184: The Servant

What struck me most about this English drama that garnered BAFTA awards for both of its male leads was how it managed to be distinctly British and simultaneously universal.  Indeed I would have to say that BAFTA got it right with its 1963 awards for The Servant as these performances are central to the film, as is the production design of Richard Macdonald.  It is these two central elements that allow the film to pull off the trick of being specific while appealing to the collective.  Macdonald’s work creates an essence of that time in the early sixties just before London began to “swing.”  We see bowlers and bumbershoots here, but just below the surface the sexual revolution is beginning to simmer.  In this environment the calculated but sexually charged performances of Dirk Bogarde and James Fox are right at home.

BAFTA also chose to bestow a nomination for “Best British Screenplay” to writer Harold Pinter and rightly so.  The story here is simple enough, but the subtext is enormous in scope.  Flighty aristocratic bachelor Tony (Fox) hires a manservant, Hugo Barrett (Bogarde), just prior to moving into a posh London townhouse.  Barrett furnishes the home and appears initially to be just what Tony had hoped for.  However, when tensions begin to build between Barrett and Toni’s fiancée Susan, it becomes clear that each is strangely jealous of the other.  I’ll spoil nothing save to say that Susan’s suspicions about Barrett are warranted, particularly after he invites his sister to be hired on as a maid.

I should also highlight the importance of the staging employed by director Joseph Losey.  Though the townhouse which serves as the primary set for the action is large enough, Losey manipulates its overcrowding by the four primary characters through the use of sharp angles and tight spaces.  This is a claustrophobic film in many ways.  This feeling directed toward the audience is no doubt intentional as it reflects the undertones of socials commentary coursing through the film’s veins.  The house serves as a visual metaphor for the crowded world, a place that must be shared by aristocrats and working class alike.  As the narrative carries on, tensions, sexual and otherwise, between all four of the house’s inhabitants come to a head.   

The more Barrett comes to know about Tony the more weak he perceives him to be.  In essence, he has influence over the life of this much wealthier man, and what was once envy quickly turns to manipulation.  He uses both of the women as pawns in his game of role reversal as he begins to take control of the house.  The message by The Servant’s conclusion is clear: some of us are born to be playboys and some of us are born to be their servants, but we don’t have to accept these fates.

Now to the film’s universal appeal.  The themes here are set in this British backdrop and appropriately so, but class conflict can be found in all corners of the globe.  Though the performances here by Bogarde and Fox are brilliant, I couldn’t help thinking of the casting for a contemporary American remake.  Kevin Spacey and Edward Norton would have filled these roles nicely in the late nineties.  I also can’t help but wonder how an eastern director like Kurosawa would have handled this material, with Tishiro Mifune filling either lead role depending on the time in his career.   

Grade: 3 Hats Off