Movies
The Age
Thursday January 7, 2010
The Go-Between (1970)ABC1, 12.25amBLACKLISTED by the House Un-American Activities Committee, director Joseph Losey fled to England. It turned out to be one of the few acts by the HUAC to actually benefit mankind. In London, Losey rebuilt his career and made a series of films just about as fine as have ever been made. On three of them, his scriptwriting collaborator was the great playwright Harold Pinter. The streak of masterworks began with The Servant, reached a career high with Accident and nestled on a high plateau with The Go-Between. The Go-Between is based on an L.P. Hartley novel perhaps most famous for its opening line: "The past is like a foreign country: they do things differently there." In this tale of Victorian England, 13-year-old Leo Colston (Dominic Guard) is sent to the home of aristocrats in Norfolk for summer. There, he discovers the noble and beautiful daughter, Lady Marian (Julie Christie), is having her way with local farmer Ted Burgess (Alan Bates). When Leo stumbles upon the lovers, he wonders whether Lady Marian has done wrong and asks her fiance, Hugh Trimingham (Edward Fox), for guidance. Hugh puts him at ease with, "nothing is ever a lady's fault". This is an exquisite rendering of a unique time in British culture: a time of genteel class wars, radiant countryside and repressed sexuality €” an idyllic Eden before the dusk fell on the British Empire. It is beautifully shot and stunningly edited, with dialogue that crackles in the ear and mind. SCOTT MURRAY
© 2010 The Age
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