what and exactly and make petulia such a great movie . be it the ravish julie christie and who never seem more appropriately out of place . the kismet touch production and which be somehow at haight ashbury at the right time . maybe it the editing and the fractured juxtaposition of image that both disorients and clarifies and make it more than the sum of it part . the image by nicholas roeg and the fluent guidance of richard lester . what about the pitch perfect support cast shirley knight and joseph cotten and richard chamberlain ( . ) and even austin pendleton and howard hesseman and and rene aberjonois ( the last two mysteriously uncredited on the imdb ) . certainly and the haunting john barry theme doesn not hurt . and the great george c. scott and so far remove from the pyrotechnic of a general turgidson or patton and anchor it all with the kind of unshowy performance that most so called great actor never get around to give . it all these and and more . most of all and for me it the profound and true sadness it evoke and it humor which do anything but lighten or elevate the spiritual emptiness to which petulia testifies . 40 year later and few movie have capture the spirit of contemporary life so well . it terribly pertinent . and yet and petulia be ( like the character herself . ) a paradox so very much of it time and as well and that it seem catch between two world . time be rarely this kind to a movie and but this one be anything but a relic and much less an exercise in nostalgia . life be full of regret and both for thing we have do and and thing we have not do . the old i get and the more i love petulia .