Accident (1967)

At Oxford, Austrian student Anna is dating fellow student William whom she plans to marry but she ends up sleeping with two unhappily married Oxford professors instead.

Director:

Joseph Losey

Writers:

Nicholas Mosley (from the novel by), Harold Pinter (screenplay)

Stars:

Dirk Bogarde, Stanley Baker, Jacqueline Sassard

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 5 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dirk Bogarde	...	Stephen
Stanley Baker	...	Charley
Jacqueline Sassard	...	Anna
Michael York	...	William
Vivien Merchant	...	Rosalind
Delphine Seyrig	...	Francesca
Alexander Knox	...	Provost
Ann Firbank	...	Laura
Brian Phelan	...	Police Sergeant
Terence Rigby	...	Plain Clothed Policeman
Freddie Jones	...	Man in Bell's Office
Jill Johnson	...	Secretary
Jane Hillary	...	Receptionist
Maxwell Caulfield	...	Ted (as Maxwell Findlater)
Carole Caplin	...	Clarissa

Storyline

The Oxford professor of philosophy Stephen has two favorite pupils, the athletic aristocrat William and the Austrian Anna von Graz. Stephen is a frustrated man, with a negligent wife, Rosalind, who is pregnant of their third child, and is envious of the Oxford professor Charley that has a television show. Stephen feels attracted to Anna, but William woos her and she becomes his girlfriend. Charley has a love affair with Anna but when things go wrong, Anna must leave town.

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Plot Keywords:

oxford | cult film | male female relationship | infidelity | unfaithfulness | 

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Taglines:

The story of a love triangle ... and the four people trapped in it !

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 June 1967 (France)

Also Known As:

Accident - Zwischenfall in Oxford

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$600,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Royal Avenue Chelsea

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Barry Justice was on the list of possibles for William.

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Quotes

Charley: [reading from learned journal] A statistical analysis of sexual intercourse at Colenso University, Milwaukee showed... that 70% did it in the evening, 29.9% between 2 and 4 in the afternoon and 0.1% during a lecture on Aristotle.
Provost: I'm surprised to hear that Aristotle is on the syllabus in the State of Wisconsin.

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Connections

References Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

User Reviews

Dark, moody movie of the highest class

Not a lot happens, but we were glued to The Accident. The script is wonderfully understated. Pinter as screenplay writer is a different style from Pinter the playwright. Pinter teases us, though, with a small cameo performance of his own using almost mock-Pinter dialogue for that one short scene. Also of note script-wise is the scene soon after Pinter's scene when Dirk Bogarde visits his old flame in London and the dialogue is almost thoughts, almost dialogue - you don't see either of them actually speaking.

The cinematography on this movie is superb. Oxford in the summer is a soft target for beautiful shots, but this film fills its boots with that beauty. Yet the dark mood never leaves you despite the beauty - partly because 90% of the movie is a flashback, so you have already seen most of the tragedy unfold. Also, the behaviour of the two professors is just so awful. Dirk Bogarde comes across somewhat sympathetically because he is Dirk Bogarde, but the character is a more or less unmitigated toad. The Stanley Baker character is also horrible. The acting of all the main characters is superb.

This is high class stuff - seek it out.