Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970) on Netflix
Lou Andreas Sand, a former fashion model, lives alone in a beach cottage and relives her past. She tells her story to Aaron Reinhardt, who is planning a film about her.
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- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.6/101,099 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Lou Andreas Sand was once a famous fashion model in New York. She now lives by herself in a cottage at the beach and looks back over her past. Aaron Reinhardt, a photographer, is preparing a film about her, and she agrees to tell him her story. She is a beautiful and troubled woman. Her account takes in the strain of her working days, an affair with Mark, who works in advertising, and her friendship with Aaron. Her life has come apart through drugs and a nervous breakdown, and she describes a lover who treated her cruelly and encounters with men she did not know. Parts of what she remembers do not hold together.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Director Jerry Schatzberg first worked with French screenwriter Jacques Sigurd, whose script centerd on a woman having an abortion; the collaboration ended over creative differences, and only Sigurd's title was kept after Carole Eastman was brought in to write a new screenplay.
- Carole Eastman based her new screenplay on recordings Schatzberg had made of his friend, model Anne St. Marie, and the character Aaron was in part based on Schatzberg himself.
- The title phrase "downfall child" came from a friend of Schatzberg's who had recounted a nightmare in which she tried to save a child falling from a building.
- Puzzle of a Downfall Child was Schatzberg's first feature film; at the time he was known mainly as a fashion photographer and had directed a few commercials.
