This Month

"A Love Story...That Will Shock You" and "The Story of a Priest" read the taglines for Pieces of Dreams (1970), a movie drama about Father Gregory Lind (Robert Forster), a Catholic priest who questions the church's hardline stance on birth control and other social issues. In the midst of his crisis of faith, he becomes involved with a wealthy, divorced social worker, Pamela Gibson (Lauren Hutton in a mini-skirted wardrobe designed by Halston) and contemplates leaving the church. Things are further complicated when gang members beat Lind up because they think he's gay, his family goes ballistic when he confides in them and his bishop (played by Will Geer of the TV series, The Waltons) tries to keep him in the church, insisting that one day, the church will modernize. Yet the film opens with a young boy in a confessional, admitting that he watched a neighbor girl undress. The unseen priest admonishes him, saying, "The devil put her there. Deny the flesh, boy. Deny the flesh."

Shot on location in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Pieces of Dreams was based on William E. Barrett's 1968 novel The Wine and the Music. Barrett wrote several religious-themed novels that were later made into films like Lilies of the Field (1963) and The Left Hand of God (1955). The screenplay of Pieces of Dreams was written by Roger O. Hirson and, uncredited, John McCollam. Daniel Haller, who worked as an art director for Roger Corman, had branched out into direction. Pieces of Dreams was only his sixth film, which he made for producer Robert Blumofe's RFB Enterprises production company, which released the film through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists. Pieces of Dreams was twenty-seven-year-old Lauren Hutton's second film. Already famous as a fashion model, Hutton had made the transition from the catwalk to the big screen in 1968 with Paper Lion. Twenty-nine-year-old Robert Forster had only been in films for three years, having begun with Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), and had shot to prominence in Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool (1969).

Pieces of Dreams opened in Los Angeles in September 1970 and the critics were decidedly mixed in their reactions. The New York Times called it "a really dreadful little movie", although Herb Rau in The Miami News called the movie "as modern as tomorrow...you will enjoy the vibrant performance of Lauren Hutton, the divorcee, and the strength of Robert Forster as the young troubled priest. You will, also, see some deft photography and a frank treatment of the matters of celibacy, contraception and abortion...it's a potent film, almost in the 'sleeper' category, and a welcome departure from the brash skin-flicks that are the current rage." At the beginning of the 1970s, with the Vietnam War still raging and the subsequent social upheaval, the shock value of a priest leaving the church was much less than it would have been a decade earlier. Famed film critic Molly Haskell, writing for The Village Voice admitted that "[t]he celibacy of the Catholic priesthood may be the last virgin territory up for cinematic violation...I, at any rate, confess to finding the moment of surrender in Pieces of Dreams - when, in comforting Lauren Hutton after an all-night vigil at the hospital, Robert Forster's hug turns into an embrace - one of the more electrically charged moments in recent cinema."

Perhaps the most memorable thing about Pieces of Dreams remains the title track, written by Michel Legrand with lyrics by the husband and wife team of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, which was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Although it lost both awards, the song has been recorded by everyone from Shirley Bassey and Johnny Mathis to Barbra Streisand.

Producer: Robert F. Blumofe
Director: Daniel Haller
Screenplay: Roger O. Hirson (screenplay); William E. Barrett (novel); John McCollam (uncredited)
Cinematography: Charles F. Wheeler
Art Direction: Herman A. Blumenthal
Music: Michel Legrand
Film Editing: William Chulack
Cast: Robert Forster (Fr. Gregory Lind), Lauren Hutton (Pamela Gibson), Will Geer (The Bishop), Ivor Francis (Fr. Paul Schaeffer), Richard O'Brien (Mons. Francis Hurley), Edith Atwater (Mrs. Lind, Gregory's Mother), Mitzi Hoag (Anne Lind, Gregory's Sister), Rudy Diaz (Police Sgt. Bill Walkingstick), Sam Javis (Leo Rose), Gail Bonney (Mrs. Tietgens).
C-100m.

by Lorraine LoBianco

SOURCES:
British Film Institute
Haskell, Molly. "Film: Virgin Territory" The Village Voice 22 Oct 70.
http://library.du.edu/site/about/specialCollections/collections/m014.php
http://movies.tvguide.com/pieces-of-dreams/review/109208
The New York Times 15 Oct 70
http://www.peggylee.com/solos/films.html
Rau, Herb. "Pieces of Dreams Solid New Drama" The Miami News 19 Oct 70
IMDB