WHO IS "THE SERVANT " AND WHO IS THE MASTER ?

I don’t like the idea of having favorites among the films I review on a weekly basis. It feels plain wrong. Like a parent that secretly admits to having a favorite child or something. But sometimes, just sometimes a film will stand out so much in my heart and mind that I cannot help eulogizing about it. The Servant is just such a film. I am writing this review a day after I have watched the film and I am, as I write, plotting an advertising campaign to convince all my fellow students to watch it. I know it sound ever so slightly unhinged, but what can I say. I am overwhelmed.
Tony has just moved back to London. He is a young aristocrat with a lot of means and no immediate need to find a job. But of course, lounging around London not doing a lot is serious business, so the very first thing Tony does is hire a manservant. And this manservant happens to be Hugo Barrett (Dirk Bogarde). Barrett comes with excellent references; Tony is not the sort to get lost in second thoughts and double-checking so he is hired on the spot. Soon Barrett is running the house almost single-handedly. He is a little too efficient for the liking of Susan, Tony’s fiancée. But try as she might to assert herself, make her own mark on the house she hopes to make her own home one day and put Barrett “back in his place”, the more obvious it becomes that Barrett is a bit more than a crafty man grabbing an opportunity when he sees it. And when Veera – who Barrett introduces as his sister – joins the household as a maid, her allure and sex-appeal will bring a whole new dimension in the battle for control…
The Servant is categorically one of the best psychological thrillers I have watched in a very, very long time. What I love the most about it is that it is not concerned with “tidy endings”, the way mainstream cinema would be. It pursues its hypothesis right to the end; and is not concerned in the least with making things look pretty. Then again, what is going on between Tony and Hugo is far from pretty. And Losey is not afraid to show it. This is, I think, what I loved the most about the structure of the film. About an hour and fifteen minutes in, the film comes to what you may consider a natural close. Yet you look at the time left and see that there is a good forty minutes yet to come; you are left unsure as to what on earth could possible happen next… Then the curveballs start raining down. I honestly thought that those last forty minutes would turn out to seem a bit false, you know, “stuck on”… God I could not be more wrong…
Of course the main stay of the film is the “power struggle” itself. On one level there is the battle between the two women; Veera and Susan on a sexual plain. However Veera’s status as the “forbidden fruit” gives her the edge, especially when contrasted with Susan’s primness and propriety; comparing Veera’s mini-skirts to Susan’s “proper” outfits with no cleavage and long skirts are enough to show who has the real advantage… On the other hand it must be remembered that Veera and everything she does is generally part of a bigger plan spun by Hugo. Hugo’s power over Tony is largely based on Tony’s helplessness and inability to cope physically or mentally without Hugo. Come the second half of the film, the two men have even past the point where the two are “equals” – or “old pals” as they put it; Tony is very clearly subservient to Hugo, and quite clearly Hugo is the one running the house and calling the shots. In context of course, this can be read differently; we could see it as a critique of the aristocracy and the upper classes; Hugo is to be blamed, of course, but Tony is to be blamed equally for not taking control of his own life and responsibilities, living off ready money and not even trying to use his own wits. Call it a critique; call it simply a brilliant thriller, The Servant is worth watching again and again. And I’m pretty sure that is exactly what I will be doing.

THE "ACCIDENT" TO END IT ALL...

