Circle of Power | |
---|---|
Directed by | Bobby Roth |
Written by | Beth Sullivan |
Based on | |
Produced by | Gary Mehlman Anthony Quinn Jeffrey White |
Starring |
Yvette Mimieux Christopher Allport Cindy Pickett John Considine Walter Olkewicz |
Cinematography | Affonso Beato |
Edited by | Gail Yasunaga |
Music by | Richard Markowitz |
Distributed by |
Media Home Entertainment Qui Productions Televicine International |
Release date |
|
Running time | 98 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Circle of Power, also known as Mystique, Brainwash and The Naked Weekend, is a 1981 drama thriller film, co-produced by Gary Mehlman, Anthony Quinn and Jeffrey White, and based on the nonfiction book The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled. It stars Yvette Mimieux in one of her final film performances.
Bianca Ray is the chief executive of a giant corporation called "Mystique". The organization is also known as "Executive Development Training", or EDT. [1] Jack Nilsson is a decent all-American young executive. [2]
Top management executives are required to spend a weekend with Bianca at a hotel, where they are put under psychological pressure. [3] As a prerequisite to the training course, participants must sign a waiver giving the company the release to physically and psychologically abuse the individuals in the course. [2] The participants struggle with their shortcomings, such as obesity and alcoholism. [2] Another individual is a closeted homosexual, and a fourth is a transvestite. [1] At one point in the film, the obese trainee is forced to eat trash and discarded food in front of the other seminar participants. [1] Eventually, the seminar executives and their wives lose their inhibitions later on in the "consciousness-raising" coursework. [4]
The film won a Dramatic Films Award at the 1982 Sundance Film Festival (then called the U.S. Film Festival). [5] Circle of Power played under the title Mystique at the 1981 Chicago International Film Festival. [3]
A review in The New York Times described Circle of Power as an "attack on monolithic belief systems," and referred to it as "a worthwhile movie." [2] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, writing that "...it's an entertaining film with serious intentions." Ebert compared it to events reported in Boston newspapers about a man who died during a seminar, commenting: "Art anticipates life." Ebert questioned the conceit of the film, asking the question: "Could a major corporation get away with this brainwashing?" [3] The authors of the book upon which the film was based concluded their preface by stating: "And please remember as you read -- it's true." [6]
Circle of Power | |
---|---|
Directed by | Bobby Roth |
Written by | Beth Sullivan |
Based on | |
Produced by | Gary Mehlman Anthony Quinn Jeffrey White |
Starring |
Yvette Mimieux Christopher Allport Cindy Pickett John Considine Walter Olkewicz |
Cinematography | Affonso Beato |
Edited by | Gail Yasunaga |
Music by | Richard Markowitz |
Distributed by |
Media Home Entertainment Qui Productions Televicine International |
Release date |
|
Running time | 98 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Circle of Power, also known as Mystique, Brainwash and The Naked Weekend, is a 1981 drama thriller film, co-produced by Gary Mehlman, Anthony Quinn and Jeffrey White, and based on the nonfiction book The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled. It stars Yvette Mimieux in one of her final film performances.
Bianca Ray is the chief executive of a giant corporation called "Mystique". The organization is also known as "Executive Development Training", or EDT. [1] Jack Nilsson is a decent all-American young executive. [2]
Top management executives are required to spend a weekend with Bianca at a hotel, where they are put under psychological pressure. [3] As a prerequisite to the training course, participants must sign a waiver giving the company the release to physically and psychologically abuse the individuals in the course. [2] The participants struggle with their shortcomings, such as obesity and alcoholism. [2] Another individual is a closeted homosexual, and a fourth is a transvestite. [1] At one point in the film, the obese trainee is forced to eat trash and discarded food in front of the other seminar participants. [1] Eventually, the seminar executives and their wives lose their inhibitions later on in the "consciousness-raising" coursework. [4]
The film won a Dramatic Films Award at the 1982 Sundance Film Festival (then called the U.S. Film Festival). [5] Circle of Power played under the title Mystique at the 1981 Chicago International Film Festival. [3]
A review in The New York Times described Circle of Power as an "attack on monolithic belief systems," and referred to it as "a worthwhile movie." [2] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, writing that "...it's an entertaining film with serious intentions." Ebert compared it to events reported in Boston newspapers about a man who died during a seminar, commenting: "Art anticipates life." Ebert questioned the conceit of the film, asking the question: "Could a major corporation get away with this brainwashing?" [3] The authors of the book upon which the film was based concluded their preface by stating: "And please remember as you read -- it's true." [6]