American Cinematheque Aero

In The Limey (1999), Lesley Ann Warren [Victor/Victoria (1982), Choose Me (1984), When Do We Eat (2005)] gives one of the best performances of her long movie career that began as a teenager in the early 1960s. In an onstage interview with Indiewire’s Jim Hemphill following the retrospective screening, Warren spoke about the making of the film with director Steven Soderbergh and star Terence Stamp. In the film, she plays a middle-aged actress who, unlike Warren, never quite made it in the business and clings to an early success on a TV movie.

Warren assumed the film was going to be a linear narrative as written by Lem Dobbs [Kafka (1991), Dark City (1998), Haywire (2011)]. Soderbergh didn’t like what he saw in the rough cut and reworked it into his signature elliptical style familiar from his debut feature Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989). That style isn’t for everyone and can be distracting, but if the viewer can get into the choppy rhythm, it’s effective. Christopher Nolan takes it to an extreme in his films such as Memento (2000) and Inception (2010).

In a Cinephilia & Beyond review, Sven Mikulec writes:

What began as a fairly simplistic script for a B-movie about a lone gunman type was eventually developed into a brilliantly introspective work that uses editing to tell a story that transcends even the film’s actual plot. The asynchronous use of sound and image, the labyrinthine storytelling and choppy editing, as complicated as they seem, actually serve a very simple and undeniably praiseworthy purpose: the intention, according to both Soderbergh and Dobbs, was to show the process of thinking on film … A huge element of The Limey’s ingenuity is contained in BAFTA winner Sarah Flack’s editing. The Limey arguably relies on editing much more than a traditional crime film would, as the editing itself reveals much more about the characters, particularly the protagonist, than the story.

Terence Stamp is London hood and ex-convict Wilson who arrives in Los Angeles searching for his daughter Jenny’s killer. Always fantastic-looking, Stamp was by then white-haired but still vital. Warren was thrilled to be working with him, having been a fan since his breakout role in Billy Budd (1962), though like his Limey character, she admitted he was an intimidating presence.

Wilson knows who he is and makes no attempt to accommodate the locals. No one can make sense of his cockney rhyming slang and if anyone gets in his way, they’ll get punched or shot just like they would on his home turf.

Filmed by Edward Lachman [Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Light Sleeper (1992)], it’s a classic Los Angeles crime film, on the move from the industrial parts of downtown to exclusive hillside homes, finally to a rustic lodge in Big Sur up the coast. Wilson’s prey is California soft pop producer Valentine (Peter Fonda) who lives in a mid-century modern architectural wonder on the aptly named Astral Drive in the Hollywood Hills. Jenny lived there with Valentine and became expendable. Slant writes that Valentine “captures what the wild art and hedonism and sense of possibility of the legend of the ’60s sounds like to those who weren’t there.” Warren, who was there, said that Fonda brought the rock-and-roll energy made famous in Easy Rider (1969).

THE LIMEY, Peter Fonda, 1999, (c) Artisan Entertainment

Warren said that Soderbergh gave her very little direction to the point that she worried about it. She later realized that was his way of working. One thing he did do, she recalled, was to distract her when prepping before an emotional scene, to keep her spontaneous and in the moment. Once he cast his actors, she learned, he trusted them completely. She didn’t hear back for six months after auditioning, but remarkably, Soderbergh had his costume designer Louise Frogley [Mona Lisa (1986)] copy what Warren wore at her audition for her character’s wardrobe.

The Limey becomes a mismatched partners buddy movie when Wilson teams with ex-con Eduardo (Luis Guzman). Except for being more New York Puerto Rican than LA Chicano, Guzman is perfectly cast as the criminal and aspiring thespian who studies with acting coach Elaine (Lesley Ann Warren). That’s how he met Wilson’s daughter Jenny who was in the same class. Currently starring on the Netflix series Wednesday as Gomez Addams, Guzman began his acting career playing an inmate in the prison drama Short Eyes (1977). He also appeared in Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (1998). Warren recalled that, in contrast to his tough demeanor, Guzman is a warm, sensitive performer.

Also excellent are Amelia Heinle as Valentine’s much younger girlfriend, Adhara, a  doppelganger of Jenny. Barry Newman, Kowalski in Vanishing Point, plays Valentine’s violent fixer Avery who meets a bad end. The late Nicky Katt is the hit man he hires. Bill Duke [American Gigolo (1980)] is memorable in a cameo as a DEA agent playing both sides of the law. Warhol Factory staple Joe Dallesandro also shows up in a cameo.

We get to see the young Terence Stamp in flashbacks throughout the film in scenes from Poor Cow (1967) directed by Ken Loach. The Limey concludes in a bittersweet moment with Wilson’s memory of singing and playing Donovan’s “Colours.” Before the interview ended, Warren left us with a tantalizing tidbit about a love scene with her and Stamp that didn’t make it into the finished film. Probably lost, we can only hope that it’s found and used as an extra on a future reissue.