Richard Lester‘s Petulia “is essentially about two lonely and bored people desperate to find passion in an increasingly dispassionate world,” writes DVD Savant. “The ’60s-drenched setting is tapped to add shadings of meaning, but it nevertheless remains a backdrop. Indeed, much of Petulia‘s genius stems from such shadings, particularly stylistic flourishes that result in a work of stunning freshness — even nearly 40 years after its theatrical release. This keenly observed art film finds the counterculture of that era being swallowed up and taken over by a nation of overwhelming wealth, commercialism and consumerism. Lester might not have known it at the time, but when he ventured to San Francisco in 1967 to shoot Petulia, he was creating one of the great cinematic time capsules of a watershed period in American society.”