{"id":9968,"date":"2019-09-12T18:35:26","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T18:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=9968"},"modified":"2020-09-02T14:06:08","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T14:06:08","slug":"the-go-between-and-the-criminal-restored-for-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=9968","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Go-Between\u2019 and \u2018The Criminal\u2019 restored for Blu-ray"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 Blacklisted American film director Joseph Losey was a major force in British cinema in the 1960s and \u201970s and two of his best pictures \u2013 \u2018The Go-Between\u2019 and \u2018The Criminal\u2019 \u2013 will be released on Blu-ray on Sept. 16 as part of StudioCanal\u2019s Vintage Classics collection.<\/p>\n

Losey worked in television and theatre in New York City, spent time in Germany and studied in the Soviet Union before settling in England during Hollywood\u2019s communist witch-hunt in the 1950s. As a result, he brought an outsider\u2019s view to the British class system in \u2018The Go-Between\u2019 and its crime world in \u2018The Criminal\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Stanley Baker (above) had made the murder mystery \u2018Blind Date\u2019 (1959) with Losey and they would go on to film \u2018Eva\u2019 (1962) with Jeanne Moreau and \u2018Accident\u2019 (1967) with Dirk Bogarde. In \u2018The Criminal\u2019, Baker plays an ex-con who plans another robbery that leads to complications with a gangster played by Sam Wanamaker. Stark and violent, the film co-stars Gr\u00e9goire Aslan, Jill Bennett and Margit Saad. Black-and-white cinematography is by Oscar-winning DP Robert Krasker (\u2018The Third Man\u2019) with a score by British jazz great John Dankworth.<\/p>\n

Also released as a digital download, the film\u2019s Blu-ray and DVD package includes a new commentary by film histoian Kat Ellinger and a stills gallery. StudioCanal says it used the original camera negative wherever possible for the restored version and turned to other sources where severe damage had occurred. Elements were scanned at 4K resolution in 16bit, and the distributor says, \u201cThe project involved over 200 hours of manual frame-by-frame fixes and resulted in the creation of a new DCP and a new HD version, which were produced with the same high technological standards as today\u2019s biggest international film releases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Losey had made two pictures \u2013 \u2018The Servant\u2019 (1963) with Dirk Bogarde and \u2018Accident\u2019 (1967) with Bogarde and Baker \u2013 from screenplays by Nobel Prize-winning playwrite Harold Pinter before they teamed again for \u2018The Go-Between\u2019 in 1971. Set in Norfolk in the sweltering summer of 1900, it\u2019s a lyrical drama about the illicit love affair between a posh woman named Marian (Julie Christie), who is engaged to marry a viscount named Hugh (Edward Fox), and a local farmer named Ted (Alan Bates). The lovers use a visiting youngster, Leo (Dominic Guard, pictured top with Christie), to exchange messages until the lad\u2019s crush on Marian begins to complicate matters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Following her big break in John Schlesinger\u2019s \u2018Billy Liar\u2019 opposite Tom Courtenay in 1963, Julie Christie (left) won the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for best actress for Schlesinger\u2019s \u2018Darling\u2019 (1965) opposite Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey and made classics such as \u2018Doctor Zhivago\u2019 (1965), \u2018Fahrenheir 451\u2019 (1966), \u2018Far From the Madding Crowd\u2019 (1967) and \u2018Petulia\u2019 (1968) before she appeared as Marian in \u2018The Go-Between\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alan Bates (below) had starred in \u2018Whistle Down the Wind\u2019 (1961), \u2018A Kind of Loving\u2019 (1962), \u2018Zorba the Greek\u2019 (1964), \u2018Nothing But the Best\u2019 (1964), \u2018Georgy Girl\u2019 (1966), \u2018King of Hearts\u2019 (1966), \u2018The Fixer\u2019 (1968) and \u2018Women in Love\u2019 (1969). He also had starred opposite Christie in \u2018Far From the Madding Crowd\u2019 (1967).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Their chemistry along with an insightful script, nuanced direction and a fine cast that includes Margaret Leighton and Michael Redgrave helped the film win the Palme d\u2019Or at the 1971 Festival de Cannes. It was nominated as best film in the BAFTA awards. Pinter won the BAFTA award for best screenplay while Guard was named best newcomer and Fox and Leighton won the supporting awards. Christie and Losey were among other nominees for the film including cinematographer Gerry Fisher. Oscar-winning composer Michel Legrand (\u2018Summer of \u00a0\u201942\u2019) wrote the music.<\/p>\n

StudioCanal\u2019s Vintage Classics 4K restoration will be on digital download and the Blu-ray and DVD packages will feature several extras including interviews, a news feature from the time of the filming, the original trailer and a stills gallery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 Blacklisted American film director Joseph Losey was a major force in British cinema in the 1960s and \u201970s and two of his best pictures \u2013 \u2018The Go-Between\u2019 and \u2018The Criminal\u2019 \u2013 will be released on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,9],"tags":[5058,5057,5060,4899,5059,1748,872,5061,1552,5056],"class_list":["post-9968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-film","category-news","tag-the-criminal","tag-the-go-between","tag-alan-bates","tag-john-dankworth","tag-joseph-losey","tag-julie-christie","tag-michel-legrand","tag-stanley-baker","tag-studiocanal","tag-vintage-classics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9968"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10070,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9968\/revisions\/10070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}