In search of Muriel Spark

The Driver’s Seat (1970) – Muriel Spark
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Very early on in her 1970 novel The Driver’s Seat, Muriel Spark lets us know that the heroine, Lise, an office worker on vacation somewhere in Southern Europe, is going to die.

The Driver’s Seat (1974) – Giuseppe Patroni Griffi
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Starring Elizabeth Taylor and Andy Warhol… . This film is based on the best-selling Muriel Spark novel. Elizabeth Taylor, in one of her least-known performances, stars as a deranged, psychotic spinster looking for a man to whom she can give herself – completely (see above). Set in Italy’s romantic and tragedy-filled Rome, she embarks on a series of chilling adventures as she seeks to keep a date with a mystery lover…but when she finds him, she demands much more than love… She demands murder. (for similar storylines about a character who demands to be murdered see Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and Martin Amis’s London Fields)

See also: Italian cinema – 1974 film – Andy Warhol