Accident is a 1967 British drama film directed by Joseph Losey. Written by Harold Pinter, it is an adaptation of the 1965 novel Accident by Nicholas Mosley. It is the third of four Losey–Pinter collaborations; the others being The Servant (1963), Modesty Blaise (1966) and The Go-Between (1971).[2] At the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, Accident won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury award.[3] It also won the Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.
Accident | |
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Directed by | Joseph Losey |
Screenplay by | Harold Pinter |
Based on | the novel by Nicholas Mosley |
Produced by | Joseph Losey Norman Priggen |
Starring | Dirk Bogarde Stanley Baker Jacqueline Sassard |
Cinematography | Gerry Fisher |
Edited by | Reginald Beck |
Music by | John Dankworth |
Distributed by | London Independent Producers |
Release date | February 1967 |
Running time | 105 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £299,970.00[1] |
Stephen, a married Oxford tutor in his forties, has two students: the rich and likeable William, of whom he is fond, and a beautiful, enigmatic Austrian named Anna, whom he secretly covets. William also fancies Anna and hopes to know her better. While Stephen's wife is away having their third child, he looks up an old flame in London and they sleep together. Returning home, he finds that his pushy colleague Charley has been using the house for sex with Anna. She tells Stephen privately that she and William are engaged to be married.
William says that he will come to Stephen's house after a party that night. As he is too drunk to drive, Anna takes the wheel, but she crashes the car outside Stephen's gate. Upon finding the accident and William dead, Stephen pulls the deeply shaken Anna from the wreckage and hides her upstairs while he calls the police. Later, he forces himself on her while she is still in shock, then takes her back to her room at the university. He comes by in the morning to find a bemused Charley, who cannot prevent Anna from packing to return to Austria.
Responding to criticism that the film's meaning was difficult to discern, Stanley Baker said: "It's obvious what Accident meant ... It meant what was shown on the screen." Of Joseph Losey's direction, Baker said: "One of Joe's problems is that he tends to wrap things up too much for himself. I think that 75% of the audience didn't realise that Accident was a flashback."[5]
In his review upon the film's release, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther called Accident "a sad little story of a wistful don ... neither strong drama nor stinging satire."[6]
The film performed poorly at the box office. In 1973, Losey said the film was "officially in bankruptcy."[7]
On Rotten Tomatoes, Accident holds a rating of 78% from 27 reviews.[8]
Notes
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.
Further reading
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