A Safe Place is a very strange film written and directed by Henry Jaglom.
Noah (Tuesday Weld) is a deeply eccentric, mentally disturbed young woman living in New York City. In the present day, she becomes romantically involved with a young man named Fred (Philip Proctor); later, Mitch (Jack Nicholson), a man with whom she has an on-and-off affair, shows up. In flashbacks, she enjoys a friendship with a Central Park magician (Orson Welles), who calls her Susan, and who may only exist in her mind.
A Safe Place contains examples of:
- '60s Hair: Noah's long, flowing hippie hair, and Fred's sideburns.
- And Starring: Introducing Philip Proctor, also introducing Gwen Welles, and Jack Nicholson.
- Betty and Veronica: Kind, sincere Fred versus Mitch, who is frequently emotionally abusive and in a relationship with someone else. Noah tells Fred that she likes that Mitch is willing to hurt her during sex.
- Big "NO!": Noah cries "Noooooooo!" when the Magician tells her to "disappear" shortly before her suicide.
- Bungled Suicide: Bari recounts waking up in the hospital after taking a bunch of sleeping pills. Although she didn't remember taking the pills, when she heard that her attempt had failed, she truly wanted to die.
- Dream Within a Dream: The Magician tells Susan a story about dreaming that he woke up, then went back to sleep.
- Driven to Suicide: The film seemingly ends with Noah getting drunk and drowning herself in her bubble bath.
- Eyes Never Lie: Noah is a believer in this trope. She tells Fred that his eyes shine with love, that her father's eyes were flat and dead, and that her brother's eyes went on and off like a Christmas tree. She worries that she is incapable of love, because when she looks in the mirror, her eyes are like her father's.
- Flashback: Aside from the scenes with the Magician, there are brief, confusing flashbacks to Noah's childhood, where she's played by Sylvia Zapp.
- Growing Up Sucks: Noah remembers that as a child, she could fly. She lost the ability as she grew. She feels that if she could just remember something, she'd be able to fly again.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: In one scene, a hippie lies naked with the corner of a blanket pulled over his crotch.
- Make a Wish: Noah shows Fred a magic box that the Magician gave her, into which you put something special and important to you while you make a wish. When you remove the item, your wish will come true. Noah won't tell Fred what she put in the box, because then it won't work.
- Meaningful Rename: Susan renames herself after the magic box, which is originally painted like Noah's Ark. The Magician even pulls a rainbow from it.
- Ouija Board: Noah and her friends draw a Ouija board on a public table and use an empty glass as a planchette. The glass spells out "SUSAN HELLO." When Fred shows up, the connection is lost.
- Phone Word: Noah tells Fred that when she was a kid, she used to come up with words based on the first two letters of her friends' phone numbers, like Plaza or Butterfield. She felt a connection with anyone who had the same word as herself. Fred's number starts with 64, so he comes up with Mirage.
- Sitting on the Roof: Noah and Mitch cuddle and kiss on the roof of Mitch's old apartment building.
- Suicide by Pills: Bari discusses how she did not remember that she tried to kill herself in this way when she woke up in a hospital. Learning that she failed to kill herself however made her fall into even more despair.
- Trial Balloon Question: Mitch asks Noah how she'd feel if he murdered his other girl, Rita. When Noah asks him if he actually murdered her, he replies that he did. Neither he nor Noah is terribly upset about it.
- Undercrank: Done in one scene of Fred spinning around on a swivel chair.
- What Have We Ear?: The Magician pulls a bill from behind Susan's ear.
