THE SERVANT

NEW RESTORATION

(1963) Upper-crust James Fox thinks he’s found a “treasure” in Jeeves-efficient new butler Dirk Bogarde — just the man to put his life and swankily restored Knightbridge townhouse in order — though his frightfully stuck-up fiancée Wendy Craig sniffs more than disapprovingly. But after Bogarde’s mini- skirted “sister” Sarah Miles suddenly shows up on Fox’s doorstep, the line of demarcation between Upstairs and Downstairs blurs, in American blacklistee Losey’s pioneering Mod psychodrama, the first of three collaborations with playwright Harold Pinter (who can also be glimpsed in a restaurant cameo). With jazz score by John Dankworth (and vocal by his wife Cleo Laine, heard on an eros- arousing LP) and stunning b&w camerawork by Douglas Slocombe (Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Man in the White Suit, Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc., etc.).  DCP. Approx. 112 min.
2:35, 7:00

ACCIDENT

NEW RESTORATION

(1967) A country home on a warm summer night; the sound of a sickening car crash; a startled horse; a white-clad woman with a feathery boa; a curious dog. A long Sunday that begins with guests, expected and unexpected, arriving for lunch, and then staying for supper, and then overnight; interspersed with clumsy tennis, near-silent walks through an idyllic countryside, drinkers upending their beer glasses to clear for the whiskey, and... “What room is everybody in?” Oxford don Dirk Bogarde’s mid-life crisis, struggling with the tensions, rivalries, lusts and distrusts shared with his students Michael York and Jacqueline Sassard, pregnant wife Vivien Merchant, and unpleasant bespectacled colleague Stanley Baker, as the flashbacks unfold à la Alain Resnais, including a wispy, dreamlike reunion with old flame Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad), Following The Servant, this was eventual Nobel laureate Pinter’s second Losey collaboration, ruthlessly eschewing exposition in adapting a novel by Nicholas Mosley, son of British fascist leader Oswald. DCP. Approx. 105 min. 

12:30, 4:45, 9:15