Themes: Love Triangles, Age Disparity Romance, Dangerous Attraction
Main Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Stanley Baker, Jacqueline Sassard, Michael York, Vivien Merchant
Release Year: 1967
Country: UK
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
The complex relationships among an Oxford professor, one of his students, and the young woman who captivates both of them is the subject of this difficult but rewarding drama. Director Joseph Losey and writer Harold Pinter had previously collaborated on 1963's The Servant, and they surrounded this recasting of a Nicholas Mosley novel with a similar atmosphere of ominous mystery. The story is presented through flashbacks and disconnected memories that trace the characters' interactions. Though the mood is occasionally brightened by satirical views of the academic world, the overall effect is rather somber, concerned with missed opportunities, unhealthy obsessions, and unavoidable regret. Dirk Bogarde superbly captures the pensive professor's torment, with able support from Jacqueline Sassard and Michael York as the younger couple. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Review
To enter into the world of Harold Pinter is to enter into a land where meaning is best distilled not from what one sees and hears on the surface, but by what is buried underneath. Famed for his "pauses," Pinter has a remarkable talent for dialogue, but it is dialogue which masks inner meaning, in the same way that most people use words to disguise their honest thoughts and desires. Accident is filled with small talk, meaningless conversations, and idle chatter, but the extreme emotion underneath the words constantly threatens to explode. The viewer is not always certain of why characters feel a certain way, but he knows that they do indeed feel something and feel it strongly. The disconcerting tension this creates is echoed by Joseph Losey's direction and Gerry Fisher's expert cinematography, with frequently skewed or bizarre angles and a tendency to dwell on a scene just a little too long. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a better team to shepherd Pinter's work to the screen. Dirk Bogarde is superb as a professor with a midlife crisis; he knows full well every detail of this character's life, more so than the character itself does, and he knows when to pull out the stops and when (and how) to pull back. He gets good support from Stanley Baker and Michael York, perhaps less so from Jacqueline Sassard, who does not seem as engulfed in her character. (This could, of course, be a conscious decision on her and Losey's part.) Almost humorless, Accident is an intense but amply rewarding experience. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Delphine Seyrig - Francesca; Harold Pinter - Bell; Alexander Knox - Provost; Ann Firbank - Laura; Brian Phelan - Police Sergeant; Freddie Jones - Frantic Man in Bell's Office; Nicholas Mosley - Hedges; Jane Hillary - Receptionist; Jill Johnson - Secretary; Terence Rigby - Plainclothes Policeman
The story centers on a married Oxford professor, Stephen, who is experiencing a mid-life crisis. The world changes for him when he meets Anna, a beautiful young woman who is engaged to one of his students, William. Following a car accident outside Stephen's home in which William is killed and Anna is severely disoriented, she is obliged to remain with Stephen although his wife is out of town. The events of the build up to the accident are told in flashbacks and, while Stephen believes that he is in control of the events that will eventually lead to the destruction of his marriage, we soon discover that Anna is not so innocent. In fact, she is involved with Charlie, a colleague of Stephen's.
The crowning metaphor of the film comes at a point in one of the flashbacks when we see a dazed but unhurt Anna crushing her dying fiancé beneath her spike-heeled foot as she steps on his face while trying desperately to climb out of the overturned car.
Billington, Michael. Harold Pinter. London: Faber and Faber, 2007. ISBN 9780571234769 (13). Updated 2nd ed. of The Life and Work of Harold Pinter. 1996. London: Faber and Faber, 1997. ISBN 0571171036 (10). Print.
Gale, Steven H. Sharp Cut: Harold Pinter's Screenplays and the Artistic Process. Lexington, KY: The UP of Kentucky, 2003. ISBN 0813122449 (10). ISBN 9780813122441 (13). Print.
Apart From That ·Applicant ·The Black and White ·Dialogue for Three · "God's District" ·Interview ·Last to Go ·The New World Order ·Night ·Precisely ·Press Conference ·Request Stop, Special Offer ·That's All ·That's Your Trouble ·Trouble in the Works
