UK,
1963, 112 min
Directed by:
Joseph LoseyScreenplay:
Harold PinterCinematography:
Douglas SlocombeComposer:
John DankworthCast:
Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig, Catherine Lacey, Patrick Magee, Harold Pinter, John Dankworth, Richard Vernon, Gerry Duggan, Aileen Lewis (more)VOD (1)
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The prolific, ever-provocative Joseph Losey, blacklisted from Hollywood and living in England, delivered a coolly modernist shock to the system of that nation’s cinema with this mesmerizing dissection of class, sexuality, and power. A dissolute scion of the upper crust (James Fox) finds the seemingly perfect manservant (a diabolical Dirk Bogarde, during his transition from matinee idol to art-house icon) to oversee his new London town house. But not all is as it seems, as traditional social hierarchies are gradually, disturbingly destabilized. Lustrously disorienting cinematography and a masterful script by playwright Harold Pinter merge in The Servant, a tour de force of mounting psychosexual menace. (Criterion)
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