Petulia

Petulia (1968) is an American drama film directed by Richard Lester. The screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus is based on the novel Me and the Arch Kook Petulia by John Haase.

The film stars Julie Christie, George C. Scott, and Richard Chamberlain, with Arthur Hill, Shirley Knight, Pippa Scott, Kathleen Widdoes, Richard Dysart, Ruth Kobart, Joseph Cotten, and Ellen Geer in supporting roles. Howard Hesseman and Rene Auberjonois make uncredited appearances. Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Grateful Dead playing "Viola Lee Blues", The Committee, and Ace Trucking Company are briefly featured in club sequences. Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and Bill Kreutzmann appear in cameos during the movie's apartment house medical emergency scene as onlookers. Jerry Garcia also appears in duplicate on a large mural and in triplicate on a bus bench both times in stylized solid black and white.

It was listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, but the festival was cancelled due to the events of May 1968 in France. Petulia has influenced filmmaker Steven Soderbergh.