ThiefHott Too much of everything

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

daoldiges I knew absolutely nothing of this film when I first stumbled upon it, and didn't bother to research it before jumping right it, which I think contributed so much to my completely enjoyment of it. I just want to say how wonderful Dirk Bogard is in general and specifically in The Servant. It is with great subtlety and charm that he plays this role so well. The plot continues to take unexpected turn and the entire cast is very solid. The B&W cinematography only adds to the feeling of subversiveness. I highly suggest checking out The Servant.

grantss Professional servant Barrett (played by Dirk Bogarde) is hired by a wealthy young man, Tony (Edward Fox), as his man-servant. Initially Barrett is the ideal man-servant - quiet, loyal, submissive, unquestioning and very helpful. However, over time the shine wears off and he reveals more of his true self, and it's far from submissive. Moreover, with time the master-servant dynamic starts to shift.Good build up to what I was hoping was going to be a very powerful and/or profound ending. Characters are given depth and are dynamic in their personalities. There is a decent degree of engagement and the plot develops well, albeit slowly.I was happy to take the slow-burning nature of the movie, figuring there would be a big pay-off at the end. Unfortunately, the end doesn't quite reward you for your patience. It does demonstrate how the dynamic between the master and servant has shifted, and how significantly, but that's it, and it's not really a surprise. I really was hoping for something more explosive at the end.

jungophile Based on a Robert Maugham novella from 1948, and adapted by Harold Pinter with the American ex-pat Joseph Losey directing, "The Servant" is on BFI's Top 100 British Film list. It is also on Cahiers du Cinema's Top Ten list for 1964 (although it premiered here in the US one week or so before the JFK assassination). So with such a rather distinguished pedigree I was curious and decided to check it out.Since we're talking about a film over a half century old, let's get some context out of the way. I myself am 56 years old, and I get the whole "crumbling class distinctions" that was so revolutionary and trenchant for the time. Ditto on the sexual tides churning and turning right before the whole "Mod Carnaby St." trend hit two years later. So even before the movie started, I was ready to give this independent film some props for being prescient and taking on adult issues of social import. I soon discovered that the cinematography is great, and Losey's direction is very dynamic even given the mostly claustrophobic surroundings.The only problem is there is not one likable character in this movie. They are all grotesque in one way or another, like Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio". Tony (James Fox) is an effete upper class twit, Hugo Barrett, the titular servant played by Dirk Bogarde, is a smoldering cauldron of class resentment and spiteful subterranean shenanigans, Susan (Wendy Craig), is Tony's bitchy and frigid girlfriend, Vera (Susan Miles), is a two-faced slut, etc. You get the idea.Granted the plot line was ripe with possibilities (you surely know what it is by now if you've read this far down the thread), but the execution here is wanting. The characters, being so grotesque, aren't very believable. Nicholas Roeg would take the same basic idea and do it much better with "Performance" a few years later, and that film has aged a lot better in my humble opinion.So what if this film was all the rage in 1963; here in 2015, it's just a dreary pretentious bore. It looks great, the performances are substantive, but the themes have been done to death and "The Servant" no longer surprises and just doesn't carry that much dramatic weight anymore. There are literally dozens of films that are much older than this that I find exciting to watch again, but I'll never bother torturing myself with this dated dinosaur.But if you're a British art house stuff completest, by all means, check it out; it is an historically important film in that regard.

Sindre Kaspersen Sixteenth feature film by American director Joseph Losey (1909-1984), an adaptation of a novel from 1948 by British novelist and playwright Robin Maugham (1916-1981), which was written by screenwriter and playwright Harold Pinter (1930-2008), tells the story of Tony, a young and wealthy man who hires a man named Hugo Barrett to work for him as a servant at his house in London. Even though his girlfriend Susan acts with pointed prejudice towards Tony's newly hired servant and questions his character, Tony ignores this and continues his trusting friendship with the charming Hugo Barrett.This brilliantly written and directed British production, a character-driven, dialog-driven and rigorously structured study of character which portrays a fierce power struggle between a man from the upper-class and a man from the working-class, is a tense, intriguing and dramatic chamber-piece and a poignantly atmospheric Film-noir from the early 1960s with a underlining jazzy score by English Jazz composer John Dankworth (1927-2010). The noticeable black-and-white cinematography by British cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, the sarcastic humor, the pivotal use of light, the quick-witted dialog and the stellar acting performances by James Fox as the shallow and gullible Tony, Dirk Bogarde as the dutiful and articulate Hugo Barrett, Sarah Miles as the enigmatic and seductive Vera and Wendy Craig as Tony's loving and suspicious girlfriend Susan are crucial aspects which characterizes this interior thriller about the darkest sides of human nature.This BAFTA Award-winning film from the British New Wave is an internal psychological drama with an efficient shifting pace and artful milieu depictions which provides a detailed examination of the British class system. An ardent, acute and captivating masterpiece from the director who was blacklisted by Hollywood during the McCarthy Era in the 1950s for supposedly having attachments with the Communist party and exiled to England where he made most of his films.