Petit’s family plot

To encounter An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, Radio On director Chris Petit’s little-seen second feature, for the first time 40 years after the film’s production is to experience a sense – or plural senses – of category confusion and evaluative uncertainty. The film’s reception in 1982 (first at the 32nd Berlin Film Festival, where it was in competition but ill-received, then on its limited UK cinema release) confirms that confused or unmet expectations featured significantly in the responses of contemporary critics, exacerbated by Petit’s (presumably calculated) constant use of ellipsis and indifference to loose ends. This essay considers and situates the film’s production and its contemporary reception in relation to the tensions between Petit’s extremely high film-cultural cachet at the time (as Time Out magazine’s Film Editor turned low-budget auteur) and his calculated commercial decision to direct Unsuitable Job as his second feature in a conscious bid for the mainstream and for industry recognition as opposed to niche acclaim.