ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
ActuallyGlimmer
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
lasttimeisaw
An elaborate UK period costume drama from Joseph Losey, the Palme d'Or winner of 1971 and scripted by Harold Pinter (their third collaboration after THE SERVANT 1963, 8/10 and ACCIDENT 1967), which also bookended the honeymoon period between them, from L.P. Hartley's eponymous novel which begins with "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there". The central narrative is set in 1900, a 12-soon-to-be-13Leo (Guard) stays as a guest with the wealthy family of his schoolmate Marcus (Gibson) in rural Norfolk during a torrid summer, and soon becomes a go-between and delivers letters between Marcus' upscale sister Marian (Christe) and her secret inamorato Ted Burgess (Bates), a tenant farmer. While the upper class splendor does open the eyes of Leo, who is from a not-so-noble family, he is more intrigued by Ted's unrefined masculinity, and constantly pesters him about the meaning of "spooning", also his fascination towards the gorgeous Marian retains him as the loyal messenger of their forbidden romance. Until he knows Marian will marry to Hugh Trimingham (Fox), a viscount returned from war, with a glaring scar on his face, a man whom he also respects, Leo wavers, and on the day of his 13th birthday, a tryst is about to be uncovered by Marian's stern mother (Leighton), and tragedy inevitably will separate the ill-fated lovers. The film impresses foremost with its stunning bucolic scenery, the alternately mellifluous and eerie sonic environment wondrously created by Michel Legrand's score. And it also takes an unconventional route to underpin the story's seemingly placid surface, exclusively through Leo's observation, to mask its choppy torrent underneath, how the class boundary is preached and the lives of nobility starts to crumble. Equally unusual is the unforeseen insertion of scenes where an agedLeo (Redgrave) revisit Marion - it does baffle audience who is alien with the source novel, but it also creates an air of mystery and an overpowering solemnity which is beguilingly arresting. The film is a four-times BAFTA winner (with 12 nominations in total) but only be able to generate one BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS nomination for Leighton (remember the great time when BAFTA doesn't condescend to a merely Oscar precursor?), who is menacingly persistent to disclose the scandal in the third act. Christie and Bates, barely sharing the same frame together (bar Ted's rendition when Marian comes to his succor as the musical company and their final tryst), yet both display their rough edges when facing Leo, their inhibited frustration finally finds an orifice on this wide-eyed outsider.Dominic Guard as the young Leo, is literally the eyes of the film, perpetually frowning, bemused by the adult world he is too eager to comprehend, authentically guarantees Leo's greenness tallies with the outfit Marian bought for him. Edward Fox and Michael Gough complement the outstanding cast with a touch of dignified distinction running in their veins.Truth to be told, THE GO-BETWEEN is neither an ode of genuine friendship, nor about a young boy's first crush, to me, Losey conceives this story as an innocence-lost process which every boy must undergo, a dispirited revelation of how adulthood is never as inspiring as he imagined. But overall, it occasionally tainted by the brunt of its narrative ellipsis, which would reach its detrimental apex in THE ROMANTIC ENGLISHWOMAN (1975, 4/10).
