The Go-Between (film)
| The Go-Between | |
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| Directed by | Joseph Losey |
| Produced by | John Heyman Denis Johnson |
| Screenplay by | Harold Pinter |
| Based on | The Go-Between, a 1953 novel by L. P. Hartley |
| Starring | Julie Christie Alan Bates Margaret Leighton Edward Fox Dominic Guard |
| Music by | Michel Legrand |
| Cinematography | Gerry Fisher |
| Editing by | Reginald Beck |
| Studio | EMI Films MGM |
| Distributed by | MGM-EMI (United Kingom) Columbia Pictures (United States) |
| Release date(s) | December 1970 (United Kingdom) November 13, 1971 (United States) |
| Running time | 118 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £500,000[1] |
The Go-Between is a 1970 British romantic drama film, directed by Joseph Losey. Its screenplay, by Harold Pinter, is an adaptation of the novel of the same name (1953) by L. P. Hartley. The film stars Dominic Guard (in the title role of Leo Colston), Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave, Michael Gough and Edward Fox.
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Plot[edit]
The story follows a young boy named Leo (Dominic Guard), who is invited by a school friend, Marcus, to spend his summer holidays at a Norfolk country house during the early 1900s. While Leo stays there, he finds himself a 'go-between' caught up between Marian (Julie Christie), who is the daughter of his host, and a poor neighbor, Ted Burgess (Alan Bates) whom she loves. Dominic Guard plays the young Leo and Michael Redgrave plays Leo in old age.
Pinter's screenplay – his final collaboration with Losey, following The Servant (1963) and Accident (1967)[2] – is largely faithful to the novel, though it alludes to the novel's opening events in dialogue and incorporates events described in the novel's epilogue within the central narrative.[citation needed]
Cast[edit]
- Julie Christie as Marian Maudsley (Lady Trimingham)
- Edward Fox as Hugh Trimingham
- Alan Bates as Ted Burgess
- Margaret Leighton as Mrs. Maudsley
- Michael Redgrave as the older Leo Colston
- Dominic Guard as the young Leo Colston
- Michael Gough as Mr. Maudsley
- Richard Gibson as Marcus Maudsley
- Simon Hume-Kendall as Denys
- Roger Lloyd-Pack as Charles
- Amaryllis Garnett as Kate
Production[edit]
The rights to the novel had been in the hands of many producers, among them Sir Alex Korda, who originally envisioned Alec Guinness in the lead. Eventually John Heyman managed to get financing from EMI Films, where Bryan Forbes agreed to pay £75,000 for the script.[3] Because of the relatively steep budget, EMI had to seek co-production financing from MGM.
The film was shot at Melton Constable, Heydon and Norwich in Norfolk.[4]
Music[edit]
Michel Legrand composed the soundtrack for the film. The main theme was later used as the title music for the French "true crime" documentary series Faites Entrer L'Accusé.[citation needed] The love theme "I Still See You" written by Legrand with lyrics by Hal Sharper was performed by Scott Walker and released as a single in late 1971.
Release and accolades[edit]
James Aubrey, head of MGM, disliked the final film and sold his interest in it to Columbia Pictures.[5] He did this only a few days before the film won the Palme d'Or at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.[6]
Charles Champlain in The Los Angeles Times wrote that The Go-Between was one of the best movies of the previous six years. Andrew Sarris in The Village Voice labeled it the best movie of the year.[7] Joanne Klein saw the filmscript as a major stylistic and technical advance in Pinter’s work for the screen, and Foster Hirsch described it as “one of the world’s great films”.[citation needed]
For many involved it was praised as the peak of their careers. Leighton earned her first and only Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film.
In 1999, it was included on the British Film Institute's list of its 100 best British films. At the BAFTA festival it was nominated in no less than 12 categories, winning four; Screenplay: Harold Pinter (his second BAFTA), Edward Fox (Supporting actor) , Dominic Guard (Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles), Supporting actress: Margaret Leighton (her second nomination and her only win), which makes it one of the very most successful in the history of the competition.
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Walker, Alexander (1974). Hollywood UK – The British Film Industry in the Sixties. Stein and Day. p. 439. ISBN 978-0-812-81549-8.
- ^ [dead link] James, Nick (27 June 2007). "Joseph Losey & Harold Pinter: In Search of PoshLust Times". British Film Institute. Retrieved 19 June 2009. "From Venetian decadence and British class war to Proustian time games, the films of Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter gave us a new, ambitious, high-culture kind of art film, says Nick James."
- ^ Forbes. p. 100.
- ^ The Go-Between: EMI Films 1970 at Norwich the old city.
- ^ Forbes. p. 221.
- ^ Database (undated). "The Go-Between". Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
- ^ Sarris, Andrew. “The Go-Between.” The Village Voice (12 August 1971), n. p.
Further reading[edit]
- Billington, Michael (2007). Harold Pinter. 2nd ed. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-23476-9. [Updated edition of The Life and Work of Harold Pinter (London: Faber, 1996).]
- Forbes, Bryan (1993). A Divided Life – Memoirs. Mandarin Publishing. ISBN 978-0-749-30884-1.
- Gale, Steven H. (2003) Sharp Cut – Harold Pinter's Screenplays and the Artistic Process. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-813-12244-1.
- Gale, Steven H. (editor; 2001). The Films of Harold Pinter. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-791-44931-8.
External links[edit]
- The Go-Between at the Internet Movie Database
- "Films by Harold Pinter: The Go Between 1966" – At HaroldPinter.org: The Official Website of the International Playwright Harold Pinter.
- [dead link] Andrews, Jamie (15 June 2009). "Harold Pinter & Joseph Losey". Harold Pinter Archive Blog. British Library.
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