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Harold Pinter remains one of the preeminent writers in the English language who came to maturity in the immediate post-WWII era. He was born in 1930 to middle-class parents in the Hackney district of London and eventually studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, beginning his career as an actor. However, influenced by Samuel Beckett (with whom he eventually became friends), Pinter began writing plays, almost all of them employing the strangely "serious" stream-of-consciousness absurdity that was to become his early trademark. His one-act works "The Room" and "The Dumb Waiter" began to garner attention in the mid-1950s. Ironically his first full-length play, 1958’s "The Birthday Party" (filmed by William Friedkin with Robert Shaw in 1968), now considered a masterpiece, was a huge flop on its debut and was mauled by unforgiving, clueless critics. All that began to change dramatically when his next play, "The Caretaker," appeared in 1960, accruing universal acclaim. From then on, Pinter labored steadily, dividing his time evenly between stage and film, oftentimes adapting other writers’ works to stupendous effect for the big screen. Starting in 1963 and lasting for nearly a decade, he enjoyed a unique, critically celebrated collaboration with director Joseph Losey on three films – THE SERVANT, ACCIDENT and THE GO-BETWEEN, efforts that remain among his most representative, despite having been adapted from others’ novels. His motion picture work is consistently superb, creating such riveting films as THE PUMPKIN EATER, THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM, THE LAST TYCOON, THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN, BETRAYAL, TURTLE DIARY, THE HANDMAID’S TALE and THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS, to name but a few. Pinter grew into an ever more vocal social critic and champion of left wing causes as he grew older. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005, and he died in December, 2008 at the age of 78. Join us as we screen some of his most fascinating screen efforts, including acclaimed films THE CARETAKER and THE HOMECOMING, adapted from his controversial plays.

Thursday, March 26 – 7:30 PM

Harold Pinter Double Feature:

THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS, 1990, 107 min. Director Paul Schrader and screenwriter Harold Pinter adapt the novel by Ian McEwan (Atonement) into a slowly building psychosexual nightmare. British tourists Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson, hoping to reignite the flame of their receding passion in the ancient alleys, palazzos and canals of a decadent nocturnal Venice, are ensnared by a charmingly perverse rich couple (Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren). Fascinated by the building sexual tension, the younger pair are languidly drawn like moths to a flame and by the time they realize there is genuine danger, it may be too late to escape. "…The screenplay is by Harold Pinter, so expert at suggesting the terrifying depths beneath innocent words." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times; "…Director Paul Schrader has fashioned a film of surpassing creepiness…Schrader is an astute guide through the circuitous byways of sexual manipulation. His hypnotic thriller supplies intelligent pleasures as well as gruesome chills." - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone Trailer NOT ON DVD

THE HOMECOMING, 1973, Kino International, 111 min. Director Peter Hall flawlessly transfers Harold Pinter's stage play to the screen for Ely Landau's American Film Theater series, retaining the brilliant original cast. A philosophy professor (Michael Jayston) returns to his family home after years away, bringing with him his new wife (Vivian Merchant). But his testosterone-fueled brothers -- a sleazy pimp (Ian Holm) and an aspiring boxer (Terence Rigby) -- along with his malicious father (Paul Rogers) and his unhinged uncle (Cyril Cusack), through their escalating sarcasm and anger, turn the couple's family visit into an unrelenting nightmare. "…A family dramedy that courts absurdity to powerfully make its point…Pinter puts dialogue in his cast’s mouths that suggests all ids have been checked at the door…Between its exaggerated macho posturing and the spasmodic body language of the actors, the film begins to resemble some kind of obscene slapstick comedy…It manages to say something poignant and disturbing about the decorum that dominates the discussion in even the happiest of families..." -- Jeremy Heilman, MovieMartyr.com More

Co-presented by Outfest

Harold Pinter Double Feature:

THE SERVANT, 1963, Stuart Lisell, 112 min. Director Joseph Losey and screenwriter Harold Pinter masterfully adapt Robin Maugham's novel into an unnerving and darkly humorous look at the dissolution of Britain’s upper class. A rich young playboy, Tony (James Fox, in a star-making role) decides he can’t get along without a valet when he strikes out on his own and makes the mistake of hiring Barret (Dirk Bogarde), a seemingly obsequious "gentleman’s gentleman." But Tony gets more than he bargains for when Barret slowly starts to exert his decadent, sinister influence, first installing his "sister" Vera (Sarah Miles) in an upstairs bedroom, then gradually usurping mastery of the household. With Wendy Craig. "…Bogarde, Losey and Pinter each stamp their personalities on this deliciously nasty film…Decades on from its release, THE SERVANT has lost none of its strangeness, nor its capacity to startle." – Channel 4 Film (U.K.) More

THE CARETAKER, 1963, Caretaker Films/Judy Daish Associates, 100 min. Dir. Clive Donner (NOTHING BUT THE BEST; WHAT’S NEW, PUSSYCAT?). Quiet suit-and-tie-wearing packrat Robert Shaw and his acid-tongued, black-leather-clad brother Alan Bates own a decaying townhouse. In the midst of a brutal winter -- out of equal parts loneliness and compassion -- Shaw lets a cantankerous old tramp (Donald Pleasence) stay the night. But Pleasence doesn’t leave, separately offered the job of caretaker by both sincere Shaw and mind-games-playing Bates. Writer Harold Pinter's first widely-acclaimed theatrical success offers an audaciously funny deconstruction of stage drama, much in the manner of Samuel Beckett, and was originally to receive financial backing from an American company in its transfer to the screen. When the Americans pulled out at the last minute, a number of showbiz luminaries, including Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Noel Coward and Leslie Caron, offered their backing to make sure the picture got made. Cinematography by Nicolas Roeg. (Screened from a digital source) "Donner's version of Pinter's funniest and most famous play…allows three of the greatest stage interpretations of Pinter's characters to speak for themselves." – Time Out London More NOT ON DVD

Saturday, March 28 – 7:30 PM

Harold Pinter Double Feature:

THE GO-BETWEEN, 1970, Sony Repertory, 118 min. Director Joseph Losey and screenwriter Harold Pinter team up again, this time to adapt L. P. Hartley’s novel of romantic subterfuge at the turn of the 20th century. Leo, a 13-year-old boy (Dominic Guard) on the cusp of puberty, goes to stay with his rich friend at their country estate in the summer of 1900. The friend’s older brother is engaged to lovely Marian (Julie Christie), on whom Leo develops a crush. Marian takes a shine to the boy and soon is enlisting him to carry messages to her secret lover, a neighboring tenant farmer named Ted (Alan Bates). As the idyllic summer disappears, Leo grows up, seeing and hearing things he must keep in the strictest confidence. When Ted and Marian’s affair takes a tragic turn, the impact on Leo’s life is overwhelming and will be felt well into adulthood (where Leo is played by Michael Redgrave). With Margaret Leighton. "The last of three superb collaborations between the Nobel-winning writer Harold Pinter and director Joseph Losey, THE GO-BETWEEN explores the mysterious adult world of sex and class as seen through the eyes of a young boy at the start of the last century..." – Channel 4 Film (U.K.) More NOT ON DVD

THE PUMPKIN EATER, 1964, Sony Repertory, 110 min. Director Jack Clayton is now best-remembered for THE INNOCENTS, his interpretation of Henry James classic ghost story, The Turn of the Screw. However, he also was responsible for acclaimed films of the British New Wave. Anne Bancroft is luminously beautiful as a depressed and intelligent upper-middle-class housewife who can’t seem to stop having children, something that is driving her screenwriter husband (Peter Finch) around the bend. Harold Pinter’s caustic script (adapting Penelope Mortimer’s novel) paints one of the most brilliant and poignant portraits ever of what it’s like to be married. Bancroft received the Best Actress award from Cannes and the Golden Globes, as well as an Oscar nomination for her portrayal (yes, it equals, if not surpasses, her turn as Mrs. Robinson in THE GRADUATE!). With James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke. More NOT ON DVD