The Go-Between (1971 film)

The Go-Between
Original British quad format poster
Directed by	Joseph Losey
Screenplay by	Harold Pinter
Produced by	John Heyman Denis Johnson
Starring	Julie Christie Alan Bates Margaret Leighton Edward Fox Dominic Guard
Cinematography	Gerry Fisher
Edited by	Reginald Beck
Music by	Michel Legrand
Production company	EMI Film Productions
Distributed by	MGM-EMI Distributors (UK) Columbia Pictures (US)
Release dates	24 September 1971 (1971-09-24) (UK) 13 November 1971 (1971-11-13) (US)
Running time	116 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	£500,000

The Go-Between is a 1971 British romantic drama film, directed by Joseph Losey. Its screenplay, by Harold Pinter, is an adaptation of the 1953 novel of the same name by L. P. Hartley. The film stars Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave and Dominic Guard.

Plot

The story follows a young boy named Leo (Dominic Guard), who is invited by a school friend, Marcus, to spend his summer holidays at a Norfolk country house during the early 1900s. While Leo stays there, he finds himself a 'go-between' caught up between Marian (Julie Christie), his friend's elder sister, and a farmer neighbor, Ted Burgess (Alan Bates) whom she loves, though about to be engaged to a Viscount, Hugh Trimingham (Edward Fox). Dominic Guard plays the young Leo and Michael Redgrave plays Leo in old age.

Pinter's screenplay – his final collaboration with Losey, following The Servant (1963) and Accident (1967) – is largely faithful to the novel, though it alludes to the novel's opening events in dialogue and incorporates events described in the novel's epilogue within the central narrative.

Main cast

• Julie Christie as Marian Maudsley (Lady Trimingham)
• Edward Fox as Hugh Trimingham
• Alan Bates as Ted Burgess
• Margaret Leighton as Mrs. Maudsley
• Michael Redgrave as the older Leo Colston
• Dominic Guard as the young Leo Colston
• Michael Gough as Mr. Maudsley
• Richard Gibson as Marcus Maudsley
• Simon Hume-Kendall as Denys
• Roger Lloyd-Pack as Charles
• Amaryllis Garnett as Kate

Production

The rights to the novel had been in the hands of many producers, among them Sir Alex Korda, who originally envisioned Alec Guinness in the lead. Eventually John Heyman managed to get financing from EMI Films, where Bryan Forbes agreed to pay £75,000 for the script. Because of the relatively steep budget, EMI had to seek co-production financing from MGM.

The film was shot at Melton Constable, Heydon and Norwich in Norfolk.

Music

Michel Legrand composed the soundtrack for the film. The main theme was later used as the title music for the French "true crime" documentary series Faites entrer l'accusé (in French Wikipedia). 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 and accolades

The film was first shown in May 1971 at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or. A few days before, James Aubrey, head of MGM, had sold his interest in it to Columbia Pictures, because he 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 ever Royal Premiere.

By August 1971 Nat Cohen stated the film had already been contracted for a million dollars.

Critical Recption

An enthusiastic John Russell Taylor wrote in The Times that, "Up to now, Accident was without argument Losey's best film; now in The Go-Between it has a serious contender for the title. And everything is achieved by apparently doing the absolute minimum."

Charles Champlain in The Los Angeles Times wrote after the US premiere in November 1971 that The Go-Between was one of the best movies of the previous six years. Andrew Sarris in The Village Voice labeled it the best movie of the year. 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”.

For many involved it was praised as the peak of their careers. Leighton earned her first and only Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film.

In 1999, it was included on the British Film Institute's list of its 100 best British films. At the BAFTA festival it was nominated in no less than 12 categories, winning four; Screenplay: Harold Pinter (his second BAFTA), Edward Fox (Supporting actor), Dominic Guard (Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles), Supporting actress: Margaret Leighton (her second nomination and her only win), which makes it one of the very most successful in the history of the competition.

See also

• 1971 in film
• List of British films of 1971

Further reading

Further information: Bibliography for Harold Pinter

• Billington, Michael (2007). Harold Pinter. 2nd ed. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-23476-9. [Updated edition of The Life and Work of Harold Pinter (London: Faber, 1996).]
• Forbes, Bryan (1993). A Divided Life – Memoirs. Mandarin Publishing. ISBN 978-0-749-30884-1.
• Gale, Steven H. (2003) Sharp Cut – Harold Pinter's Screenplays and the Artistic Process. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-813-12244-1.
• Gale, Steven H. (editor; 2001). The Films of Harold Pinter. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-791-44931-8.

External links

• Template:BFI Explore
• The Go-Between at the BFI's Screenonline
• The Go-Between at IMDb
• HaroldPinter.org: Films by Harold Pinter - The Go Between