Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Perfectly '60s (4): James Fox introduces The Servant & Performance


I had written here before on BLOW-UP and PERFORMANCE as THE '60s double bill ... but now we get Losey's seminal THE SERVANT from 1963 coupled with Roeg & Cammell's PERFORMANCE as a perfect double-bill, and introduced by James Fox, who stars in both of them. This double-bill is being presented on Tuesday 19th April, by London weekly listings magazine "Time Out" as one of their screenings on London movies, and should make for a fascinating evening with Fox present to discuss his work in both of them.
I have already written about these in depth at the Losey, Bogarde, London labels, so no point going over all that again. THE SERVANT should be marvellous on the big screen again - that terrific black and white photography, the Dankworth score (and Cleo Laine song), the Chelsea locations, Pinter's script from the Robin Maugham novel, Losey hitting his peak era and of course Dirk, Sarah, Fox, Wendy Craig ... and then the enigmatic, mysterious PERFORMANCE with all those allusions to Borges and that hip, modern, casual violence as the hitman on the run takes refuge with the reclusive rock star and his entourage ... no wonder Fox [now one of our senior actors and his son Laurence acts too] gave up acting for a decade after it.

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