Taglines: In those days, you fell in love with your own class. Or found a Go-Between.
The Go-Between movie storyline. Summer 1900: Queen Victoria’s last, and the summer Leo (Dominic Guard) turns thirteen. He’s the guest of Marcus (Richard Gibson), a wealthy classmate, at a grand house in rural Norfolk. Leo is befriended by Marian (Julie Christie), Marcus’ twenty-something sister, a beauty about to be engaged to Hugh (Edward Fox), a viscount and good fellow.
Marian buys Leo a forest-green suit, takes him on walks, and asks him to carry messages to and from their neighbor, Ted Burgess (Sir Alan Bates), a bit of a rake. Leo is soon dissembling, realizes he’s betraying Hugh, but continues as the go-between nonetheless, asking adults naive questions about the attractions of men and women.
The Go-Between is a 1971 British romantic drama film directed by Joseph Losey. Its screenplay, by Harold Pinter, is an adaptation of the 1953 novel The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley. The film stars Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave and Dominic Guard. It won the Grand Prix at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.
Filming started in August 1970. The film was shot at Melton Constable Hall, Heydon and Norwich in Norfolk. Filming wound up in November. Pinter was on set during filming. Losey said the making of the film was one of the most happy in his career.
Richard Rodney Bennett was originally announced as the composer. However Michel Legrand ended up doing the soundtrack for the film. The main theme was later used as the title music for the French “true crime” documentary series Faites entrer l’accusé (in French Wikipedia). The love theme “I Still See You” written by Legrand with lyrics by Hal Sharper was performed by Scott Walker and released as a single in late 1971.
The film was first shown in May 1971 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix International du Festival. A few days before, James Aubrey, head of MGM, had sold his interest in it to Columbia Pictures, because he disliked the final film and regarded it a flop. The film was released in the UK on 24 September 1971, opening at ABC1 on Shaftesbury Avenue in London. A month later, on 29 October, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother arrived at the ABC Cinema on Prince of Wales Road in Norwich to attend the local premiere, thus giving Norwich its first ever Royal Premiere.
About the Story
The story follows a young boy named Leo Colston (Dominic Guard), who in the year 1900 is a guest of his wealthy school friend, Marcus Maudsley (Richard Gibson), to spend the summer holidays at his family’s Norfolk country house. While there, Marcus is taken sick and quarantined with the measles. Left to entertain himself, Leo befriends Marcus’s beautiful elder sister Marian Maudsley (Julie Christie), and finds himself a messenger, carrying messages between her and a tenant farmer neighbour, Ted Burgess (Alan Bates), with whom she is engaging in a secret illicit affair.
Her parents, however, want her to marry Hugh, Viscount Trimingham (Edward Fox), the estate owner. A heatwave leading to a thunderstorm coincides with Leo’s birthday party and the film’s climax, when Marian’s mother and Leo, searching for Marian, find her making love with Burgess in a farm building. This event has a long-lasting impact on Leo after Burgess shoots himself dead in his farmhouse kitchen.
More than fifty years later, Marian, now the Dowager Lady Trimingham, sends for Leo (Michael Redgrave), wanting him to speak to her grandson to assure him that she had truly loved Burgess. She asks Leo whether her grandson reminds him of anyone, and he replies “Yes. Ted Burgess”.
The Go-Between (1971)
Directed by: Joseph Losey
Starring: Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Edward Fox, Dominic Guard, Amaryllis Garnett, Keith Buckley, John Rees, Gordon Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Joshua Losey
Screenplay by: Harold Pinter
Production Design by: Denis Johnson Jr.
Cinematography by: Gerry Fisher
Film Editing by: Reginald Beck
Costume Design by: John Furniss
Art Direction by: Carmen Dillon
Music by: Michel Legrand
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: MGM – EMI Distributors (UK), Columbia Pictures (US)
Release Date: September 24, 1971 (UK), November 13, 1971 (US)
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