The Go-Between (1971 Film)
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''The Go-Between'' is a 1971 British
historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...
film directed by
Joseph Losey Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American film and theatre director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Hollywood ...
. Its screenplay by
Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...
is an adaptation of the 1953 novel '' The Go-Between'' by L. P. Hartley. The film stars Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave and Dominic Guard. ''The Go-Between'' won the Palme d'Or at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival. Mostly set around 1900, ''The Go-Between'' exposes the psychologically destructive effects of the rigid class conventions in Great Britain.


Plot

In 1900, twelve-year-old Leo Colston is invited to spend his summer holiday at Brandham Hall, the
Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...
of his wealthy school friend, Marcus Maudsley. Upon arriving at the house, the middle-class Leo finds himself out of place among the upper class; his hosts, particularly Marcus's older sister Marian, try to make him feel welcome. Leo soon develops a crush on the beautiful Marian, who dotes on the boy and buys him new clothes. Marcus becomes ill with the measles and has to stay quarantined in his bedroom, leaving Leo to entertain himself. While exploring the estate grounds, Leo wanders to a nearby farm and injures himself playing in one of the haystacks. Tenant farmer Ted Burgess tends to Leo's injury, asking the boy if he can bring a letter to Marian for him in return. Leo agrees and after he gives Marian the letter, she begs him to take another letter back to Ted. Leo becomes the regular messenger between Marian and Ted, who are engaged in a clandestine affair. Leo remains innocent about the proceedings and believes he is merely carrying secret messages between friends. Marian is not free to marry Ted; she is being courted by Hugh, Viscount Trimingham, the estate heir whom her parents want her to marry. One day, Leo sneaks a look at one of the letters Marian has entrusted him with. Leo is shocked and upset when he realizes it is a love note. Marian's engagement to Hugh is announced and Leo is relieved, thinking this means his messenger duties will no longer be needed. Marian and Ted continue their affair and proceed to rely on Leo as a go-between, much to the boy's worry and confusion. When Leo declines to carry a letter for Marian, she scolds him. Leo writes to his mother asking if he can come home sooner than planned because he has overstayed his welcome; his mother responds that it would be rude to the Maudsleys if he left early. The day of Leo's thirteenth birthday party is marked by a record heatwave. Tensions between Marian and Leo have subsided, and she asks the youth to deliver another letter to Ted for her. Leo refuses and the two playfully chase each other outside. Madeleine, Marian's mother, sees them and inquires what the fuss is about. She spots the letter, but Marian lies and says she is sending Leo to deliver a letter to her former nanny, which Leo goes along with. Madeleine, suspecting Marian's affair, goes to speak alone with Leo. She prods the boy to show her the letter, but he claims he has lost it. During Leo's birthday dinner that evening, a thunderstorm breaks out. All of the Maudsley family members are at the dinner table to partake in the festivities, except for Marian. Though some family members insist on waiting for her, Madeleine loses her patience and goes to look for Marian herself, taking Leo along with her. She takes him to Ted's farm, where Marian and Ted are discovered having sex in the barn. The event has a long-lasting impact on Leo, as it is revealed that after he was caught with Marian, Ted shot and killed himself in his farmhouse kitchen. Fifty years later, Leo has returned to Brandham Hall a jaded, disillusioned man. In the years since, he has shut down his imaginative and emotional nature, making him unable to establish intimate relationships. He meets with the elderly Marian, now the Dowager Lady Trimingham, who is living in her former nanny's cottage. Leo learns that Marian went on to marry Hugh as planned but bore Ted's son. Hugh eventually acknowledged Ted's son as his own, before dying in 1910. Marian's son in turn died in the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Marian has become estranged from her grandson because of the scandal of his parentage, so she has once again sent for Leo as a go-between to help repair their relationship and inform her grandson that she did truly love Ted. Leo leaves to embark on his final errand for Marian.


