Every other filmmaker these days references those easy riders and raging bulls of '70s American cinema. Few people, however, remember that other '60/'70s filmmaking style, the syncopated fractured cinema of the Brits. Luckily, a current retrospective of
Joseph Losey at the Walter Reade in New York City will help you catch up with what was all the rage 40 years ago. Although Losey was actually an American -- from Wisconsin no less -- his English dramas, starting with the homoerotic upstairs/downstairs s&m drama
The Servant (based on his longtime collaborator Harold Pinter's script), showcased his skill at dramatizing the uneasy psychology of class and desire, especially in men with a desire to destroy themselves. But even more fun is to enjoy the film's look -- the sudden unmotivated zooms, the over dramatic score (often my Michel Legrand) punctuated by the jarring edits, the occasional lilting musical montage sequence, the baroque use of mirrors and windows -- which at the time must have felt very new, and now feels new all over again.
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posted by Peter Bowen @ 5/18/2004 12:02:00 PM
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