Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971. Photofest.
(John Schlesinger, UK 1971, 110 min., 35mm)
Though often overshadowed by Darling (1965), Midnight Cowboy (1969) and Marathon Man(1975), Sunday, Bloody Sunday may be John Schlesinger’s greatest masterpiece, and it is certainly his most personal work. The non-conventional love triangle shown in the film was rather shocking for 1971. But the true subject matter of Sunday Bloody Sunday is the unresolvable complexity of any human relationships. The screenwriter Penelope Gilliatt defined it as “a grown-up film about compromises.” Each of the characters seems to live in a universe of their own: the British upper class with its posh solitude, a couple of bohemian intellectuals and
their pot-smoking children, a Jewish family with countless aunts and cousins, the underground London gay community, etc. And all these seemingly incompatible milieux somehow blend and form an unstable – or, perhaps, very stable? – equilibrium. Schlesinger and his superb cast (Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch in Oscar-nominated performances, rock singer Murray Head, the great stage actress Peggy Ashcroft, and silent film star Bessie Love) manage to portray this scattered world with a heartbreaking elegance.
Post-screening discussion with Senior Curator Peter Bagrov.