Main cast


Production


Development

The rights to the novel had been in the hands of many producers, including Anthony Asquith. Then Sir
Alexander Korda Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; ; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)
purchased it in 1956. He envisioned
Alec Guinness Sir Alec Guinness (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. In the BFI, British Film Institute listing of 1999 of BFI Top 100 British films, the 100 most important British films of the 20th century ...
and Margaret Leighton in the leads and employed Nancy Mitford to write a script. Hartley later said Korda had no intention to make a film of the book; he kept the rights hoping to re-sell them at a profit. Hartley says "I was so annoyed when I heard of this that I put a curse on him and he died, almost the next morning." Joseph Losey was interested in filming the novel. He tried to get financing for a version in 1963 after filming '' The Servant'' and said Pinter had written "two-thirds of a script, but could not find the money to make the film either then or at a second attempt in 1968. "The company had cold feet about the story", said Losey. "It was too tame for the pornographic age. As one man put it, who would be interested in a bit of Edwardian nostalgia? That's idiotic. It is certainly not a romantic or sentimental piece. It has a surface and a coating of romantic melodrama, but it has a bitter core." Losey said he was attracted to the novel because it was about "the terrible sense of shortness of any human life, the sense of totality of life." Pinter's screenplay for the film was his final collaboration with Losey, following '' The Servant'' (1963), and ''
Accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not deliberately caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that the event may have been caused by Risk assessment, unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Many researchers, insurers ...
'' (1967). It is largely faithful to the novel, but it alludes to the novel's opening events in dialogue, in which Leo is admired by other boys at his school as they believe he used black magic to punish two bullies, and it moves events described in the novel's epilogue into the central narrative. Losey later said he was glad he and Pinter did not make the film until after ''Accident'' because that film encouraged them to experiment with time in storytelling.


Financing

Eventually John Heyman managed to get financing from EMI Films, where
Bryan Forbes Bryan Forbes Order of the British Empire, CBE (; born John Theobald Clarke; 22 July 1926 – 8 May 2013) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man"Falk Q. . BAFTA. 17 October 2 ...
agreed to pay £75,000 for the script. Nat Cohen at EMI also took credit for developing the film. Bernard Delfont claims "for some reason the treatment came to me initially and I passed it on to Bruan with a heartfelt recommendation to give it priority. Because of the relatively steep budget, EMI had to seek co-production financing from
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
. Losey budgeted the film for $2.4 million but had to make it for $1.2 million; he did this by cutting the shooting schedule by a month and working for a percentage of the profits instead of a fee. Walker, Alexander (1974). ''Hollywood UK The British Film Industry in the Sixties''. Stein and Day. p. 439. . In July 1970, MGM-EMI announced it would make the film as part of four co-productions; the others were '' Get Carter'' (1971), '' The Boy Friend'' (1971) and '' The Last Run'' (1971) directed by John Boorman.


Filming

Filming started in August 1970. The film was shot at Melton Constable Hall, Heydon and
Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...
in Norfolk. Filming was completed that November. Pinter was on set during filming. Losey said the making of the film was one of the happier in his career. Dominic Guard struggled with a stammer that made his delivering his lines impossible at times and that caused him to develop nervous tics. Losey dealt with this problem by coaching Guard and telling him he had faith in him, but in "a rather brutal way" by telling him to stop whenever Guard was using a tic or stammer.


Music

Richard Rodney Bennett was announced as the composer. However Bennett's score was rejected and
Michel Legrand Michel Jean Legrand (; 24 February 1932 – 26 January 2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, jazz pianist, and singer. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to ma ...
ended up composing the score for the film. The main theme later was used as the title music for the French "true crime" documentary series ''Faites entrer l'accusé'' (in French Wikipedia). The score was also adapted and re-orchestrated by
Marcelo Zarvos Marcelo Uchoa Zarvos is a Brazilian pianist and film composer. Early life Zarvos was born in São Paulo. He began in classical music in his teens and studied at the Berklee College of Music. He later attended the California Institute of the Arts ...
for Todd Haynes' film '' May December''. The love theme " I Still See You", written by Legrand with lyrics by Hal Sharper, was performed by Scott Walker and released as a single in late 1971.


