Joseph Losey: Pictures of Provocation

3/5/10 to 4/16/10

A masterly director who spent most of his career in exile from red-baiting America, Joseph Losey pursued an ethical cinema that investigated the limits of personal freedom. We survey his work from impressive noirs like The Prowler and M on through his years in Britain, including his remarkable collaborations with Dirk Bogarde.

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  • The Servant, March 21

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • The Prowler

    • Friday, April 16 9:10 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.S., 1951). “A rivetingly cool, clean thriller about the trap that inexorably closes on a woman unhappily married to a rich husband, and a cop on the make. . . . (With) superb performances from Evelyn Keyes and Van Heflin . . . and direction that grips like a steel claw.”-Time Out. With short A Gun in His Hand. (111 mins)

  • Mr. Klein

    • Saturday, April 10 8:20 pm

    Joseph Losey (France, 1976). Alain Delon plays an art dealer pursuing a Jewish alter ego through Nazi-occupied Paris. Losey's French-language thriller investigates the price of apathy in the face of war's horrors. (122 mins)

  • Boom!

    • Friday, April 9 9:00 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.K., 1968). In a camp classic written by Tennessee Williams, “professional guest” Richard Burton descends upon the Mediterranean mansion of declining dowager Elizabeth Taylor. “Losey and cameraman Douglas Slocombe make it look gorgeous in a pile-up of baroque detail.”-Time Out (110 mins)

  • King and Country

    • Thursday, April 8 7:30 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.K., 1964). See April 4. (86 mins)

  • King and Country

    • Sunday, April 4 5:45 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.K., 1964). Army lawyer Dirk Bogarde is assigned to defend deserter Tom Courtenay in this antiwar masterwork set in the grim trenches of World War I. Repeated on April 8. (86 mins)

  • Modesty Blaise

    • Friday, April 2 9:00 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.K., 1966). Miniskirted super-agent Monica Vitti battles criminal mastermind Dirk Bogarde in Losey's stylish spy sendup that skewers the generals as well as the genre. (119 mins)

  • Blind Date

    • Friday, April 2 7:00 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.K., 1959). A hep young painter finds himself a murder suspect in this jazzy whodunit that highlights Losey's eye for art and his preoccupation with interior space. (95 mins)

  • Accident

    • Sunday, March 28 5:45 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.K., 1967). Dirk Bogarde and Stanley Baker star in a study of masculine malaise among the scholarly set. “A coldly funny puzzle movie, about the erotic entanglements of Oxford as superbly entangled by scenarist Harold Pinter.”-Chicago Reader (105 mins)

  • Eve

    • Friday, March 26 7:00 pm

    Joseph Losey (France/Italy, 1962). As shameless temptress Jeanne Moreau toys with novelist Stanley Baker, Antonioni cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo makes Venice and Rome look far from Edenic. (119 mins)

  • Time Without Pity

    • Friday, March 26 9:20 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.K., 1957). In this white-knuckle thriller, Michael Redgrave plays a barely-on-the-wagon father racing the clock to prove the innocence of a son soon to be executed for murder. Cinematography by the great Freddie Francis. (85 mins)

  • The Servant

    • Sunday, March 21 5:00 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.K., 1963). Let's play master and servant! Dirk Bogarde is a conniving Jeeves to James Fox's helpless member of the idle class in this striking parable, Losey's first collaboration with Harold Pinter. (115 mins)

  • These Are the Damned

    • Sunday, March 21 7:20 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.K., 1965). Losey envisions a world of mad scientists, irradiated children, and Teddy Boy toughs in a hybrid sci-fi thriller pervaded by Cold War pessimism. (96 mins)

  • The Sleeping Tiger

    • Wednesday, March 10 7:00 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.K., 1954). In Losey's first British film, criminal Dirk Bogarde is invited to move into a psychiatrist's home, and soon puts the moves on the good doctor's wife. “A masterpiece that argues that as far as film directing is concerned, style is content.”-Senses of Cinema (89 mins)

  • The Boy with Green Hair

    • Sunday, March 7 3:00 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.S., 1948). Twelve-year-old Dean Stockwell comes up against the forces of conformity in this uneasy fable. “Imagine a cozy Disney feature crossed with an allegory on war and racism, and you have some idea of the bizarre flavor of Losey's first feature.”-Time Out. With short Pete Roleum and His Cousins. (102 mins)

  • M

    • Saturday, March 6 6:30 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.S., 1951). With short Youth Gets a Break. See March 5. (108 mins)

  • The Big Night

    • Saturday, March 6 8:45 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.S., 1951). A shocking act of violence sends teen John Barrymore Jr. into a nocturnal adult netherworld in this complex coming-of-age melodrama, which presents trenchant commentary on love, shame, fatherhood, and race relations. “Losey's energetic, almost nervous direction keeps the film bristling throughout.”-The Auteurs (75 mins)

  • M

    • Friday, March 5 8:40 pm

    Joseph Losey (U.S., 1951). A shadowy Los Angeles becomes the id-like setting for Losey's remake of Fritz Lang's Weimar classic, offering a chilling study in the pathology of the mob. With short Youth Gets a Break. (108 mins)