Joseph Losey
Encyclopedia
Joseph Walton Losey was an American
theater and film director
. After studying in Germany
with Bertolt Brecht
, Losey returned to the United States
, eventually making his way to Hollywood. In the 1950s Losey was blacklisted in the United States
and moved to Europe where he made the remainder of his films, mostly in the United Kingdom
.
, Losey was investigated for his supposed ties with the Communist Party
and was blacklisted
by the Hollywood movie studio
bosses. His career in shambles, he moved to London
, where he continued working as a director.
Even in the UK
, he experienced problems: his first British film, The Sleeping Tiger
, a 1954 film noir
crime thriller, bore the pseudonym Victor Hanbury, rather than his own name, in the credits as director, as the stars of the film, Alexis Smith
and Alexander Knox
, feared being blacklisted in Hollywood due to working on a film he directed. He was also originally slated to direct the 1956 Hammer Films production X the Unknown
; however, after a few days work on the project, star Dean Jagger
refused to work with a supposed Communist sympathiser and Losey was moved off the project.
, the collaboration beginning what would be a long friendship and a successful career for Pinter as a screenwriter
. Losey realized three films from Pinter's screenplays, The Servant (1963), Accident (1967) and The Go-Between
(1971), all of which have made a mark in the traditions of British, European, and American art house cinema. The Servant won three British Academy Film Awards
. Accident won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury award at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival
. And The Go-Between
won, among others, the Golden Palm Award
at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival
, four prizes at the 1972 BAFTA awards, and 'Best British Screenplay' at the 1972 Writers' Guild of Great Britain
awards. Each of the Pinter-Losey films examines the politics of sexuality
, gender
, and class
in 1960s and 70s Britain
. In The Servant, a manservant named Hugo Barrett (Dirk Bogarde
) facilitates the moral and psychological degradation of a member of the nouveau riche
named Tony (James Fox
); Accident explores male lust, hypocrisy, and ennui amongst the educated middle class
as two Oxford
tutors named Stephen (Bogarde
) and Charley (Stanley Baker
) competitively objectify a pupil named Anna (Jacqueline Sassard
) against the backdrop of their seemingly idyllic lives. In The Go-Between
, a young working class
boy named Leo Colston (Dominic Guard
) is involved in both facilitating and undermining a socially transgressive affair
between an upper class
woman named Marian Maudsley (Julie Christie
) and a working class
farmer named Ted Burgess (Alan Bates
).
Losey's move from The Servant to the subsequent two films saw him experimenting increasingly with the mechanisms of cinema
, in particular a rendering of time
that was not linear
but layered and thus exemplary of the subjective experience of memory
. Although Losey's films can in the main be described as naturalistic, The Servant's hybridization of Losey's signature Baroque
style, film noir
, naturalism, and expressionism
and both Accident's and The Go-Between's radical cinematography
, use of montage, voice over, and musical score amount to a sophisticated construction of cinematic time
and narrative
perspective
which edges this work in the direction of neorealist
cinema. All three films are marked by Pinter's sparse, elliptical, and enigmatically subtextual dialogue, something Losey often develops a visual correlate for and occasionally even works against by means of dense and cluttered mise en scene and peripatetic camera work.
Pinter later worked with Losey on The Proust Screenplay (1972), an adaptation of A la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust
; however, the finances were never found to realize a film before Losey died.
). Losey had co-directed the original U.S. production of Galileo with the author himself as the other co-director (and Charles Laughton
, who had worked on the translation/adaptation, had had the lead role, taken in the film by Topol
). Galileo was produced as part of the subscription film series of the American Film Theatre
, though it was shot in England. In the context of that production, Losey also made a half hour film based on Galileo's life.
In 1979 Losey filmed Mozart's opera Don Giovanni
, shot in Villa La Rotonda and the Veneto
region of Italy: this film
was nominated for several César Awards in 1980 including Best Director. He demonstrated a facility for working in the French language and Monsieur Klein
(1976) gave Alain Delon as star and producer one of French cinema's earliest chances to highlight the background to the infamous Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of French Jews in July 1942.
