Cinema
The Servant
Joseph Losey · 1963
Synopsis
One winter day, Hugo Barrett walks up a street in Chelsea and pushes at the door of a house, which gives way under his hand. The house is empty, recently bought, and everything remains to be done. Upstairs, the new owner, Tony, is asleep stretched out on deckchairs. He wakes, explains that he is looking for a servant and that he will expect from him, well, everything. Barrett, who is applying for the post, listens to him and answers his questions.
Context
The film is drawn from a short 1948 novel by Robin Maugham, nephew of William Somerset Maugham, and the playwright Harold Pinter, who adapts it, himself plays a small speaking part in a restaurant scene. Losey having contracted pneumonia during the shoot, Dirk Bogarde took over for him on set, passing on his instructions. The exteriors were shot at Royal Avenue, in the district, and the film adds to the house a few other London locations, a station, a restaurant, a pub.
Who it is for
A hundred and sixteen minutes, in English with subtitles or in a French version; the restored print appeared in 2022.
Prizes and reception
The first of three films born of the meeting between a blacklisted filmmaker and a playwright who would later win the Nobel Prize.
Sources for this page 14
The pages consulted to check this page.