Show Information
Tickets General Admission £5
Students £3
Running time 116 minutes
certification 15
The Servant (UK)
19 May I 8pm
The Servant was one of the key British films of the 1960s, winning three BAFTA awards for Dirk Bogarde (Best Actor), James Fox (Most Promising Newcomer) and Douglas Slocombe (Best Cinematography). Joseph Losey directed the film, adapted by Harold Pinter from Robin Maugham’s novella, The Servant (1948).
When Hugo Barrett arrives for his job interview as upper class Tony’s servant he finds him asleep in a chair with an empty bottle in his hand. The shot of Barrett looking down on and appraising Tony anticipates what will follow, namely, the loss and disintegration of Tony’s control over the house and himself as Barrett slowly assumes power over him.
We see many of the early scenes through the eyes of Tony’s upper class fiancee, Susan, who mocks Barrett’s pretensions. She embarks on a power struggle with Barrett over who is the arbiter of taste and style in the house. Barrett counters by bringing his “sister” into the house on the pretext of using her as a maid, escalating the savage struggle for power.
It seems that Losey wanted to use Maugham’s story to explore the fragility of the social order in swinging sixties London. Losey and Pinter removed the single, outside narrator used by Maugham in favour of using close-up shots, distorted camera angles and sparse dialogue to focus on the unnatural tensions between the characters.
There was some concern in the film team that the plot was too far out of the mainstream with its showing of lower class people occupying upper class Tony’s house and with Tony’s loss of control. However, Leslie Grade, who helped finance the film, wrote that the film might “outrage many people, perplex others, fascinate, move and impress others, baffle and annoy others, but I should be much surprised if it bored anybody”. The film opened in London in November 1963 with the help of its now well known poster of Bogarde’s and Fox’s faces reflected and distorted in a convex mirror. It was instantly acclaimed by UK critics.
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Around 70 non-member tickets are available to purchase for individual screenings in Season 62. Non-member tickets are £5 (full-time students £3) and can be purchased in advance from The Exchange’s Box Office: online at exchangetwickenham.co.uk/events, by telephone 020 8240 2399 or in person. Non-member tickets have sold out for every screening this season, so early pre-booking via The Exchange is strongly recommended to avoid disappointment.
Should any non-member tickets remain available on the night of screenings, they can be purchased from The Exchange’s box office on the ground floor by contactless payments only.
About Richmond Film Society
Richmond Film Society was formed in 1963 and has since screened around 900 films. Its objective was, and remains, to bring our community the very best in World Cinema.
The seasons run from September to June and attract an aggregate audience of over 5,000. Season 62 comprises 20 films of international repute, including features from Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, South Asia, South and Central America, USA and UK.
For further information on RFS and the programme of films, see http://www.richmondfilmsoc.org.uk.
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