; they had a son, Joshua Losey, an actor. He had a son, Gavrik Losey
, with the fashion designer/author Elizabeth Hawes
. Gavrik helped out with the production on some of his father's films. Losey then married the former Patricia Mohan, who adapted Lorenzo Da Ponte
's libretto for Don Giovanni, and Nell Dunn's play Steaming
. Losey's third marriage lasted for the rest of his life. Joseph Losey is also the grandfather of film directors Marek Losey
and Luke Losey
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theater and film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
. After studying in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
with Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
, Losey returned to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, eventually making his way to Hollywood. In the 1950s Losey was blacklisted in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and moved to Europe where he made the remainder of his films, mostly in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Blacklisting
During the McCarthy EraMcCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
, Losey was investigated for his supposed ties with the Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
and was blacklisted
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...
by the Hollywood movie studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
bosses. His career in shambles, he moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he continued working as a director.
Even in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, he experienced problems: his first British film, The Sleeping Tiger
The Sleeping Tiger
The Sleeping Tiger is a 1954 film noir starring Dirk Bogarde and Alexis Smith. It was Joseph Losey's first British feature, which he directed under the pseudonym of Victor Hanbury due to being blacklisted in the McCarthy Era.- Plot :...
, a 1954 film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
crime thriller, bore the pseudonym Victor Hanbury, rather than his own name, in the credits as director, as the stars of the film, Alexis Smith
Alexis Smith
Alexis Smith was a Canadian-born stage, film, and television actress. She appeared in several major Hollywood movies in the 1940s and had a notable career on Broadway in the 1970s, winning a Tony Award in 1972.-Life and career:...
and Alexander Knox
Alexander Knox
Alexander Knox was a Canadian actor and author of adventure novels set in the Great Lakes area during the 19th century.-Biography:...
, feared being blacklisted in Hollywood due to working on a film he directed. He was also originally slated to direct the 1956 Hammer Films production X the Unknown
X the Unknown
X the Unknown is a British science-fiction / horror film made by the Hammer Films company and released in 1956.-Production:The film was originally intended by Hammer to be a sequel to the previous year's successful The Quatermass Xperiment, but writer Nigel Kneale refused permission for the...
; however, after a few days work on the project, star Dean Jagger
Dean Jagger
Dean Jagger was an Academy Award winning American film actor.-Career:Born Ira Dean Jagger in Columbus Grove, Ohio, Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell with Mary Astor...
refused to work with a supposed Communist sympathiser and Losey was moved off the project.
Collaboration with Harold Pinter
In the 1960s, Losey began working with playwright Harold PinterHarold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
, the collaboration beginning what would be a long friendship and a successful career for Pinter as a screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. Losey realized three films from Pinter's screenplays, The Servant (1963), Accident (1967) and The Go-Between
The Go-Between (film)
The Go-Between is Harold Pinter's 1970 film adaptation of the novel by L. P. Hartley. A British production directed by Joseph Losey, it stars Dominic Guard , Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave, Michael Gough and Edward Fox.Pinter's screenplay—his final collaboration...
(1971), all of which have made a mark in the traditions of British, European, and American art house cinema. The Servant won three British Academy Film Awards
British Academy Film Awards
The British Academy Film Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . It is the British counterpart of the Oscars. As of 2008, it has taken place in the Royal Opera House, having taken over from the flagship Odeon cinema on Leicester Square...
. Accident won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury award at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. And The Go-Between
The Go-Between
The Go-Between is a romantic novel by L. P. Hartley , published in London in 1953. The novel begins with the famous line "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."-Plot summary:...
won, among others, the Golden Palm Award
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, four prizes at the 1972 BAFTA awards, and 'Best British Screenplay' at the 1972 Writers' Guild of Great Britain
Writers' Guild of Great Britain
The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...
awards. Each of the Pinter-Losey films examines the politics of sexuality
Human sexual behavior
Human sexual activities or human sexual practices or human sexual behavior refers to the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts from time to time, and for a wide variety of reasons...
, gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
, and class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
in 1960s and 70s Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. In The Servant, a manservant named Hugo Barrett (Dirk Bogarde
Dirk Bogarde
Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol in such films as Doctor in the House and other Rank Organisation pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death in Venice...
) facilitates the moral and psychological degradation of a member of the nouveau riche
Nouveau riche
The nouveau riche , or new money, comprise those who have acquired considerable wealth within their own generation...
named Tony (James Fox
James Fox
James Fox, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:James Fox was born in London, England to theatrical agent Robin Fox and actress Angela Worthington. He is the brother of actor Edward Fox and film producer Robert Fox. The actress Emilia Fox is his niece and the actor Laurence Fox is his son. His...
); Accident explores male lust, hypocrisy, and ennui amongst the educated middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
as two Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
tutors named Stephen (Bogarde
Dirk Bogarde
Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol in such films as Doctor in the House and other Rank Organisation pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death in Venice...
) and Charley (Stanley Baker
Stanley Baker
Sir Stanley Baker was a Welsh actor and film producer.-Early career:William Stanley Baker was born in Ferndale, Rhondda Valley, Wales. In the mid-1930s his parents moved to London, where Baker spent most of his formative years...
) competitively objectify a pupil named Anna (Jacqueline Sassard
Jacqueline Sassard
Jacqueline Sassard is an actress best known for appearances in Italian films such as Guendalina directed by Alberto Lattuada, a young woman with family and economical troubles in Luigi Zampa's Il Magistrato and Valerio Zurlini's Violent Summer , in which her character was left by Jean Louis...
) against the backdrop of their seemingly idyllic lives. In The Go-Between
The Go-Between
The Go-Between is a romantic novel by L. P. Hartley , published in London in 1953. The novel begins with the famous line "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."-Plot summary:...
, a young working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
boy named Leo Colston (Dominic Guard
Dominic Guard
Dominic Guard is a former English film actor.His most famous role was as a 14-year-old when he played Leo in The Go-Between. He won a BAFTA award in 1972 for his performance...
) is involved in both facilitating and undermining a socially transgressive affair
Affair
Affair may refer to professional, personal, or public business matters or to a particular business or private activity of a temporary duration, as in family affair, a private affair, or a romantic affair.-Political affair:...
between an upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
woman named Marian Maudsley (Julie Christie
Julie Christie
Julie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....
) and a working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
farmer named Ted Burgess (Alan Bates
Alan Bates
Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving...
).
Losey's move from The Servant to the subsequent two films saw him experimenting increasingly with the mechanisms of cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, in particular a rendering of time
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
that was not linear
Linear
In mathematics, a linear map or function f is a function which satisfies the following two properties:* Additivity : f = f + f...
but layered and thus exemplary of the subjective experience of memory
Memory
In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
. Although Losey's films can in the main be described as naturalistic, The Servant's hybridization of Losey's signature Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
style, film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
, naturalism, and expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
and both Accident's and The Go-Between's radical cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
, use of montage, voice over, and musical score amount to a sophisticated construction of cinematic time
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
and narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
perspective
Point of view (literature)
The narrative mode is the set of methods the author of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical story uses to convey the plot to the audience. Narration, the process of presenting the narrative, occurs because of the narrative mode...
which edges this work in the direction of neorealist
Neorealism (art)
In art, neorealism was established by the ex-Camden Town Group painters Charles Ginner and Harold Gilman at the beginning of World War I. They set out to explore the spirit of their age through the shapes and colours of daily life...
cinema. All three films are marked by Pinter's sparse, elliptical, and enigmatically subtextual dialogue, something Losey often develops a visual correlate for and occasionally even works against by means of dense and cluttered mise en scene and peripatetic camera work.
Pinter later worked with Losey on The Proust Screenplay (1972), an adaptation of A la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
; however, the finances were never found to realize a film before Losey died.
