There are many prosperous film partnerships, those which have gone a little unnoticed over the decades. One such under-appreciated double-act, would be the blacklisted American film director Joseph Losey, and his writing comrade, Harold Pinter. With The Servant (1963), Accident, and then The Go-Between (1971), Losey and Pinter made some provocative, compelling pictures around that time.
So, Pinter would adapt Accident from the novel by Nicholas Mosley. And while at the Cannes Film Festival, the film won the Grand Prize, with another English-set, eccentric flick nabbing the Palme d’Or – Michaelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up. Losey would later take the Golden Palm himself, with The Go-Between.
The second collaboration between Losey and Pinter. Accident, also brought Dirk Bogarde back into the front-line (after the success of The Servant). Accident tells of sophisticated English life, the fruitful and the ordinary perhaps. But regardless of demographic, there’s always a place for personal cobwebs, restrained urges, and cracks that are bigger than you think.
The beautifully-observed Accident, opens with a car crash. But one we do not actually see. Our frame is dominated by the countryside estate house, and the sounds of the speeding car approaching, then clunking off the road. It is both a picturesque, and alarming opening moment. A clear sign of the seemingly idyllic way of life intercepted with a languid, ebbing series of events.
Bogarde plays Stephen, an Oxford professor, beyond forty, and apparently a little bored with his life. Or at least the ordinary he believes has sunk him rather. Even with two young children, and a devoted wife (Vivien Merchant) – who is expecting their child. A rather zealous student of his, William (Michael York), tells him about a girl he is smitten with. With an abundance of natural poise, Anna (Jacqueline Sassard) is a beautiful young woman, an exchange student from Austria.
Stephen’s moral compass is all over the place once this ball starts rolling. When he meets Anna, there is a kind of streak of relenting enchantment, one which he will attempt to keep under wraps. Pretty unsuccessfully, but stiff upper lip of the British and all. Later, Stephen’s gloating friend, Charley (Stanley Baker), becomes embroiled in the Anna fanship. Relations old and new are pulled at the seams.
The restlessness of these characters, the lingering infatuations, challenges, and chips away at, their mannered and ethical mold. Stephen, whether mid-life crisis or not, is guilty by sheer desire and frustration. And his poor wife knows it, though to what extent we can only imagine. Director Losey, and of course the brilliant Bogarde, portray a man with potentially damaging flaws, yet still we hope he can straighten this all out.
A grounded, understated film, the story is told with a sense of etiquette and charm. Cinematographer, Jerry Fisher, who also worked with Losey on numerous occasions, captures the brittle emotion sailing through the English landscape. There’s a fine, subtle score by John Dankworth, an undercurrent to the mellow drama unfolding. And Pinter’s script, too, is simmering with cracking dialogue. As expected.
The cast ensemble are impressive throughout. There have criticisms of Jacqueline Sassard’s Anna, but for me the passive nature of the siren is both alluring and affecting. As a presence of character over performance, I might add. Bogarde carries the emotional weight of Stephen, an actor with a somewhat sullen face, handsome all the same. His struggles are often there to see organically.
An earnest, enthralling film, Accident plays on the lack of action, the pensive looks of the characters, the unanswered questions. The awkward exchanges, the shift in the dynamics these fragile folk, are handled so sharply that you can smell the resentment and the regret. Varied egos and anxieties clash, these are power games without rules, but also not planned out. Accident is a dark, engaging film, whose skills lie in its simplicity, as well as the complexities that drift on by.
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