Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills

R

1989

1h 43m

Comedy

List

78%

9 Reviews

Tomatometer

61%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

A wealthy Beverly Hills, Calif., resident who has just become a widow, Clare Lipkin (Jacqueline Bisset) temporarily takes on her friend Lisabeth (Mary Woronov) as a house guest. As the two women deal with their upper-class woes, Clare's driver, Frank (Ray Sharkey), and Lisabeth's servant, Juan (Robert Beltran), make a wager to see who can be the first to seduce the other's boss. As the competition gears up, it leads to surprising romantic entanglements and plenty of satirical scenarios.

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Audience Member

Bartel's idea of wit is nothing more than an incisive observation humorously phrased and delivered with impeccable timing.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

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Audience Member

Paul Bartel's final film as both writer/director feels consistent with his earlier black comic outings ("Death Race 2000," "Eating Raoul," etc.). Set in Beverly Hills among the rich and beautiful, the film follows a houseboy and a chauffeur betting who their recently widowed employer, Jacqueline Bisset, will bed next. The cast is a good one, which includes Ray Sharkey, Mary Woronov, Ed Begley Jr., Wallace Shawn, Bartel, Paul Mazursky, Barret Oliver, and an uncredited Little Richard, but it's really Bartel's unique voice as co-writer/director that makes this farcical sex comedy uniquely enjoyable. Bartel's plot set-up could easily have been a standard 80s sex comedy along the lines of "Class" or "My Tutor," but Bartel's exaggerated soap opera tone to the boundary pushing humor make it a hilariously mannered comedy that doesn't feel far off from John Waters. Bartel's films are never ones that were intended to appeal to a wide audience, but for those who do enjoy his offbeat satirical style, this is quite enjoyable.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Audience Member

Dreadful comedy about two shallow rich families in Beverly Hills sharing a mansion. Really struggles with humour with most attempts centered around the group sleeping with each other or attempting to seduce others in the house.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

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Audience Member

An alternately amusing, tiresome, intelligent and disappointing modernization of Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game. It never lives up to the promise of its opening scene, but it's a nice little departure for Paul Bartel.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

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Audience Member

What's up with the cover art listed on this site? It has nothing to do with this film. Anyway...I'm a freak for Paul Bartel. His films are dark, subversive, and always hilarious. Scenes From A Class Struggle might not be his best work, but it sure is better than most of the similar movies out there. The cast is beyond stellar and I'm always up for Jackie Bisset in anything. It's pretty much a spoof on all the tacky 80's soaps like Dallas and Dynasty with a bunch of selfish, unlikeable rich idiots sleeping with each other backs. The late Ray Sharkey turns in a memorably sleazy performance as a bisexual gigilo of a servant. It's always nice to see the wonderful Mary Woronov in anything as well. It's certainly weird, but that's it's oddball charm. It's worth checking out if you can find it.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

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Audience Member

a little bit funny but mostly dumb in a vapid ostentatious 80's way.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

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Paul Bartel

Director

Jacqueline Bisset

Clare Lipkin

Ray Sharkey

Frank

Mary Woronov

Lisabeth Hepburn-Saravian

Ed Begley Jr.

Peter

Wallace Shawn

Howard

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Cronenberg Soon to See "Stars"

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Henry Sheehan

Chicago Reader

The absurdity of trying to assert one’s identity by subjugating another’s is the delightfully cruel premise...

Rated: 3/4

May 11, 2022

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Ryan Murphy

Miami Herald

Like Luis Bunuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Bartel's Beverly Hills attempts, through wicked irony, to break down class barriers that separate us all.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 17, 2021

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills sounds more like an anthology of punch lines from famous anecdotes about the rich and the boring.

Rated: 2/4

Jan 1, 2000

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Rene Jordan

El Nuevo Herald (Miami)

A willingly bad film. [Full review in Spanish]

Jul 11, 2022

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Paul Freitag-Fey

Daily Grindhouse

A witty, well-paced, and highly entertaining flick with loads of great actors getting a chance to spew dialogue like 'There's a lot of money in hunger.'

Aug 2, 2019

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

As a follow-up to Eating Raoul, Paul Bartel's satire is disappointing. It's a meandering movie of some funny moments and biting scenes, but it shows the director's limitations.

Rated: B-

Nov 29, 2006

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Synopsis

A wealthy Beverly Hills, Calif., resident who has just become a widow, Clare Lipkin (Jacqueline Bisset) temporarily takes on her friend Lisabeth (Mary Woronov) as a house guest. As the two women deal with their upper-class woes, Clare's driver, Frank (Ray Sharkey), and Lisabeth's servant, Juan (Robert Beltran), make a wager to see who can be the first to seduce the other's boss. As the competition gears up, it leads to surprising romantic entanglements and plenty of satirical scenarios.

Director: Paul Bartel
Production Co: North Street Films
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Box Office (Gross USA): $1.9M
Runtime: 1h 43m
Sound Mix: Surround