Sebastian (1968)

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Blistering performances.

I was saddened at the death in January of one of my favourite actresses - Susannah York. 'Sebastian' was one of many films she made in the '60's. It came out just as Bondmania peaked. It is about spies but strictly speaking is not a thriller, more a romantic comedy. The late Dirk Bogarde plays the titular character, a professor of mathematics so brilliant he can work out complex sums in his head in a flash. He has his very own department within the British Secret Service, devoted to code breaking. All the people under him are women, and attractive ones at that ( no fool he ). As the film opens, we see Sebastian running through the streets of Oxford for a meeting with the Prime Minister. A young woman called Rebecca Howard ( York ) almost runs him down in her Mini Moke. Once she has finished insulting him, he asks her to spell her name backwards. She does so. Then he asks how many words she can make from 'thorough'. Impressed, he offers her a job in his Department. Sebastian is a cold fish, almost like a code himself, and she is determined to crack him. He has other problems - General Phillips ( Nigel Davenport ) believes him to be a security risk, especially as he has known Communist sympathiser Elsa Shahn ( Lilli Palmer ) working in his department. Phillips decides to put Sebastian under surveillance...Directed by the underrated ( and alas deceased ) David Greene, whose other movie credits include 'The Shuttered Room', 'Godspell', and 'The Strange Affair', 'Sebastian' is a delight from start to finish. One of the producers was the great Michael Powell. The cast are wonderful, alongside Bogarde and York there's Sir John Gielgud as the 'Head Of Intelligence', Janet Munro as 'Carol Fancy', the washed-up pop singer Sebastian is having an affair with, and Ronald Fraser as 'Toby', who forces Carol into becoming the bait of a trap involving champagne laced with L.S.D. A pre-'M.A.S.H.' Donald Sutherland appears briefly. Gerald Vaughan-Hughes's witty script came from a story by Leo Marks, himself a code breaker in World War 2. Some lush sets on view courtesy of Wilfrid Shingleton, who also worked on 'The Avengers' television series. Sebastian's department is a big open-plan room in which his girls work tirelessly to break enemy codes while their boss watches over them from the panoramic window ( with louvre shutters ) in his office. James Bond would be proud of it.The wonderful soundtrack is by Jerry Goldsmith. I bought a C.D. of it a year or so back and was disappointed to find that at least half the film's score is not on it, such as the strident theme that accompanies Sebastian's visit to a radio telescope.Like a lot of '60's films, it used to get shown a lot on television but has not been screened anywhere recently. I think it was last on B.B.C.-2 back in 1988 ( I know because I taped it ). Its non-appearance on D.V.D. is itself a baffling mystery worthy of investigation by Sebastian himself.

This is a good film to watch if you like British films from the era and especially ones with Dirk Bogarde. It's made with some style but the script is a problem. Though it starts out intriguingly, in the end this espionage film is rather much ado about nothing. The main point of interest in this rarely seen movie now is the equally rarely heard Jerry Goldsmith score, which I rather like. I believe it got an LP release back in 1968, but has never been issued on CD. Perhaps one of the reasons for that, as I've recently read, is that Goldsmith didn't have a good experience doing the score and never had much to say about it or simply didn't want to discuss it at all. Unfortunate, because the score, though minor Goldsmith, does have merit. I hope someday to read just what Goldsmith's problems were with it.

Sebastian is one of those movies you see once and remember for a long time. I saw it back in the seventies, and didn't get to enjoy it again until I caught it on TV in the nineties. Still, I remembered its groovy sixties-London atmosphere, its intellectually stimulating plot about codebreaking, Susannah York's breezy, mini-skirted, somewhat flighty Rebecca who is actually quite smart, Bogarde's coldly academic Sebastian with passion seething underneath, and Jerry Goldsmith's right-on soundtrack.Like a lighter LeCarre story, you get Cold War tension, but with a post-war British self-deprecating viewpoint. They may not be the Empire they once were, but they do have a bit of expertise in cryptography that the Yanks would be willing to compensate them for. Donald Sutherland plays an NSA type at Fylingdale Moor who turns Sebastian on (literally) to the latest intercepts from a Russian satellite. He's immediately impressed when Sebastian hears the embedded signal that carries classified data piggy-back with the normal Sputnik beeps. Mixed in with this main West versus East plot is the late-sixties go-go scene, with Sebastian's former paramour a pop singer a little past her prime, with his right-hand girl a bit of a leftist sympathizer, and with his new girlfriend, Rebecca, a pre-hippy free spirit determined to pry him out of his Oxford Don shell. Susannah York's Rebecca is fun-loving but has a flame-hot temper that reacts explosively to Sebastian's unemotional pomposity. Her true depth is shone later when she quietly removes herself to care for her baby, without the assistance of its father, Sebastian, who has dropped out of her life. I feel it's the best role of York's uneven career.What really takes the movie a step above, is Jerry Goldsmith's score. His instrumental "First Day at Work" catches just the right combination of urban excitement and spritly spirit that accompanies Rebecca and a bevy of beautiful and brainy girls as they make their way in to begin their work as cryptanalysts working in Sebastian's high-tech sweatshop. While the rest of the soundtrack is not up to his Blue Max or Wind and the Lion standards, this one tune alone puts Goldsmith's soundtrack above most movie music.I would put this one in my list of top 100 movies for its cast, its atmosphere, its music, and its re-watchability. I hope it comes out on DVD soon.

Covers an area of espionage seldom seen in spy movies: cryptography and cryptoanalysis. The whole production is given a faint brush of the surreal and it works, especially with Dirk Bogarde's performance as the title character driven by obsessions (and often overwhelmed by them). That the film also manages to work on an occasional comedic level is an additional tribute to all concerned. Keep your eyes open for a pre-M*A*S*H appearance by Donald Sutherland.