Sindre Kaspersen
American screenwriter and director Joseph Losey's twenty-third feature film which was written by English playwright, screenwriter, actor and director Harold Pinter (1930-2008), is an adaptation of a novel from 1953 by British author Leslie Poles Hartley (1895-1972). It was screened In competition at the 24th Cannes International Film Festival in 1971, was shot on location in the county of Norfolk in England and is a UK production which was produced by German-born British producer John Heyman and British producer Norman Priggen. It tells the story about Leo Colston, a 12-year-old student and a kind of magician who in a hot summer of 1900 is invited as a guest to a countryside mansion called the Brandham Hall in Norfolk by an aristocratic family named Maudsley. Leo has come there mainly due to his schoolmate Marcus who is the son of Mr and Mrs Maudsley, but his initial reasons for being there changes when he notices Marcus' elder sister Marian.Distinctly and precisely directed by American filmmaker Joseph Losey (1909-1984), this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated by the protagonist and from multiple viewpoints, draws a gripping portrayal of the moral and emotional dilemma an adolescent boy is faced with after becoming a secret messenger and the forbidden relationship between an aristocratic and affianced young woman and a tenant farmer who has to hide their romance. While notable for its naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, sterling production design by English production designer Carmen Dillon, cinematography by English cinematographer Gerry Fisher, costume design by costume designer John Furniss and the fine editing by English film editor Reginald Black (1902-1992), this character-driven and narrative-driven period drama where an aging man reminiscence a pivotal year in his life when his young heart was struck by a magnificent woman, depicts an empathic and incisive study of character and contains an efficient and prominent score by French composer Michel Legrand.This romantic, suspenseful, reflective and stringently structured story which is set against the backdrop of a rural county near the city of Norwich in East England in the late 19th century, examines themes like friendship, class distinctions, loss of innocence and is impelled and reinforced by its fragmented narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity, foreboding and harmonic atmosphere, graceful aura, exceptionally moving flash forward scenes and the memorable acting performances by former English actor Dominic Guard in his debut feature film role, English actress Julie Christie, English actor Sir Alan Bates (1934-2003), English actress Margaret Leighton (1922-1976) and English actor Edward Fox. An eloquent, literary and nostalgic coming-of-age tale from the early 1970s which brilliantly combines various genres and which gained, among numerous other awards, the Palme d'Or at the 24th Cannes Film Festival in 1971.As their two previous cooperation's, Joseph Losey and author Harold Pinter's third and final collaboration is a film adaptation of a novel by a 20th century British writer and an artistic character piece that examines and emphasizes the internal struggles of characters from upper and lower social classes who are either by themselves or others led into predicaments that unravels their frailty. This mysterious and condensed triangle drama which follows the memories of a main character who looks back at a faraway past that has left him scarred for life, is a timeless and masterful cinematic accomplishment.
writers_reign
There are several plus points - the lavish sets, sense of atmosphere, decent acting - but against that must be set the negatives not least of which is the irritating, intrusive and anti-melodic score, almost as if Michel Legrand has abandoned his romantic image and is anticipating Michael Nymen. The score does everything but beat you with a club in its anxiety to highlight what? It is, to quote Macbeth, full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Apart from this we are not told how a tenant farmer was able to seduce a daughter from the 'big house'. Conveniently they are already lovers when the film opens but it is almost impossible to imagine any circumstances in which they could have reached that state given the rigid caste system that obtained in 1900. Some sixty years before females aspired to let alone demanded orgasm Christie is clearly a highly sexed emancipated (if only mentally) female with no concern about falling pregnant out of wedlock in a period that offered no contraceptives other than self-control. If you can swallow these improbabilities it's a pleasant enough entry.
Framescourer
Losey/Pinter's adaptation of LP Hartley's novel follows Leo, invited to spend the summer with his upper crust schoolfriend's family in Norfolk. He contracts a bit of a crush on Julie Christie's Marian (his friend's older sister) and consequently gets drawn into the awkward, tacit love triangle between her fiancée Trimingham (Fox) and masculine local farmer Ted (Bates). Losey interpolates brief, silent flash-forwards to the present day as Leo revisits the area to speak with Marian in her dotage.If one has seen, or, more pertinently, read Atonement (Joe Wright's film on Ian McEwan's book) then you'll be familiar with the themes and, in part, composition of The Go-Between. Leo divines the sexual tension and intent of the relationship between Marian and Ted but, being not only young but also uninitiated in the implicit obligations of the upper class, cannot understand why Marian is simultaneously agreeing to her union with Trimingham. Unlike Atonement, Leo doesn't wilfully interfere with the relationships. Instead he does act as a catalyst that allows them to happen and is consequently affected by the outcome - the final sequence is a dryly tragic denouement which recalls the TV interview epilogue of Atonement; only here there is no atonement to be made or had.The film is beautifully and unequivocally shot. The past may indeed be a different country, as the voice-over tells us but it's not a figment of the imagination. The acting is very good, with the exception of the younger Maudsleys who are weak. Michel Legrand's score is a cunning set of neo-baroque variations for piano, rendered oppressively rather like the society and heat. Losey's handling of the drizzled flash-forwards is a beautifully rendered conceit that really makes the film for me: wistful, English and eloquent. 7/10
