''Accident'' is a 1967 British

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by

Joseph Losey Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American theatre and film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Blacklisted ...

. Written by

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that span ...

, it is an adaptation of the 1965 novel ''Accident'' by Nicholas Mosley. It is the third of four Losey–Pinter collaborations; the others being '' The Servant'' (1963), '' Modesty Blaise'' (1966) and ''

The Go-Between ''The Go-Between'' is a novel by L. P. Hartley published in 1953. His best-known work, it has been adapted several times for stage and screen. The book gives a critical view of society at the end of the Victorian era through the eyes of a naï ...

'' (1971). At the

1967 Cannes Film Festival The 20th Cannes Film Festival was held from 27 April to 12 May 1967. The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film went to the '' Blowup'' by Michelangelo Antonioni. The festival opened with '' J'ai tué Raspoutine'', directed by Robert Hosse ...

, ''Accident'' won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury award. It also won the

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

of the

Belgian Film Critics Association The Belgian Film Critics Association (french: Union de la critique de cinéma, UCC) is an organization of film critics from publications based in Brussels, Belgium. History The Belgian Film Critics Association was founded in the early 1950s in Br ...

Plot

Stephen, a married

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

tutor in his forties, has two students: the rich and likeable William, of whom he is fond, and a beautiful, enigmatic

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n named Anna, whom he secretly covets. William also fancies Anna and hopes to know her better. While Stephen's wife is away having their third child, he looks up an old flame in London and they sleep together. Returning home, he finds that his pushy colleague Charley has been using the house for sex with Anna. She tells Stephen privately that she and William are engaged to be married. William says that he will come to Stephen's house after a party that night. As he is too drunk to drive, Anna takes the wheel, but she crashes the car outside Stephen's gate. Upon finding the accident and William dead, Stephen pulls the deeply shaken Anna from the wreckage and hides her upstairs while he calls the police. Later, he forces himself on her while she is still in shock, then takes her back to her room at the university. He comes by in the morning to find a bemused Charley, who cannot prevent Anna from packing to return to Austria.

Cast

Dirk Bogarde Sir Dirk Bogarde (born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde; 28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999) was an English actor, novelist and screenwriter. Initially a matinée idol in films such as '' Doctor in the House'' (1954) for the Rank Org ...

as Stephen *

Stanley Baker Sir William Stanley Baker (28 February 192828 June 1976) was a Welsh actor and film producer. Known for his rugged appearance and intense, grounded screen persona, he was one of the top British male film stars of the late 1950s, and later a pro ...

as Charley *

Jacqueline Sassard Jacqueline Sassard (13 March 1940 – 17 July 2021) was a French actress who appeared in Italian films such as ''Guendalina'' directed by Alberto Lattuada, a young woman with family and financial troubles in Luigi Zampa's '' Il Magistrato'' and ...

as Anna *

Michael York Michael York OBE (born Michael Hugh Johnson; 27 March 1942) is an English film, television and stage actor. After performing on-stage with the Royal National Theatre, he had a breakthrough in films by playing Tybalt in Franco Zeffirelli's ''Ro ...

as William * Vivien Merchant as Rosalind, Stephen's wife *

Alexander Knox Alexander Knox (16 January 1907 – 25 April 1995) was a Canadian actor on stage, screen, and occasionally television. He was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for his performance as Woodrow Wilson in the film '' Wilson'' (1944). ...

as University Provost *

Delphine Seyrig Delphine Claire Beltiane Seyrig (; 10 April 1932 – 15 October 1990) was a Lebanese-born French actress and film director. She came to prominence in Alain Resnais's 1961 film ''Last Year at Marienbad'', and later acted in films by Francois ...

as Francesca, daughter of the provost *

Ann Firbank Ann Firbank (born 9 January 1933) is an actress of film, television, and stage whose career extends from 1956. One of Firbank's more notable roles is her 1971 portrayal of Anne Elliot in the serial ''Persuasion'', an adaptation of Jane Austen's ...

as Laura *Brian Phelan as Police Sergeant *

Terence Rigby Terence Christopher Gerald Rigby (2 January 1937 – 10 August 2008) was an English actor with a number of film and television credits to his name. In the 1970s he was well known as police dog-handler PC Snow in the long-running series '' Soft ...

as Plainclothes policeman *

Freddie Jones Frederick Charles Jones''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916-2005.''; at ancestry.com (12 September 1927 – 9 July 2019) was an English actor who had an extensive career in television, theatre and cinema productions for a ...

as Man in Bell's office *Maxwell Findlater (pseudonym of

Maxwell Caulfield Maxwell Caulfield (né Maxwell P.J. Newby; born 23 November 1959) is a British-American film, stage, and television actor and singer. He has appeared in ''Grease 2'' (1982), '' Electric Dreams'' (1984), '' The Boys Next Door'' (1985), ''The Su ...

) as Ted *

Carole Caplin Carole Caplin (born 8 January 1962) was the style adviser to Cherie Blair and a fitness adviser to Tony Blair, when he was the British prime minister. She was controversial because of her relationship with the convicted conman Peter Foster. Ear ...

as Clarissa *

as Bell * Nicholas Mosley as Hedges *Steven Easton as Baby, Stephen and Rosalind's baby

Reception

Responding to criticism that the film's meaning was difficult to discern, Stanley Baker said: "It's obvious what ''Accident'' meant ... It meant what was shown on the screen." Of Joseph Losey's direction, Baker said: "One of Joe's problems is that he tends to wrap things up too much for himself. I think that 75% of the audience didn't realise that ''Accident'' was a flashback." In his review upon the film's release, ''New York Times'' critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

called ''Accident'' "a sad little story of a wistful don ... neither strong drama nor stinging satire." The film performed poorly at the box office. In 1973, Losey said the film was "officially in bankruptcy." On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, ''Accident'' holds a rating of 78% from 27 reviews.

References

Notes Further reading * Billington, Michael (2007) ''Harold Pinter''. London: Faber and Faber, (13) * Billington, Michael (1996) ''The Life and Work of Harold Pinter''. London: Faber and Faber, (10) *Gale, Steven H. (2003) ''Sharp Cut: Harold Pinter's Screenplays and the Artistic Process'', Lexington, Kentucky: The UP of Kentucky, (10) (13) *Gale, Steven H. (2001) ''The Films of Harold Pinter''. Albany: SUNY P

External links

*.
"Films by Harold Pinter: Accident 1966"
– At ''HaroldPinter.org'': ''The Official Website of the International Playwright Harold Pinter''.

by Jamie Andrews, ''Harold Pinter Archive Blog'',

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

, 15 June 2009.
''Accident''
at

BFI Screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and telev ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Accident 1967 films 1967 drama films Adultery in films British drama films Films about educators Films based on British novels Films directed by Joseph Losey Films set in Oxford Films with screenplays by Harold Pinter Films set in universities and colleges Films scored by John Dankworth Cannes Grand Prix winners 1960s English-language films 1960s British films