Buttercup Chain, The (1970)
The Buttercup Chain (1970), directed by Robert Ellis Miller.
A small film discovered while going through Jane Asher's filmography.
Cousins, born on the same day to twin sisters, have always been very close. As young adults they agree to fix each other up with lovers, but what complicates things is their ever present sexual tension and the suspicion that they belong together. Which they cannot act upon or even talk about.
I thought this was going to be a bit of light erotic play in those free-love days where you could gently push the boundaries without being too outrageous. A bit of travelogue when they vacation in Spain, some back-to-the-land when they renovate an old house. They seem to have enough money, which is nice.
It is that in the first part but unexpectedly develops into something deeper. Time doesn't stop and the dating games of youth grow old. Eventually children become adults. A baby changes things and we have the normal tragedies of life and the sad realization that we can't always be happy with the ones we love.
The cast:
Hywel Bennett, last seen as the psycho-killer in Twisted Nerve (1968), is the manipulative one, projecting a dark aura of barely repressed desires.
Jane Asher, last seen in Deep End (1970) that same year, is his fetching cousin.
Leigh Taylor-Young, last seen in Soylent Green (1973), is the American free spirit hippy chick.
Sven-Bertil Taube is a Swedish architecture student, definitely male but pleasant and uncomplicated.
Both women do brief nudity, for which many thanks.
Romantic score by Richard Rodney Bennett, cinematography by Douglas Slocombe.
Available on DVD.