Later career
In 1975, Losey realized a long-planned adaptation of Brecht's Galileo (aka Life of GalileoLife of Galileo
Life of Galileo , also known as Galileo, is a play by the twentieth-century German dramatist Bertolt Brecht. The first version of the play was written between 1937 and 1939; the second version was written between 1945–1947, in collaboration with Charles Laughton...
). Losey had co-directed the original U.S. production of Galileo with the author himself as the other co-director (and Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
, who had worked on the translation/adaptation, had had the lead role, taken in the film by Topol
Topol
- Missiles :* RT-2UTTH Topol M, a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile* RT-2PM Topol, a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile- People :* Chaim Topol , Israeli actor * Edward Topol , Russian writer...
). Galileo was produced as part of the subscription film series of the American Film Theatre
American Film Theatre
The American Film Theatre was a limited run series of film adaptations of stage plays, produced by Ely Landau. Two seasons were produced from 1973 to 1975...
, though it was shot in England. In the context of that production, Losey also made a half hour film based on Galileo's life.
In 1979 Losey filmed Mozart's opera Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, shot in Villa La Rotonda and the Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
region of Italy: this film
Don Giovanni (1979 film)
Don Giovanni is a 1979 film adaptation of Mozart's classic opera Don Giovanni, based on the Don Juan legend of a seducer, destroyed by his excesses. The film stars Ruggero Raimondi in the title role. The director is Joseph Losey and the conductor Lorin Maazel. The film has generally been praised...
was nominated for several César Awards in 1980 including Best Director. He demonstrated a facility for working in the French language and Monsieur Klein
Monsieur Klein
Monsieur Klein is a 1976 French film directed by Joseph Losey, with Alain Delon starring in the title role.- Synopsis :It is 1942, the war is in full swing and France is occupied by the Nazis. To Robert Klein, however, these events are of little concern...
(1976) gave Alain Delon as star and producer one of French cinema's earliest chances to highlight the background to the infamous Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of French Jews in July 1942.
Private life
Losey married three times. From 1956 to 1963 he was married to British actress Dorothy BromileyDorothy Bromiley
Dorothy Bromiley is a former British film, stage and television actress and authority on historic domestic needlework....
; they had a son, Joshua Losey, an actor. He had a son, Gavrik Losey
Gavrik Losey
Gavrik Losey is an American born key participant in various aspects of filmmaking including producer and production manager.Gavrik was born in New York, the son of film director Joseph Losey and fashion designer Elizabeth Hawes. He attended the Little Red SchoolHouse in Manhattan, Poughkeepsie Day...
, with the fashion designer/author Elizabeth Hawes
Elizabeth Hawes
Elizabeth Hawes was an American clothing designer, outspoken critic of the fashion industry, and champion of ready to wear and people's right to have the clothes they desired, rather than the clothes dictated to be fashionable...
. Gavrik helped out with the production on some of his father's films. Losey then married the former Patricia Mohan, who adapted Lorenzo Da Ponte
Lorenzo Da Ponte
Lorenzo Da Ponte was a Venetian opera librettist and poet. He wrote the librettos for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's greatest operas, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte....
's libretto for Don Giovanni, and Nell Dunn's play Steaming
Steaming (1985 film)
Steaming is the 1985 release of the final film directed by Joseph Losey. It was adapted from Nell Dunn's play by Patricia Losey and Nell Dunn. It was the last film of actress Diana Dors, who died in 1984. The film was screened out of competition at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.The story centred...
. Losey's third marriage lasted for the rest of his life. Joseph Losey is also the grandfather of film directors Marek Losey
Marek Losey
Marek Losey is a British-American film director and the third generation of film maker in the Losey family.-Background and early life:...
and Luke Losey
Luke Losey
Luke Losey is an award winning film director, lighting designer and photographer. His visually arresting work has been seen in avant-garde, theatre and mainstream media.- Background and early life :...
.
