The Servant is for the most part strong dramatic fare, though the atmosphere and tension is not fully sustained to the end.
The Servant
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom · 1963
1h 56m
Director Joseph Losey
Starring Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig
Genre Drama
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Tony, a decadent London aristocrat, hires a servant to attend to his needs. Soon, the balance of power starts to shift causing the servant to be sent away, but his influence extends farther than Tony thought. This battle between servant and master redefines each man's understanding of fear, desire, and class.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Certainly difficult to define, this period piece messes with genres, power relationships and your head.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
Glaciers might be melting, the polar caps might be crumbling, but not even the passage of half a century has taken the frozen edge off this brilliantly icy film.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
It is a brilliant, subversive account of class relations and the changing times.
Time Out London by Tom Huddleston
It’s one of the most insightful films ever made about the British class system.
Village Voice by Zachary Wigon
Mixing techniques as surely as it mixes class (graceful dolly shots are placed side by side with the handheld photography), the picture's clever formalist juxtapositions evoke the hysterical confusion of a culture in upheaval.
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