S.O.B.

Edwards, one of the most brilliantly acerbic of all directors, can make frequent reference to his own work and to cinema generally, thanks to his family background and long career. His disenchantment with Hollywood was illustrated in The Party. After a 10-year exile he returned triumphantly with 10, then resurrected this ambitious black comedy from a decade earlier. Much has been made of the autobiographical content in its depiction of a producer who attempts suicide after a flop. But this goes deeper than savagery at the hand which fed him in its depiction of the complexities facing a serious film-maker.