Puzzle of a Downfall Child

{{Infobox film

| name = Puzzle of a Downfall Child

| image = Puzzle of a Downfall Child.jpg

| caption = Original film poster

| story = Jerry Schatzberg
Adrian Joyce

| starring = Faye Dunaway
Barry Morse
Viveca Lindfors
Roy Scheider
Barry Primus
Ruth Jackson
John Heffernan
Sydney Walker

| music = Michael Small

| cinematography = Adam Holender

| editing = Evan Lottman

| distributor = Universal Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1970|12|16}}

| runtime = 104 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Puzzle of a Downfall Child is a 1970 American drama film directed by Jerry Schatzberg and starring Faye Dunaway, Barry Morse, Viveca Lindfors, Roy Scheider, and Barry Primus.

Plot

A beautiful but disturbed young woman lives alone at a beach cottage, reliving her past, a life of delusions and lies.

Lou Andreas Sand is a former fashion model whose life has gone into a downward spiral, including drug use and a nervous breakdown. She tells an acquaintance, Aaron Reinhardt, her story for a film he is planning on her, but the details do not ring true.

Lou evidently had a lover who abused her, and a penchant for sex with strange men. Along the way, she became engaged to marry Mark, an ad executive, but apparently jilted him on the day of their wedding, leading to her descent into drugs and an attempted suicide.

Cast

Faye Dunaway as Lou Andreas Sand
Barry Primus as Aaron Reinhardt
Viveca Lindfors as Pauline Galba
Barry Morse as Dr. Galba
Roy Scheider as Mark
Ruth Jackson as Barbara Casey
John Heffernan as Dr. Sherman
Sydney Walker as Psychiatrist
Clark Burckhalter as Davy Bright
Shirley Rich as Peggy McCavage
Emerick Bronson as Falco
Joe George as 1st Man in Bar
John Eames as 1st Doctor
Harry Lee as Mr. Wong
Jane Halleran as Joan
Susan Willis as Neighbor
Barbara Carrera as T.J. Brady
Sam Schacht as George

Production

The film was Schatzberg's first foray into feature-film making; at the time, he was primarily known as a fashion photographer and had directed a few commercials.{{cite AV media |people=Jerry Schatzberg, Michel Ciment |title=Illusion and Reality |medium=Puzzle of a Downfall Child DVD extra |publisher=Carlotta Films |year=2012 }}

Schatzberg initially worked with French screenwriter Jacques Sigurd, who had written a script involving a woman having an abortion, but the collaboration came to an end due to creative differences. Carole Eastman, whose unused draft for Petulia Schatzberg had enjoyed, was approached to write a new screenplay, and only the title from Sigurd's script was kept on the insistence of Schatzberg.{{cite magazine |last= Chew-Bose |first= Durga |author-link=Durga Chew-Bose |date= 3 December 2010 |title= Jerry Schatzberg's Enduring Puzzle |url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/jerry-schatzberg-puzzle-of-a-downfall-child |magazine=Interview |access-date= 11 February 2018 }} Eastman based the new script on recordings Schatzberg had made of his friend, model Anne St. Marie,{{cite web|title=The Cinematic Portraits of Jerry Schatzberg|url=http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2010octdec/schatzberg.html|publisher=Harvard Film Archive|access-date=11 February 2018}} while Aaron was in part based on Schatzberg himself. The phrase "downfall child" came from a friend of Schatzberg's who had recounted a nightmare where she was trying to save a child falling from a building.

The name of Faye Dunaway's character is an allusion to Lou Andreas-Salomé.

Theatre

The movie was adapted as a two-character play by Elisabeth Bouchaud (in French) and put on at La Reine Blanche (Paris) in 2017.{{cite web|last1=Trân|first1=Evelyne|title=PUZZLE d'Elisabeth BOUCHAUD – Adaptation du film Portrait d'une enfant déchue de Jerry Schatzberg|url=http://theatreauvent.blog.lemonde.fr/2017/05/25/puzzle-delisabeth-bouchaud-adaptation-du-film-portrait-dune-enfant-dechue-de-jerry-schatzberg-au-theatre-de-la-reine-blanche-2-bis-passage-ruelle-75018-paris/|access-date=11 February 2018|language=fr|date=25 May 2017}}