In 1980, on one of the rare occasions that he returned from exile in Europe to work in North America, Jules Dassin made OBSESSION. He shot the movie in and around Toronto with a largely Canadian crew. As Dassin and scriptwriter Thomas Hedley develop this story of the attraction between a sixty-year-old artist, Ashley St. Clair (Richard Burton), and a sixteen-year-old would-be writer, Sarah Norton (Tatum O'Neal), they show how the circle of people around Sarah and Ashley are affected, and how they react. The circle includes Sarah's school friends; her mother and father (played by Patricia Collins and Robin Gammell); and Ashley's ex-lover Claudia (Nuala Fitzgerald) who is in from New York for a visit. Along with Richard Burton in one of the last performances in his long and distinguished career, and Tatum O'Neal attempting to make the transition from child star to adult actress, the cast includes Michael Wincott, in an early role, as Sarah's boyfriend Paul, who does not react well to being rejected, and Kate Reed as Sarah's pragmatic doctor.