"Accident" was the third of four films made in Britain by the director Joseph Losey, an American refugee from McCarthyism, in collaboration with his friend the writer Harold Pinter. I have never seen their first film together, an adaptation of Pinter's play "The Servant ", but the other three differ wildly in subject-matter. "Modesty Blaise" is a spoof of Bond-style spy dramas, "Accident" a serious-minded contemporary tale of adultery in academia and "The Go-Between" a late Victorian/Edwardian romance in the "heritage cinema" style. They also differ wildly in quality; "The Go-Between" is one of the best British films of the early seventies, whereas "Modesty Blaise" is a complete flop, a supposed "comedy thriller" which is neither comic nor thrilling.
Pinter adapted the script for "Accident" from a novel by Nicholas Mosley. The film opens with a car crash, the "accident" of the title, outside the home of Stephen, an Oxford don. Both the occupants of the car are students of his. One, a young man named William, is killed; the other, a girl named Anna, survives.
The rest of the film is essentially one long flashback telling the previous history of Stephen, William and Anna. Although Stephen is married, he falls in love with the beautiful Anna, with whom William is also in love. Neither his marriage nor his feelings for Anna, however, prevent Stephen from having an affair with an old flame, Francesca, while his wife Rosalind is having a baby in hospital. Anna is also having an affair, with Stephen's colleague Charley (also married), even though she is now engaged to be married to William.
And that's about it. For a film written by a writer as eminent as Pinter- he was later to win the Nobel Prize for literature- "Accident" has a surprisingly dull and uninvolving script. It simply chronicles the infidelities of Stephen and Charley, without making any serious attempt to understand or analyse what motivates them or the other characters. As a result we cannot sympathise with any of the figures we see on screen, but are reduced to mere observers without any emotional involvement, especially as the plot is not always easy to follow.
The film did badly at the box office in the UK, but won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury award at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, thereby confirming that old British prejudice that the more boring and incomprehensible a film is, the more the French will enthuse over it. For me, "Accident" is in nothing like the same class as "The Go-Between". The most I can say about it is that at least it is not quite as bad as the abysmal "Modesty Blaise". But to say that a film is not as bad as "Modesty Blaise" is to damn it with the faintest of praise. 4/10.
Pinter adapted the script for "Accident" from a novel by Nicholas Mosley. The film opens with a car crash, the "accident" of the title, outside the home of Stephen, an Oxford don. Both the occupants of the car are students of his. One, a young man named William, is killed; the other, a girl named Anna, survives.
The rest of the film is essentially one long flashback telling the previous history of Stephen, William and Anna. Although Stephen is married, he falls in love with the beautiful Anna, with whom William is also in love. Neither his marriage nor his feelings for Anna, however, prevent Stephen from having an affair with an old flame, Francesca, while his wife Rosalind is having a baby in hospital. Anna is also having an affair, with Stephen's colleague Charley (also married), even though she is now engaged to be married to William.
And that's about it. For a film written by a writer as eminent as Pinter- he was later to win the Nobel Prize for literature- "Accident" has a surprisingly dull and uninvolving script. It simply chronicles the infidelities of Stephen and Charley, without making any serious attempt to understand or analyse what motivates them or the other characters. As a result we cannot sympathise with any of the figures we see on screen, but are reduced to mere observers without any emotional involvement, especially as the plot is not always easy to follow.
The film did badly at the box office in the UK, but won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury award at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, thereby confirming that old British prejudice that the more boring and incomprehensible a film is, the more the French will enthuse over it. For me, "Accident" is in nothing like the same class as "The Go-Between". The most I can say about it is that at least it is not quite as bad as the abysmal "Modesty Blaise". But to say that a film is not as bad as "Modesty Blaise" is to damn it with the faintest of praise. 4/10.