Behold another acute psychological portrait from Joseph Losey. If nothing else, my degree has helped me discover this director. I had categorically never heard of him in my life before studying film studies, and I am enjoying his work so much that I am honestly unclear as to how I managed to get through life without knowing him before. In my mind, this film is a very close second to The Servant, a film I have pretty much eulogized about above. It has the same sharp insights into the human mind, especially the bits of it that we may in fact prefer to not discuss.
Stephen is a middle-aged university professor. He has a reasonably happy, yet monotonous life with his wife and two young children. This existence however, will be upset when beautiful Austrian princess Anna enters his life. Anna is his student, she is also involved with William another one of his students in college. Yet all this cannot stop Stephen from yearning for her. And as if this love triangle is not complicated enough, events begin to show that Anna is not the kind of person her admirers think her to be either… Is there any way out of this for Stephen?
This is a difficult one to review. It depends a lot on plot twists and turns so it is hard to write what it’s about without giving something away and thus dashing the enjoyment of the whole affair for all and sundry. I have to admit I had a few “Wait, what??” moments but they were very short lived. There is a certain skill to throwing in a convincing curveball; it has to be completely surprising and original in the context of the story, and yet has to be completely believable as well. Losey is, I have to admit, a master at doing this.
Another thing Losey seems to be interested in is power. If you notice in both The Servant and The Accident, we see people who are in positions of power being “overpowered” and manipulated by people who they are supposed to have power over. And it is fascinating really isn’t it, the whole concept of psychological power and how the most unexpected people get a hold over one? The concept seems to be a running theme through all three films of Losey’s that I have seen; The Go-between is also a matter of power-struggles, the only difference being that Leo’s age and innocence make him the underdog by default; whereas in the other two films, the positions of the protagonists might lead us to suppose greater authority. The “problem” with ?? is that he is largely a man of thought and letters. But not, sadly a man of action. This is why he is constantly overpowered by “men / women of action”. In this sense he is largely comparable to Leo who is placed at a definite disadvantage due to his youth and innocence. The main difference from Leo however, is that Stephen has the opportunity to use his wits to get himself out of the situation he is in; whether he is able to do so or not of course is another story altogether. Definitely another good one and a lot of food for thought.

THE BURDEN OF "THE GO-BETWEEN"

I’m looking back on our progress so far, and am noticing that it’s been a while since we’ve had a good old period piece on these pages. Period pieces are just one of those things aren’t they, you either love them or you hate them. Thing is, they tend to be a little… I don’t know, samey. They are usually grand romances; often depict historical events and the accent is largely on the costumes and décor. Very rarely, however, you get a psychological period piece. This rarity is quite odd, because no matter what else was different, the way people’s minds worked were the same. And there were then as there are now, people who had figured out how people’s minds worked, and how to use this fact… This is what The Go-between is precisely all about…
The year is 1900. Young Leo, a twelve year-old boy from an underprivileged family, is spending ten days of the summer vacation in Norfolk, at the grand home of his richer classmate and friend Marcus. Leo has been brought up by his widowed mother with great difficulty and therefore is stunned by the luxury in the Norfolk home. But he is even more stunned by Clarissa (Julie Christie), Marcus’s beautiful older sister. Leo knows very little of the more “sensitive” issues in life, Clarissa is quick to pick up on this and even quicker to use it to her own advantage. This is because Clarissa, though engaged to be married, is having an affair with one of the tenant farmers on the estate. Of course their difference in statute makes an open affair virtually impossible, but at least now Leo is here, they can meet more often. This is brought about by the fact that Leo would do virtually anything for Clarissa. Including playing postman between the two lovers, ferrying their notes back and forth… How long will Clarissa be able to keep this game up? When, if ever will Leo’s eyes open to what it is he is actually doing?
The film shows us an absolutely marvelous example of manipulation. Leo is a typical “ingénue” if there ever was one. In this age of information and the internet, with children playing with intelligent phones from toddlerhood upwards, it is very hard to actually imagine someone like Leo. At twelve, children these days are completely in touch with every last intricacy of the “facts of life” and everything that goes with them. Leo, however, is made blissful just by the knowledge that he is making Clarissa happy. What is actually in these notes and what is happening behind everybody’s backs is way beyond his imagination. We watch on with baited breath and fraying nerves as the plot thickens… Will Leo actually ever truly “get” what is going on?
Losey uses camerawork to underline this feeling even further. The camera is very “stiff”, not a lot of movement, definitely not a lot of zooming, just some gentle panning here and there. The framing is meticulous, often quite beautiful with great attention to detail. The effect is very much that of British society at the turn of the century; rigid, distant with great attention to exterior fanfare. That, in turn, makes us feel just as trapped as Leo is, trapped on the surface of events if you will, with the rules of the adults giving him very little room to manoeuver and seek the information he clearly knows he lacks. In short The Go-between is elegant, intelligent and definitely original as far as period films go. If you’re only going to watch one, make it this one…