Joseph Losey: A Revenge on Life

by David Caute

Book Overview

Renowned for his mastery of light, texture, and pace, Joseph Losey was one of our most innovative and controversial directors--and perhaps our most star-crossed. Blacklisted during the McCarthyite fifties, Losey fled to Britain, where he achieved international acclaim with his 1963 film The Servant, starring Dirk Bogarde and Sarah Miles. That film marked the beginning of Losey's remarkable collaboration with the playwright Harold Pinter; it was followed...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195064100
• ISBN13: 9780195064100
• Release Date: September 1994
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 2.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.1" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A ferocious battle

David Caute paints a very fair political, psychological and professional portrait of the movie director Joseph Losey. Losey was a child of the Great Depression. The dire straits of so many people turned him into a convinced leftist. It cost him dearly: he was blacklisted by Hollywood for being a `communist'. He found work in Europe and the convinced leftist changed his attitude into `being on the left is already enough'. He was an ambitious, energetic, tenacious person, who was also self-absorbed, self-destructive (alcoholism) and frustrated. In fact, he was never really happy. He was torn between, on the one hand, his Puritan morality (a work alcoholic desperate for work, shooting even commercials) and his rigid sense of responsibility and, on the other hand, the hedonistic existence of international show business. Professionally, he was not a `movie author', but a writer's director, relying heavily on his screenwriters, e.g. Harold Pinter and David Mercer. He was a cinematographer, not an actor's director. Notwithstanding being a leftist, he didn't believe in message films, though, on the contrary, believed strongly in the star system. His movie career was a long ferocious fight for and with projects, between Art and Profit. Once the budget was there, a continuous dirty battle with scripts, rights, actors, crew and producers (the money men) followed. And once the movie was finished and screened, a fierce exchange of arguments with movie critics, distributors and their marketing budgets turned into endless nightmares and an endless letter mails. Lack of box office success was one of the main reasons for the animosities. He got also involved in battles between the super-egos of superstars (D. Bogarde: `What are you doing for the Welsh bastard (R. Burton)?') His style is characterized by vacated space, track shots, separation of overheard conversation and image and clean cuts. This book gives an extremely lively picture of the exhausting film business and is a must read for all movie fans.