Release

The film was first shown in May 1971 at the
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
, and it won the Grand Prix International du Festival. A few days before, James Aubrey, head of
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
, disliked the final film and regarded it a flop. The film was released in the UK on 24 September 1971, opening at ABC1 on Shaftesbury Avenue in London. A month later, on 29 October, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother arrived at the ABC Cinema on Prince of Wales Road in Norwich to attend the local premiere, thus giving Norwich its first royal premiere. EMI sold this movie and ''Tales of Beatrix Potter'' to China for release at $16,000 each. They were the first western films to be released in China for two decades. The inaugural screening of a new restoration of the film released by StudioCanal UK took place at Cinema City, Norwich on 11 September 2019.


Box office

By August 1971, Nat Cohen stated the film had already been "contracted" for $1 million. The film was one of the most popular movies of 1972 at the British box office. By September 1972, James Aubrey of MGM said the film lost Columbia $200,000, but he insisted that selling the film had been the right move. In 1973 Losey said the film was still not in profit. According to a biography of Losey, after 18 months of release, the net takings in the UK were £232,249. At 1 July 1972, Columbia's territories had earned $2,198,382, including $1,581,972 in the U.S. and Canada. Ten years after its premiere. the film had earned £290,888 from UK cinemas and TV, £204,566 from overseas sales (excluding the U.S.), £96,599 from the British Film Fund, and Columbia's gross receipts in the U.S., Canada and France were £1,375,300. Losey's personal percentage of film's box office was £39,355. So in the end, the film was quite profitable. In 1994 Forbes claimed the film had made a profit. Delfont called wrote "the film was sher joy... not by any means a blockbuster but it was lavishly praised by the critics and warmly received by the sort of audiences who had almost given up their local cinema as a lost cause."


Critical reception

In ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'',
Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...
described the film as "one of the loveliest, and one of the most perfectly formed, set and acted films we're likely to see this year". Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 and ½ stars out of 4, praising the production detail and Losey and Pinter's attention to the "small nuances of class". Ebert did criticize the film's use of flashforwards near the end, expressing that they prematurely give away the ending. In ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'', Andrew Sarris praised the film's cast, period detail, and camera work. However, Sarris also found issue with the film's incorporation of flashforward scenes, which he said made for a jarring, unnecessarily convoluted narrative. He further expressed that some crucial details from Hartley's book are lost in the transition to the screen.


Retrospective appraisal

Writing in 1985, Joanne Klein saw the filmscript "as a major stylistic and technical advance in Pinter’s work for the screen", and Foster Hirsch described it as "one of the world’s great films" in 1980. * * *
In 2009, Emanuel Levy called the film "Losey's masterpiece". Robert Maras at the '' World Socialist Web Site'' called The Go-Between " devastating critique of bourgeois morality and the British social order." On review aggregate website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, ''The Go-Between'' has an approval rating of 100% collected from 11 reviews, with an average score of 8.6/10. ''Filmink'' argued the movie "seemed to inspire a lot of Australian period movies in the 1970s."


Accolades

Leighton earned her only
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film. In 1999, ''The Go-Between'' was included on the British Film Institute's list of its 100 best British films. It was one of the most successful films from Bryan Forbes' time at EMI.


See also

* BFI Top 100 British films * 1971 in film * List of British films of 1971 * Bibliography for Harold Pinter


References


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * *


External links


''The Go-Between''
at the British Film Institutebr>Archived
* *
HaroldPinter.org: ''Films by Harold Pinter - The Go Between''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Go-Between, The 1971 films 1971 romantic drama films British romantic drama films British coming-of-age drama films 1970s coming-of-age drama films 1970s English-language films English-language romantic drama films Films about families Films about interclass romance Films about social class Films about suicide Films based on British novels Films directed by Joseph Losey Films scored by Michel Legrand Films with screenplays by Harold Pinter Films set in 1900 Films set in country houses Films set in Norfolk Films shot in Norfolk Films set in the 1950s Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios Films whose writer won the Best Screenplay BAFTA Award Palme d'Or winners EMI Films films 1970s British films