Directed by:
Joseph LoseyScreenplay:
Harold PinterCinematography:
Gerry FisherComposer:
Michel LegrandCast:
Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave, Dominic Guard, Michael Gough, Edward Fox, Richard Gibson, Roger Lloyd Pack, John Rees (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
An old man (Michael Redgrave) thinks back to a summer many years before when, as a young boy, he stayed with the aristocratic Maudsley family in their beautiful house in the Norfolk countryside. On the threshold of adolescence, intensely curious about sex, he became the go-between for Marian Maudsley (Julie Christie) and local farmer Ted Burgess (Alan Bates) as they conducted an affair behind the backs of the Maudsley family. This is a slow-moving but beguiling story of lost innocence. There's a subtlety and intelligence here rarely found in British costume dramas. The filmmakers go to enormous lengths to recreate Edwardian England, but never allow the period detail to stifle the storytelling. Although life with the Maudsleys seems idyllic--an endless round of picnics, cricket matches and parties--there is always an undercurrent of violence. The Maudsleys are inveterate snobs. The terrifying Mrs Maudsley (played by Margaret Leighton) simply can't countenance the idea that her daughter would have an affair with a man so far beneath her on the social scale as Burgess. The little boy carries the messages between the lovers without ever quite understanding how explosive their contents are. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Julie Christie
Best movies:
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Dadah Is Death (1988) (TV movie)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Alan Bates
UK
Best movies:
The Rose (1979)
Alexis Zorbas (1964)
Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)
Margaret Leighton
UK
Best movies:
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
The Best Man (1964)
Great Expectations (1974) (TV movie)
Michael Redgrave
UK
Best movies:
The Hill (1965)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
The Browning Version (1951)
Dominic Guard
UK
Best movies:
Gandhi (1982)
Agatha Christie: Poirot (1989) (series)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Michael Gough
Malaysia
Best movies:
Corpse Bride (2005)
Out of Africa (1985)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Edward Fox
UK
Best movies:
National Theatre Live: The Audience (2013) (theatrical recording)
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
Gandhi (1982)
Richard Gibson
Uganda
Best movies:
Omagh (2004) (TV movie)
The Go-Between (1971)
Roger Lloyd Pack
UK
Best movies:
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
Agatha Christie: Poirot (1989) (series)
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
John Rees
UK
Best movies:
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Holocaust (1978) (series)
Jungle Fighters (1961)
Keith Buckley
UK
Best movies:
Excalibur (1981)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
Gordon Richardson
UK
Best movies:
Tess (1979)
The Go-Between (1971)
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)