Left-Handed Fate

Several films from the late 1960's and early 1970's tried to capture either the look or the feel of a comic strip or a comic book. Some of these, my favorites, had striking, stylized sets (Barbarella; The Tenth Victim). Others (like Baba Yaga) placed their bizarre stories in what might be called realistic or natural settings. Fata/Morgana falls into the second category.

Taking place after some unstated disaster has befallen London, a model named Gim is having a hard time making her way in the world. She is desired by almost everyone. Students cut her picture out of a billboard and carry it around. Men on the street stop her. However, the man she wants is involved in a complicated relationship with a survivor from the unstated London disaster.

Meanwhile, a young secret agent of questionable competency is tasked with finding and saving Gim from being murdered by the same killer of another woman a few years back. How this unstated organization knows this is never revealed. Complicating the chase is a professor obsessed the concept of Fate (and a little obsessed with Gim).

Fata/Morgana does not have a strong plot line as events just sort of happen and characters pop in and out of the story. The strongest element is a brief but startling flashback to the London disaster.

Fata/Morgana mildly held my interest but did not do much more than that. It is one of those movies that pretty much disappears from one's thoughts as soon as it ends. I was also disappointed that the film took place mostly in everyday alleyways, apartment flats, and parks, instead of more surreal settings. I guess they all can't be Barbarella!