Sebastian
Sebastian
NR | 24 January 1968 (USA)
Sebastian Trailers

Sebastian is an undisciplined mathematics genius who works in the "cipher bureau" of the British Intelligence. While cracking enemy codes, Sebastian finds time to romance co-worker Rebecca Howard.

Reviews
Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.
Pluskylang Great Film overall
Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Robert J. Maxwell Oh, where did the 1960s ever go? What happened? (Sob.) Before it became distressingly violent the 1960s were informed by a light-hearted revolutionary spirit. The Beatles were breaking records, which was nice, and the skirts were tiny, which was also nice. Recreational highs were a pastime and the scent of flowers, hemp, or at least incense, was in the air, a pastel age. There was a Cold War going on too. That's not so nice. However even such a serious business was subject to frolicsome presentations, and this is a good example. The credits are irritating though. I wish "The Pink Panther" with its adorable credit sequences hadn't appeared four years earlier because everybody had to have a crack at it after that.This movie is cute without being hilarious. Everyone is good natured, even the authorities who are not good natured. Among its virtues are the lanky, leggy Susannah York, all soft, pink, blond, and utterly beautiful. She looks dusted in talcum powder. Then there is the officious Dirk Bogarde, in his dark suit and umbrella, who hires her as a code breaker for some intelligence apparat in England. York is a whiz at it too, although her talent doesn't impress Bogarde that much. York sees Bogarde as a challenge and sets out to liberate him. It couldn't have been too hard. He had nowhere to go but up, and this is the London of "Blow Up," tastefully psychedelic.The bossy Bogarde keeps a loose woman, Janet Munro, on the side but York soon seduces him and finds he is reluctantly but undeniably distracted from his blue notebook. It's a bad idea for Bogarde to be mixed up with Susannah York. I should have been mixed up with Susannah York instead of him. Somewhere in the background of all this is Sir John Gielgud, good as ever, simultaneously charming and disdainful, wearing a carefully pressed suit and what appears to be a Crescent tie. He's a delight but I believe his school tie should be Westminster, not Crescent.Anyway it turns more serious as the Russians enter the picture, and the Americans too. Bogarde is assigned a big decoding job involving a Russian satellite. An incredibly young Donald Sutherland cheerfully plays a recording of the first Russian satellite ever. He claims it's sending Morse code but it's not. I was a radioman in the Coast Guard at the time and had to copy the signals. The thing just went beep beep beep.Spies manage to lace Bogarde's champagne at one point with acid but it all ends happily. Bogarde also appeared in "Modesty Blaise" somewhere around this time. It made no more sense than "Sebastian" but was probably more fun. It had Bogarde stretched out on the sand, dying of thirst, and moaning, "Champagne . . . champagne." "Sebastian" isn't that absurd.
blanche-2 "Sebastian" is a film from 1968 that is the ultimate swinging London '60s flick, starring Dirk Bogarde, Susannah York, Lili Palmer, and John Gielgud. Bogarde plays a tough, cold on the outside British mathematician who heads a code decryption department during the Cold War. He has many women in his employ, and one of them (Susannah York) falls for him and pursues him, and he reciprocates.Fun music and atmosphere of the '60s permeates. York is lovely as a smart, pretty woman who knows what she wants, isn't afraid to try for it, and cracks the hardest code in the bunch - Dirk Bogarde. Bogarde is excellent as a man of deep feeling who likes to keep his work life separate from his private life and doesn't quite succeed.Not much of a plot, but the acting is good - you can't really go wrong with Lili Palmer and John Gielgud in the supporting roles. Palmer plays a codebreaker of long-standing who is nevertheless under suspicion for some of her views, and Gielgud is one of the big bosses over Bogarde.Enjoyable.
grzesiak I discovered this movie via my affexion for Jerry Goldsmith's innovative (for the period) score... highly recommended for its quintessential marriage of images and sounds...The talent on view here, and the obvious affexion its cast and crew have for this film (evident in every frame) make this a must see.
Tirelli The Coolest Of Them All...I have strong reasons to believe that is one of the best movies ever made, for it has achieved an accomplishment that was never achieved by any other so - called classics of the late 60s, like 'Blow-Up!' or even the hideously uneven 'Casino Royale'. It succeeds in exposing London's hypnotic late60s atmosphere as well as telling us, viewers, an interesting and rewarding story. It basically consists on the love story between Sebastian, a counter-intelligence agent that works on deciphering codes for England that recruits to work for him - while recruiting girls for his office, he encounters flashy, fashionable, London chick Becky Howard - played to perfection by Susannah York - who becomes one of his employees as well as his lover. She finds terribly hard to keep up with his cold, uninteresting, unappealing life-style, and of not at all being a priority to the man she loves. She leaves him - and it's his turn to find how difficult life is without her. He beguins to fail on his job, to the point of almost been killed by an enemy agent. He decides to leave his pride and go after her - only to find her living alone with a baby, who turns out to be his! He asks her to come back and events lead to a jolly happy ending.Trust me, this is the most exciting journey into 60s popculture that ever was. The coolest of them all, only topped by the also wonderful 'The President's Analyst', featuring great performances by both leads and for co-starring seniors as Lilli Palmer and Sir John Gielgud, and a beguiling soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith - Listen closely to the tune 'Comes The Night', sung by Anita Harris. Do not, I repeat, do not, miss this one! Yours Truly - Ismar