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The Servant (Paperback, 2nd edition)
Loot Price: R322
Discovery Miles 3 220
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The Servant (Paperback, 2nd edition)
Series: BFI Film Classics
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Loot Price R322
Discovery Miles 3 220
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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Amy Sargeant's compelling and meticulous study of Joseph Losey's
The Servant (1963) sets the film in the context of a long tradition
of fictional depictions of the master-servant relationship, from
Shakespeare to Cervantes, Henry James, Dorothy L. Sayers and P.G.
Wodehouse. Sargeant points out that while many of these
relationships are played for comic effect, that of the 'young
master' Tony (James Fox) and his manservant Barrett (Dirk Bogarde)
unfolds in a far more sinister manner, with Barrett coming to
dominate and humiliate the hapless Tony. Sargeant's reading pays
particular attention to the contribution not only of Losey and
Harold Pinter, who adapted the screenplay from Robin Maugham's
novella, but also of the cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, designer
Richard Macdonald and costume designer Beatrice 'Bumble' Dawson.
She analyses the performances of Sarah Miles as Barrett's lover
Vera and Wendy Craig as Tony's fiancee Susan, as well as those of
Fox and Bogarde, and gives careful consideration to how the film
uses architectural form, interior design and decoration, and
clothing to establish character and relationships. In the context
of the collapse of the British Empire, and a beleaguered
Establishment beset by spy and sex scandals, the film can be read,
Sargeant argues, as a metaphor for the 'state of the nation' in the
early 1960s. Finally, Sargeant considers the film's critical and
commercial reception in Britain, Europe and the United States - its
release, how it was received as one of a number of 'emigre' films,
and Losey's surprising denial of a homoerotic intent in the
Tony-Barrett relationship. In her new foreword to this edition, Amy
Sargeant considers contemporary resonances of the film's depiction
of a twisted master-servant relationship in recent TV and cinema
including The Crown, Downton Abbey and The Trial of Christine
Keeler.
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