This edition of Composing Cinema screening will be introduced by Oscar-nominated composer Gary Yershon, who will play tribute to John Dankworth, and his score for Joseph Losey's The Servant.
Adapted by celebrated playwright Harold Pinter from a story by Robin Maugham, The Servant sees spoiled young aristocrat Tony (James Fox) carelessly recruit a servant, Barrett (Dirk Bogarde), whose deferential demeanour belies the resentment, ambition and even sadism that will see him incrementally seek to assume Tony’s position for himself. Explicitly class-conscious, The Servant plays out as a savage struggle for power, with property, sex, and social assurance both the weapons and the prizes. Sarah Miles as Barrett’s ‘sister’ and Wendy Craig as Tony’s girlfriend are convincing, but it’s foppish Fox and slippery Bogarde who dominate, their conflict depicted in director Joseph Losey’s precisely constructed compositions.
