Dedications: My four late friends Rory, Stan, Bryan, Jeff - shine on you crazy diamonds, they would have blogged too. Then theres Garry from Brisbane, Franco in Milan, Mike now in S.F. / my '60s-'80s gang: Ned & Joseph in Ireland; in England: Frank, Des, Guy, Clive, Joe & Joe, Ian, Ivan, Nick, David, Les, Stewart, the 3 Michaels / Catriona, Sally, Monica, Jean, Ella, Anne, Candie / and now: Daryl in N.Y., Jerry, John, Colin, Martin and Donal.

Thursday 2 December 2010

Losey



They do it with mirrors! Some classic images from Joseph Losey films - like Visconti, most of my favourites worked with him ... Jeanne Moreau and Stanley Baker in EVE (1961); that classic image from THE SERVANT, 1963; Bogarde and Sarah Miles; Alain Delon and Romy Schneider in THE ASSASSINATION OF TROKSTY in 1972; Julie Christie in THE GO-BETWEEN, 1971; Bogarde, Baker, Vivien Merchant, Michael York, Jacqueline Sassard, and Delphine Seyrig with Bogarde in ACCIDENT, 1967; and Losey with Vitti, Bogarde and some of the MODESTY BLAISE cast, 1966.

Also, Elizabeth Taylor and Noel Coward in BOOM, 1967, and Mia Farrow with those two aunts Peggy Ashcroft and Pamela Brown in SECRET CEREMONY, 1968. I have written previously [Losey label] on how I saw Losey with Burton and Taylor in London in 1970 when they were protesting about SECRET CEREMONY which was not a success being edited and sold to television! Losey had a great late hit with his baroque verson of DON GIOVANNI, one of the best opera films.Other Loseys of note [and which I have written about previously] include, after his early Hollywood era, that 1954 thriller THE SLEEPING TIGER (his first with Bogarde), and TIME WITHOUT PITY, BLIND DATE, THE CRIMINAL, THESE ARE THE DAMNED, KING AND COUNTRY, FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE, and then his French era with Delon and Moreau in MISTER KLEIN and Montand in LE ROUTES DE SUD (only ever shown on tv once here in the UK) and his final, the intriguing STEAMING with Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles and Diana Dors, her last movie also, and his 1973 re-worked version of A DOLL'S HOUSE headed by Jane Fonda and Seyrig. His THE GYPSY AND THE GENTLEMAN for the Rank Organisation in '58 is a rip-roaring melodrama in vivid colours, like an updated Gainsborough picture with good roles for Mercouri and Flora Robson.

2 comments:

  1. Losey was an inconsistent director but always, always interesting and tremendous with actors. The one I'm dying to see, but it seems all but impossible here in the States, is "Blind Date" aka "Chance Meeting" with Hardy Kruger and Micheline Presle.

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  2. I had wanted to see Blind Date for ages too, but it was issued as a Region 2 dvd here in UK last year - perhaps you should get a multi-region player. I got one cheap on Amazon so now I can see disks from every region.

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