The great British actor Dirk Bogarde gives a mesmerizing performance in Accident, a psychologically compelling tale of an Oxford don, who becomes obsessively infatuated with one of his young and beautiful students.
Grade: A- (****1/2* out of *****)
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While typing late one night in his country home, Stephen (Bogarde), an Oxford philosophy professor, hears a crash. Running outside, he finds two of his pupils trapped inside a smashed car. William (Michael York) is dead, and Anna (Jacqueline Sassard) is miraculously uninjured, though in a state of shock.
Stephen remembers when he and the aristocratic William first met the Austrian-born Anna at school. In particular, he recalls a leisurely Sunday lunch spent at his own house.
Meanwhile, Charley (Stanley Baker), a brash colleague of Stephen’s, had been having an affair with Anna, and Stephen had to deny the seriousness of the matter to Charley’s wife.
Along with “The Servant,” which also stars the brilliant Bogarde, “Accident” is one of director Losey’s best films. Harold Pinter’s oblique, penetrating dialogue brings out the best qualities in Losey, particularly his downbeat, pessimistic worldview and ambiguous feelings about sexuality.
As Stephen, Bogarde captures the mentality of his character, a civilized man who has repressed his sexuality only to find his urges and fantasies resurface during a mid-life crisis (a prevalent onscreen situation for actor Bogarde, as evident in Visconti’s masterpiece, “Death in Venice.”).
The rest of the cast is also good, particularly Stanley Baker, who stands out as the amoral but quite likable Charley.
Losey cleverly plays with Pinter’s narrative of shifting-time and oblique dialogue, most notably in the complex structure of a long Sunday lunch sequence, which illustrates the director’s justifiably famous mise-en-scene.
The visual style is elegant yet understated. The beautiful colors of the British countryside are used to mask the sublimated eroticism and emotional despair that lie beneath the surface.
Though critically acclaimed, the movie was a commercial failure.
It was the third of four Losey–Pinter collaborations. The others being: The Servant (1963), Modesty Blaise (1966), and The Go-Between (1971).
Critical Status
At the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, Accident won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury award.
Commercial Flop
Despite critical acclaim, the movie was upon its initial release a big flop at the box-office. Over the ears, though, it has developed a small cult following.
Cast
Dirk Bogarde as Stephen
Stanley Baker as Charley
Jacqueline Sassard as Anna
Michael York as William
Vivien Merchant as Rosalind, Stephen’s wife
Alexander Knox as University Provost
Delphine Seyrig as Francesca, daughter of the provost
Ann Firbank as Laura
Brian Phelan as Police Sergeant
Terence Rigby as Plainclothes policeman
Freddie Jones as Man in Bell’s office
Maxwell Findlater (pseudonym of Maxwell Caulfield) as Ted
Carole Caplin[6] as Clarissa
Harold Pinter as Bell
Nicholas Mosley as Hedges
Steven Easton as Baby, Stephen and Rosalind’s baby
Credits:
Produced by Losey, Norman Priggen
Distributed by London Independent Producers
Script: Harold Pinter, based on the novel by Nicholas Mosley
Cinematography: Gerry Fisher
Editor: Reginald Beck
Music: John Dankworth
Art Direction, Carmen Dillon
Running Time: 105 min
Release date: February 1967
Running time: 105 minutes
Country: UK
