What's it all about, Alfie?" asked the hit Burt Bacharach/Hal David title song, to which the less philosophical answer might be: an amoral young man comically seducing a succession of beautiful women in swinging-sixties London. Michael Caine was the titular anti-hero, here consolidating his new star status from Zulu (1964) and The Ipcress File (1965), his conquests including Shelley Winters, Jane Asher and Shirley Ann Field. Alfie was a huge success, bringing a new frankness about changing sexual attitudes to the screen, in which respect it was almost the male companion... to Julie Christie's then shocking, Oscar-winning performance in Darling (1965). It was also a sort-of contemporary Tom Jones, which had swept the Oscars for 1963, however, Alfie was not only better made, but in Michael Caine's guilelessly amoral asides to camera, offered a groundbreaking illustration of a newly self-conscious cinema. It is a technique Caine would reprise as the middle-aged philanderer in Blame It On Rio (1983). With Blow Up also released in 1966, and Ken Russell's Women In Love following in 1969, British film-making was truly in the midst of a sexual revolution. Michael Caine would reunite with director Lewis Gilbert and meet his female match in Educating Rita (1983). --Gary S. Dalkin [show more]
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Michael Caine stars in this classic British comedy drama directed by Lewis Gilbert. Based on the play by Bill Naughton, the film follows Alfie Pennyworth (Caine), a streetwise womaniser in Swinging Sixties London. His conquests are numerous, from young girlfriend Gilda (Julia Foster) to frustrated housewife Lily (Vivien Merchant), but the chirpy cockney never seems to get any fulfilment from his antics. When Gilda then becomes pregnant and Alfie suffers a health scare, he begins to question his choice of lifestyle. The cast also includes Jane Asher, Shelley Winters and Alfie Bass.
Michael Caine stars as Alfie, a Cockney Casanova, in this outstanding example of 1960s British filmmaking. Alfie is a good-looking charmer, who finds that the Swinging Sixties are a great time to be around in. He's always able to sweet-talk women into bed, and he just doesn't care about the consequences. The film charts Alfie's complex and amoral amour, while he offers his own perspective, addressing the camera with his observations on life and love. So what's it all about, Alfie?
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