Accident (1967)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Not as well known or as revered as the earlier Pinter, Losey collaboration, The Servant (1963) but equally fine. Harold Pinter's script is sparse and concise but its meaning clear and menacing. Indeed at times, such is the clarity of language and the depth of our understanding that we seem to know more clearly what is going on than those on the screen. It is some time since I last saw this and remembered little of the comings and goings but I remembered much of the dialogue and found myself, in the pauses, knowingly anticipating as one might have the next track on a vinyl LP. The script is perfection, Losey's direction very understanding and in complete harmony, Johnny Dankworth's music is effective but not over used and everyone performs well. Bogarde is as good as ever, the underrated Stanley Baker on top form and Jacqueline Sassard does very well in the difficult role, bouncing about between these competing males. Mostly shot in house, garden and college but there is a fine punting sequence and although on the surface not a lot seems to happen, it is surprising just how much does in this 'flashback' movie.

The film begins with an accident outside Dirk Bogarde's home. When he investigates, he finds a car had crashed. The man (Michael York) was dead and the young lady (Jacqueline Sassard) unconscious. Then, the film switches--to well before the accident occurred. Bogarde plays a middle-age professor at one of Oxford's colleges. He has a wife and two kids--and one more on the way. However, it becomes apparent that he feels like he's missing something. And, when he sees two young lovers together who he tutors, he begins thinking about having an affair with the young lady. But, as she's already taken, he has a rather meaningless one-night stand with another woman. Still, he can't get his mind off this young Austrian student--and it's sure to destroy his marriage if he cannot stay focused.I have reviewed a ton of movies--many of which might be considered artsy or foreign language films. So, I do have a rather high tolerance for the non-traditional or slow movies. However, I STILL had a hard time with "Accident", as I found it incredibly ponderous--way too slow for its own good. In other words, it takes a good story idea and bogs it down because it moves too slowly, the acting is way too subdued (almost zombie--like) and the emotion is totally lacking. It also doesn't help that they deliberately gave the film the absolute minimum of dialog. Sure, all this heightens the sense of depression and longing the characters feel--but it also makes a painfully drab and unappealing film that I would not recommend to friends--unless they had insomnia.

By 1967 the Swinging Sixties had officially been declared open and artists,pop singers,actors and other self - styled "creative" types found themselves in the avant garde of a movement of exquisitely silly pomposity whereby their every action was endowed with a significance far beyond it's worth and their excesses were indulged as the due of "greatness",a word that was bandied freely about,especially by the aforementioned artists,pop singers and actors.Mr J. Losey's film "Accident",along with "Blow - up" and "The Knack" is at the apogee of this movement.A collaboration with the equally self - regarding Mr H.Pinter,idol of the chattering classes,it solemnly progresses to precisely nowhere with excruciatingly pretentious indifference towards its audience all of which,it presumes,are struck with awe at its coruscating brilliance. Well,all but one maybe.Everybody in it is terribly clever of course,far more so than you or I,so,by extension,what they say must also be terribly clever and if it seems frankly pretty boring then the fault must be in ourselves,not in the Stars (ie Messrs Baker,Bogarde and Yorke who manage to look quite serious throughout). For all his manifest faults I feel myself in agreement with Herman Goering who is noted for saying "When I hear the word "culture" I want to reach for my revolver".When I hear the word "Accident" I want to reach for the remote.

This is arguably Losey's masterpiece, overtaking in my mind the more renowned THE SERVANT (1963; see review above). In place of his trademark directorial stylistics, a more formal but equally assured approach to film-making - signaled perhaps by being his last outing with frequent collaborators Dirk Bogarde (with whom he made 5 films), Stanley Baker (4), Alexander Knox (4) and composer Johnny Dankworth (4) - is in evidence here. The only concessions to 'style' are some temporal flourishes a' la Resnais and a superbly enigmatic interlude with Bogarde, where the dialogue between him and former lover Delphine Seyrig is heard as voice-over while the characters are seen interacting in different surroundings! Still, the film's flashback structure is perhaps famed playwright Harold Pinter's doing who contributes a fine, nuanced script.The characters say very little to one another: indeed the film as a whole may be too low-key for most viewers but the real emotions (lust, contempt, pity, hypocrisy) they feel for each other come to the fore regardless through fleeting glances, hesitant remarks, etc.; Bogarde even gets into a stammering fit in especially stressful moments, and only gets to concede to his repressed desires i.e make love to his pupil Jacqueline Sassard, when she is at her most vulnerable - immediately after her boyfriend's tragic death, even though his own wife is pregnant with their third child! The film features an excellent ensemble cast, led by a vulnerable Bogarde and a particularly despicable Baker. This was also Michael York's first major role; in fact, he flew to Cannes specifically to talk with Losey - who was presenting MODESTY BLAISE (1966; see review above) - about getting the part! On the contrary, Sassard would go on to make just one more film - Claude Chabrol's masterly LES BICHES (1968) where, again, she was the 'prize' in a ménage-a'-trois that also comprised Jean-Louis Trintignant and lesbian Stephane Audran! - before disappearing from cinema screens altogether!! Freddie Jones, Pinter himself and Nicholas Mosley (the author of the source novel) appear in small roles, while Gerry Fisher's beautiful cinematography and Dankworth's jazzy score effectively complement the film's pervasive brooding mood.ACCIDENT was nominated for 4 BAFTAs and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival but, again, Losey was criminally neglected at the Oscars.