The Servant

Directed by Joseph Losey

Running time: 1hr57 | REVIEWED BY CATHERINE BRAY

Dirk Bogarde and James Fox star in The Servant

And they say British cinema doesn’t really do sex. Probably one of the sexiest, sourest and most beautifully photographed British films of all time, The Servant is a masterclass in sadistic power games, thrumming with poisonous erotic energy. 

The film is adapted by Harold Pinter from Robin Maugham’s novel, and Pinter keeps things simple as far as plot is concerned. Indolent young gentleman Tony (James Fox) is in need of a manservant, and hires Hugo Barrett (Dirk Bogarde). Tony’s cut-glass girlfriend Susan (Wendy Craig) smells a rat, and the tension between her and Barrett crackles. In a society where men of her own social stratum have the whip hand based on their gender, in this relationship, she has control; class trumps gender. Or does it? When Barrett instals his “sister” Vera (Sarah Miles) as a household maid, Vera very quickly begins to explore the reverse dynamic, testing how much leeway sex might win her in leading Tony’s patrician complacency by the nose, or indeed by some other body part.

And then there’s the boy on boy action… The Servant is a film of constant inversions and capitulations, of little victories fizzing with sexual piquancy, and of almost imperceptible humiliations. If queerness has been reclaimed in a blaze of wholesome pride and positivity and good vibes only, great — but a film like The Servant reminds us of the delicious possibilities of queerness as subversive and sinful. Sure, love is love, but sex is sex, too, and it is perfectly capable of flourishing independently.

Made in 1963 and restored and re-released in cinemas now, The Servant is evidently now operating in a rather different context than when it first came out. But I was pleased to find, on rewatching, that it remains a devastatingly savage and pleasurable film, a film that understands class in Britain as a strait-jacket that can be worn lightly or struggled with, but only rarely escaped.

THE SERVANT (1963) Written by Harold Pinter, from the book by Robin Maugham | Shot by Douglas Slocombe | Edited by Reginald Mills

Restoration in cinemas now, and on BFI Blu-ray and DVD from 20th September