Filmography as director
- Pete Roleum and His Cousins (1939, short)
- Youth Gets a Break (1941, short)
- A Child Went Forth (1941, short)
- A Gun in His Hand (1945, short)
- Leben des Galilei (1947, short)
- The Boy with Green HairThe Boy with Green HairThe Boy with Green Hair is a 1948 American comedy-drama film directed by Joseph Losey. It stars Dean Stockwell as Peter, a young war orphan who is subject to ridicule after he awakens one morning to find his hair mysteriously turned green...
(1948) - The LawlessThe LawlessThe Lawless is a 1950 American drama film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Macdonald Carey, Gail Russell and Johnny Sands. A newspaper editor in California becomes concerned about the plight of the state's fruit pickers, mostly illegal immigrants from Mexico...
(1950) - The ProwlerThe Prowler (1951 film)The Prowler is a 1951 black-and-white thriller film directed by Joseph Losey. It stars Van Heflin and Evelyn Keyes. Considered film noir, it was produced by Sam Spiegel .- Plot :...
(1951) - MM (1951 film)M is a 1951 American remake of Fritz Lang's film of the same name, shifting the action from Berlin to Los Angeles and changing the killer's name from Hans Beckert to Martin W. Harrow. The remake, directed by Joseph Losey with David Wayne playing Peter Lorre's role, was not well received by critics...
(1951) - The Big NightThe Big NightThe Big Night is a 1951 black-and-white film drama starring John Drew Barrymore . The film, directed by Joseph Losey, is considered to be film noir.- Reception :...
(1951) - Imbarco a mezzanotte (1951)
- The Sleeping TigerThe Sleeping TigerThe Sleeping Tiger is a 1954 film noir starring Dirk Bogarde and Alexis Smith. It was Joseph Losey's first British feature, which he directed under the pseudonym of Victor Hanbury due to being blacklisted in the McCarthy Era.- Plot :...
(1954) - A Man on the BeachA Man on the BeachA Man on the Beach is a British short fiction film. It was directed by Joseph Losey and produced by Anthony Hinds for Hammer. Based on a story by Victor Canning adapted by Jimmy Sangster, his first script, the film stars Donald Wolfit, Michael Medwin and Michael Ripper.-Synopsis:An old lady is...
(1955) - The Intimate StrangerThe Intimate StrangerThe Intimate Stranger is a 1956 British drama film directed by Joseph Losey, under the pseudonym Joseph Walton, and starring Richard Basehart, Mary Murphy, Constance Cummings and Roger Livesey. It was also released as Finger of Guilt.-Production:...
(1956) - Time Without PityTime Without PityTime Without Pity is a thriller about a father trying to save his son from execution for murder.It stars Michael Redgrave, Ann Todd, and Leo McKern.-Plot:David Graham has only 24 hours to save his son, Alec, from hanging...
(1957) - The Gypsy and the GentlemanThe Gypsy and the GentlemanThe Gypsy and the Gentleman is a 1958 film directed by Joseph Losey. It stars Melina Mercouri and Keith Michell.-Cast:*Melina Mercouri as Belle*Keith Michell as Sir Paul Deverill*Flora Robson as Mrs. Haggard*Patrick McGoohan as Jess...
(1958) - Blind DateBlind Date (1959 film)Blind Date is a 1959 murder mystery film. A police inspector investigates a woman's death, with her lover being the prime suspect...
(1959) - First on the Road (1959, short)
- The CriminalThe CriminalThe Criminal is a 1960 British drama film produced by Nat Cohen and directed by Joseph Losey, starring Stanley Baker, Sam Wanamaker and Jill Bennett. Baker plays an ex-con who takes part in the robbery of a racetrack and is caught and sent back to prison...
(1960)
- EvaEva (1962 film)Eva is a 1962 drama film directed by Joseph Losey starring Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker and Virna Lisi, from the novel of James Hadley Chase .-Plot summary:...
(1962) - The DamnedThe Damned (1963 film)The Damned is a 1963 British science fiction film starring Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field and Oliver Reed. It was a Hammer Film production directed by Joseph Losey and based on H.L...
(1963) - The Servant (1963)
- King & CountryKing & CountryKing and Country is a 1964 British film, directed by American-born director Joseph Losey, shot in black and white, and starring Dirk Bogarde and Tom Courtenay...
