography by Nic Roeg, one can look at the fractured narrative of Lester's film and make a straight line to Roeg's co-directorial debut, Performance. Without either Lester's jump cuts back and forth in time, or The Beatles paving the way for The Rolling Stones, there arguably would have been no Performance.

Soderburgh's book is frustrating in reading about the films that Richard Lester was not able to make in spite of the success of the Superman films. One of the most vital English language directors forty years ago is now remembered, if at all, for a handful of films. It wasn't overnight, but Hollywood movies changed following the release of A Hard Day's Night. The Beatles starred and sang the songs, but when it came to filmmaking, Richard Lester knew how to rock.

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Richard Lester's first feature, It's Trad, Dad is scheduled to play on Turner Classic Movies on January 29. I expect to still be in Thailand where I don't get TCM. If anyone out there can record the film for me, preferably on DVD-R format, I will send in exchange a "rare" Asian DVD. There is a gray market version available online, but I the quality is unknown.

Also, Performance is to be available on DVD on February 13. Make sure to check out Tim Lucas' article on the soundtrack (check the Video Watchdog link at the right). Having seen the original film five times theatrically, I have to wonder how completeness of the DVD version. The original film was rated X and Warners has since then had a policy of not releasing films harder than R, although they did release an unrated DVD version of True Romance. Also, the last time I saw Performance, on the Independent Film Channel, it was slightly edited. Significantly missing were a couple of very brief shots that hinted that the characters played by James Fox and Mick Jagger had been together in bed.