There are movies where I despise the main characters and wish they were instead about one of more of the secondary characters.  1955’s I Am a Camera is such a film.

Oh, how I wish we could have followed the German couple played by Shelley Winters and Anton Diffring.  Instead, I found myself stuck with Laurence Harvey as Christopher Isherwood and Julie Harris as Sally Bowles.

Playing a real-life figure is always a bit dicey, and that difficulty increases when censors of the time will not let you portray that person accurately.  Here, the problem is Isherwood could not be depicted as gay, though the signals are pretty strong.  The phrase “lifelong bachelor” was the typical shortcut, and is employed here.

Sally Bowles is a fictionalized take on a cabaret singer the real Isherwood knew in pre-war Germany named Jean Ross.  Bowles as played by Harris seriously grated on my nerves and I wonder if the real-life inspiration was as annoying. 

Bowles is that special kind of “quirky” that means she is temperamental, excessively needy and prone to poor spontaneous decisions.  I viewed her as a parasite that, if I knew her, I would ditch as fast as possible.

So, Harvey’s Isherwood deals with her various dramas while she exhausts him physically, emotionally and financially.  I’m sure there’s fans of this movie who are gay men, but I can imagine many of them seeing this and sympathizing with Harvey.

Then there’s Harris performance of this annoying character.  I loved Harris as the star of one my favorite films, 1964’s The Haunting.  I’ll admit I have difficulty picturing the actress in any other role than the mousy Eleanor from that picture; however, I still doubt I would have believed her here even if I had seen I Am a Camera first.  Her performance is technically good but I always saw the artifice of it.  Hard to believe she played the role on Broadway for over 200 performances.

After seeing the movie, I learned Bowles was the inspiration for Holly Golightly in Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffanys’s.  I found this telling as I hated that picture, too.

I don’t need to spend any more of life around needy users, whether in real-life or watching on the screen.  Life is too short, and so I do not foresee watching I Am a Camera again.

Dir: Henry Cornelius

Starring Julie Harris, Laurence Harvey

Watched on StudioCanal blu-ray (region B)