(1964) - Modesty BlaiseModesty Blaise (1966 film)Modesty Blaise was a comedic spy-fi motion picture produced in the United Kingdom and released worldwide in 1966. It was loosely based upon the popular comic strip Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell, who wrote the original story and scenario upon which Evan Jones based his screenplay...
(1966) - Accident (1967)
- Secret CeremonySecret CeremonySecret Ceremony is a 1968 film, produced in Britain and released by Universal Pictures. It stars Elizabeth Taylor, Mia Farrow, Robert Mitchum, Pamela Brown, and Peggy Ashcroft. Joseph Losey directed, from a script by George Tabori.-Plot:...
(1968) - Boom!Boom! (1968 film)Boom! is a 1968 British drama film starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Noël Coward. It was directed by Joseph Losey and adapted from Tennessee Williams' play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore.-Plot:...
(1968) - Figures in a LandscapeFigures in a Landscape (film)Figures in a Landscape is a 1970 British film directed by Joseph Losey and written by star Robert Shaw. It is based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Barry England.-Synopsis:...
(1970) - The Go-BetweenThe Go-Between (film)The Go-Between is Harold Pinter's 1970 film adaptation of the novel by L. P. Hartley. A British production directed by Joseph Losey, it stars Dominic Guard , Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave, Michael Gough and Edward Fox.Pinter's screenplay—his final collaboration...
(1970) - The Assassination of TrotskyThe Assassination of TrotskyThe Assassination of Trotsky is a 1972 British film directed by Joseph Losey with a screenplay by Nicholas Mosley. It starred Richard Burton as Leon Trotsky, as well as Romy Schneider and Alain Delon.-Plot:...
(1972) - A Doll's HouseA Doll's House (1973 Losey film)A Doll's House is a 1973 Franco-British film directed by Joseph Losey. It went directly to television and premiered in the United States on the American Broadcasting Company...
(1973) - The Romantic EnglishwomanThe Romantic EnglishwomanThe Romantic Englishwoman is a 1975 British film directed by Joseph Losey. It stars Michael Caine, Glenda Jackson, Helmut Berger, and marks the feature-length screen debut for Kate Nelligan...
(1975) - Galileo (1975)
- Monsieur KleinMonsieur KleinMonsieur Klein is a 1976 French film directed by Joseph Losey, with Alain Delon starring in the title role.- Synopsis :It is 1942, the war is in full swing and France is occupied by the Nazis. To Robert Klein, however, these events are of little concern...
(1976) - Les Routes du sud (1978)
- Don GiovanniDon Giovanni (1979 film)Don Giovanni is a 1979 film adaptation of Mozart's classic opera Don Giovanni, based on the Don Juan legend of a seducer, destroyed by his excesses. The film stars Ruggero Raimondi in the title role. The director is Joseph Losey and the conductor Lorin Maazel. The film has generally been praised...
(1979) - La TruiteThe Trout (film)The Trout is a 1982 French drama film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Isabelle Huppert.-Cast:* Isabelle Huppert - Frédérique* Jean-Pierre Cassel - Rambert* Jeanne Moreau - Lou* Daniel Olbrychski - Saint-Genis* Jacques Spiesser - Galuchat...
(1982) - Steaming (1985)
External links
- The Complete Joseph Losey (Links to notes for the retrospective series screened by Harvard Film Archive in July and August, 2008)
- Filmography at BFI Film & TV Database (contains entries not found at IMDb)
- Joseph Losey at filmreference.com includes extensive bibliography
- Joseph Losey: Pictures of Provocation (Notes by Steven Seid for the retrospective series screened by Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, March 5-April 16, 2010)
- Joseph Losey's Boom! (1968) by Kimberly Lindbergs; liner notes for the CD release of the film score by John BarryJohn Barry (composer)John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English conductor and composer of film music. He is best known for composing the soundtracks for 12 of the James Bond films between 1962 and 1987...
- Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database