Film Review
It was
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
that brought John Schlesinger international acclaim and set the pattern
for much of the director's subsequent work, bleak and often
uncompromising portraits of loners trying to make their way in a world
from which they are somehow disconnected.
Sunday Bloody Sunday, the
director's next film, has a very different feel from
Midnight Cowboy but it seems
naturally to carry on its central themes of isolation, alienation and
yearning for a kind of love which, however imperfect and
unconventional, will make life meaningful. The film broke new
ground not only with its startlingly frank portrayal of a bisexual love
triangle but also with its sympathetic portrayal of a homosexual
relationship. From his obvious reluctance to deal with
homosexuality in
Midnight Cowboy,
you'd never think that Schlesinger was himself gay, but
Sunday Bloody Sunday makes up for
that and is by far the director's most humane and insightful work - and
probably his best film over all.
Playing a mature man perfectly at home with his homosexuality (although
not yet able to reveal the fact to his tradition-bound Jewish family)
Peter Finch brings a blistering sense of reality to his portrayal,
which is mirrored by an equally sensitive and authentic performance
from Glenda Jackson, at her best as a woman struggling to find meaning
in her aimless life. Finch and Jackson both won BAFTAs for their
performances here (with three other BAFTAs awarded for the direction,
film and its editing), and it's hard to name a single film in which
either actor struck so many emotional chords and left such a profound
impression. Murray Head also deserves praise for his portrayal of
the self-centred 'piggy-in-the-middle', not the vacuous character you
might have expected but again a fully developed and convincingly played
individual who draws almost as much sympathy as the more overtly
fragile characters in the unusual love triangle. What Finch,
Jackson and Head deliver are the most vivid yet down-to-earth
portrayals of three flawed individualists, orphans of the storm who are
bound together as much by a need to rebel against conformity as by
physical desire.
What makes
Sunday Bloody Sunday
so eminently laudable is not John Schlesinger's direction (even if this
shows a maturity and level of auteur sophistication rarely seen in his
previous work), nor is it the performances, exemplary as these
are. Its power stems from Penelope Gilliatt's astonishingly
astute screenplay, which isn't just way ahead of its time in its
presentation of a normal gay relationship, but also daringly honest and
perceptive in its probing of human relationships in general. This
is probably the first film to come out and admit, without so much as a
whiff of cynicism or sarcasm, that romantic love is never anything
other than a matter of compromise. The perfect romance, that
lovey-dovey nonsense depicted in so many Hollywood movies, simply
doesn't exist in our world - human nature just won't allow it.
In Schlesinger's film, three perfectly well-adjusted people go on with
a singular romantic arrangement which, whilst unsatisfactory in many
respects, somehow manages to satisfy their needs, at least for a
time. Each of the three is intelligent enough to know that the
situation cannot endure, and when the time comes for the affair to end,
they let it expire without any great show of loss. Whilst there
is a delicate poignancy to the sloughing off of a dwindling romance
(beautifully suggested by Finch and Jackson at the end of the film),
there is also within the film a sense that this is how it
must be. When love has run
its course, it must be allowed to die - a brutal fact of life that
Sunday Bloody Sunday gets across
with heartbreaking lucidity.
© James Travers 2015
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Film Synopsis
Daniel Hirsh is a cultured Jewish doctor in his fifties who would
appear to have nothing in common with Alex Greville, a sharp-tongued
thirty-something divorcee who has grown tired of her routine office
job. Apart from a few mutual acquaintances, the only thing they
share is their bisexual lover Bob Helkin, a man in his twenties who is
trying to make his name as a contemporary sculptor. Both Daniel
and Alex know of each other's existence and seem to be happy with their
romantic timeshare arrangement with Bob. Half a loaf is, after
all, better than none. But when Bob makes up his mind to go to
America, believing this to be the best move for his career, Daniel and
Alex are prompted to re-evaluate their life with him over the course of
a week. Maybe it's time for all three of them to go their
separate ways and make a fresh start...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.