Movie review : THE SERVANT [Joseph Losey, 1963]

Sometimes I am very pleasantly surprised and in this case it is primarily because my "strength" is not British cinema, if we look away from Hitch and Lean. Viewing this chance buy on DVD, reminded me that I had actually seen it before on TV many, many years ago when I was young. Back when parents were more careless about what children saw on television. Not that it matters, but it just gives it a small boost in viewing eagerness, at least until you are eventually hooked by the spectacle.
We are dealing with a kind of British new wave/expressionist style psychological drama, by director Joseph Losey. Apparently he is unjustly underrated by the "mainstream", while many cinephiles hails him as the best kept secret of British cinema (I may be on a bit of a hyperbole here)

Hugo (Dirk Bogarde) is hired as a man servant for the young upper class Tony (James Fox). At first glance, Hugo acts subservient and sticks to the expected rules of how interaction between servant and master is supposed to work. But slowly the tension between them escalates as Hugo´s own personality starts to emerge. Hugo demands more and more from Tony and pushes his freedoms to the limit, when he starts to manipulate both Tony and his secret girlfriend Susan (Wendy Craig).

But at the same time it is clear that Tony feels a deeper connection to Hugo, than strictly business. We are left wondering if his attraction is just a need to have male company for the sake of having just someone confidential to talk to or if he actually is sexually attracted to Hugo. We also sense that Hugo acts differently when he is in his servants quarters compared to the superficial gentleman attitude when interacting with Tony. This leads us to realize the connection to our own real life dichotomy of our private and our public persona.

Tony is very inhibited in his ability to extend his true feelings and his empathy apparatus has largely been destroyed as he does not seem to notice the incremental changes of their relation towards the tipping of the balance of who actually serves who. Susan immediately notices Hugo´s weird behaviors, but Tony keeps brushing her off. Hugo has clear psychopathic tendencies which he uses to get between them.

At some point Hugo´s "sister" Vera (Sarah Miles) turns up in the house and starts to feel at home in the servants quarters. Tony is loosing control of him self and when he is seduced by Vera, he has taken the plunge into the deep end. Vera turns out to be Hugo´s wife and confidant and Tony slides mentally into a state of complete apathetic servitude to Hugo. Hugo has now completely taken over the control of the "household".

I am really impressed with the cinematography here. It is a real joy to spot the different small tricks Losey uses to symbolize what is going on, both from a viewers point of view, like letting Hugo enter the scene directly behind Tony and Susan talking intimate, giving them a glance and symbolizing his intended goal of coming between them. As the state of Ton and Hugo changes over the course of the movie, so does the use of expressionist and creative angles. The film is dark from the get go, clearly shown by the way the scene is setup and paced, when they are introduced but it gets darker and darker in small chunks as a way to make us realize that it is psychological aspects we are dealing with, not a physical manifestation of a threat.

The use of mirrors is a usual trait of the expressionist toolbox. Here Losey uses a small round mirror, with fisheye distortion, to express the different psychological states of the same person or between several persons. What particularly strikes my about this mirror is its resemblance to the Arnolfini painting by Van Eyck. There is also a small round mirror in the background, showing the same scene, but from another perspective. Compare to the scene where Tony and Susan stands on either side of it, with Tony appearing as a reflection in the mirror, but only Susan appears with her back to us. The point is that all Hugo is focusing on is Susan. She is the hurdle he needs to remove to get under Tony.

The cinematography and the psychological states of all involved culminates in a sort of extreme climax, that needs you to be on the edge of your seat to make it hang together. The script and the way the director ties it all together is rather impressive even for the slight cheesyness of the effects looking at it here 55 years later. It all comes down to the duality of the theme which is both the idea of using your empathy to understand what other peoples motives are and what tricks they use to get control over you. And then there is the political comment on the social change of Britain where the lower classes no longer want to serve the upper class and using their own vanity and stuckup culture against them, is the trick the lower classes need to use to take control. A bit of socialist propaganda, wrapped in a psychological drama. And then a third theme may also be mentioned. The potential homosexual hints are very faint but real nonetheless. The British attitude towards this sexual deviance was not very nice, and I believe it was actually illegal. The hints could serve as an underground appeal to the homosexual movement and thereby create an additional interest. But that is speculation off course.

The detracting aspects are the underdeveloped story of Tony. As he slides further and further down the black hole, he just kind of cringes and falls to the floor a few times. I would have liked a more emotional development and not something like throwing things at Hugo as a small child. The role of Susan is also a little under developed in the third act and leaves wondering what is really her intentions when it all comes down. Bogarde on the other hand takes his role home like a master. His is not really a transformation but a revelation ... of his true nature and that really takes the prize of this movie. His nervous and slightly sweaty and unattractive nature is extremely well portrayed, the likes of which have not been done as well before or after. Add to that a lot of very well thought out angles and panning of the camera. Expressive closeups and uses of shadows and mirrors - we are close to a small masterpiece here.

Rating: 9/10