NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: BFI Blu-ray (June 2023): BFI have transferred Giuseppe Patroni Griffi's The Driver's Seat (Identikit) to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "Restored in 4K by Cineteca di Bologna and Severin Films and presented in High Definition". This was also offered on Blu-ray in Severin's House Of Psychotic Women: Rarities Collection (with Identikit, I Like Bats, Footprints, and The Other Side of Underneath). We can only presume this is a very similar transfer as we don't own the Severin to do a direct comparison. The 1080P image has light damage in the form of moving marks that occasionally appear, as well as a few speckles but is otherwise quite pleasing with decent colors and an inherent softness that establishes grain. Contrast is supportive and the HD presentation is effective.

NOTE: We have added 72 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, BFI use a linear PCM dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. The Driver's Seat has a few aggressive moments with Liz fending off, often violent, men and a nasty car explosion plus interspersed police interrogations. The gentle piano score is by Franco Mannino (Visconti's L'innocente and Conversation Piece, John Huston's Beat the Devil, and Riccardo Freda's Murder Obsession) sounding buoyant and clean with consistent dialogue in the uncompressed transfer. BFI offer optional descriptive English subtitles on their Region 'B'-locked Blu-ray.

The BFI Blu-ray offers a 5-minute introduction by Kier-La Janisse, author of House of Psychotic Women. There is also an audio commentary with curator and programmer Millie De Chirico. She talks about Muriel Spark, the Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist - who was posthumously short-listed for the Lost Man Booker Prize of 1970 for The Driver's Seat novel. I thought the information imparted was quite valuable if there were some long gaps later in the 1 3/4 hour film viewing. A Lack of Absence spends 22-minutes with writer and literary historian Chandra Mayor who discusses Muriel Spark and The Driver's Seat. All three of these supplements are on Severin's release. BFI add the English credit sequences, Waiting For… - a 1970 short film about a woman who embarks on a filmmaking project after being given a camera and told to capture her everyday reality. Also included in another short, The Telephone from 1981, about a young woman who enacts imaginative revenge on her boyfriend and Darling, Do You Love Me? from 1968 which has Germaine Greer star as a terrifyingly amorous woman who pursues a man relentlessly in a parody of her media persona. Included a National Theatre of Scotland trailer from 2015 - a promotional clip for the UK’s first stage production of The Drivers Seat and the package has an illustrated booklet featuring new writing on the film by the BFI’s Simon McCallum and Canadian artist, writer and filmmaker Bruce LaBruce. Also includes Kier-La Janisse’s piece on The Driver’s Seat, previously published in her acclaimed book, House of Psychotic Women.

Giuseppe Patroni Griffi's The Driver's Seat certainly fits Liz Taylor's penchant for, often, artistically challenging cinematic expressions. I'm thinking the Losey films Boom and Secret Ceremony. While The Driver's Seat was generally derided, I loved it. It's all her and she gives one of her finest performances as the unstable Lise - who is not dangerous - but rather unnecessarily confused augmented by less-understandable peculiarities. She unknowingly flirts with men - who all want a 'roll-in-the-hay' with the large-busted 42-year old beauty. Even she can't keep her hands off of them. The Driver's Seat is non-linear, bouncing around confusingly... with the authorities on top of anyone who has been in contact with allusive Lise. We eventually learn why. The Driver's Seat is filled with hinted themes, subtext and sly Vittorio Storaro cinematography with an abundance of mirrors and shots through windows. The BFI Blu-ray gave me a thoroughly enjoyable viewing and the additional commentary and other extras proved valuable in filling a few gaps in understanding The Driver's Seat. This would be a strong recommendation to Liz Taylor fans and a slightly more modest encouragement to those keen on provocative, exigent, cinema. 

Gary Tooze