A Safe Place, writer/director
Henry Jaglom's feature film debut, is a time-fractured, hallucinatory fantasy, featuring
Tuesday Weld as a lonely and confused woman named, at times, Susan and at other times Noah, who comments that "Tomorrow is where the past is." Too delicately ethereal to cope with either the hussle and bustle of a 1970 New York City or her un-hip boyfriend, Fred (
Philip Proctor), Susan/Noah escapes into another reality, presided over by The Magician (
Orson Welles with a cheap Yiddish accent). As she flits back and forth between past and present, fantasy and reality, Susan encounters Mitch (
Jack Nicholson), an old lover who might also be her brother, and Bari (
Gwen Welles) who delivers a soliloquy concerning New York City mashers. Opinion about this film was so divided when it was shown at the 1971 New York Film Festival, that the audience broke out into shouting matches which nearly led to a brawl. One highlight of the film is the wide assortment of popular music in its soundtrack. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide