THE GO-BETWEEN (1971)

Director: Joseph Losey
Writers: Harold Pinter, L.P. Hartley
Stars: Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton
Runtime: 118 minutes

Plot: A tale of torrid and forbidden love between Christie and Bates in the English countryside.

Review: "The Go-Between" is about class distinction and its warping effect upon the life of one small boy. The story is set in the days before World War I, privileged days that seemed to stretch endlessly before the British upper class. The boy, Leo, comes to spend a summer holiday at the home of a rich friend. And he falls in hopeless schoolboy love with the friend's older sister. The film begins as a nostalgic reminiscence and slowly evolves into a classic Freudian case history about the traumatized adolescent, and about the sterile adult he becomes.
The cast is splendid: Julie Christie, as the heiress who is the principal instrument of Leo's destruction; Alan Bates, as the tenant farmer she loves and whom she meets in the hayloft at teatime; and Margaret Leighton, as the mother who is not without feeling, but puts manners first.
Joseph Losey's production is elegantly costumed and mounted and has the same eye for details of character that distinguished his two previous films with Pinter. One aspect of the movie is distracting, however; he keeps giving short flash-forwards to the end of the film. On the one hand, this eventually gives the ending away. On the other, it imposes a ponderous significance on the events that go before, diluting their freshness.
Despite this small niggle though, the film is absolutely wonderful. It's an idyll about murder, a charming tale of casual cruelty, and a terrifying picture of an innocent love. "The Go-Between" also managed to win the Grand Prize at the 71 Cannes Film Festival.

Reviewed by S.M. Intisab Shahriyar