The Homecoming
Betrayal
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The Homecoming
Directed by Peter Hall.
With Cyril Cusack, Ian Holm, Michael Jayston.
UK/US, 1973, 35mm, color, 111 min.
Print source: HFA
In North London, an all-male beehive of inactivity is ruled with a foul mouth and an iron hand by the abusive Max (Paul Rogers) and his brother, the priggish Sam (Cusack). When Max's son Teddy (Jayston) brings his wife Ruth (Vivien Merchant) home to meet his family for the first time, he gets both more and less than he bargained for. To Teddy's rueful discomfort, Ruth's presence exposes a labyrinth of Freudian dread, venal family values, and naked neediness that could only come from the mind of Harold Pinter. Director Peter Hall re-imagines his original Royal Shakespeare Company stage triumph as a bleached, claustrophobic delirium that exploits the jagged tempos and seductive tensions of Pinter's best play as no theater staging could.
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Betrayal
Directed by David Hugh Jones.
With Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley, Patricia Hodge.
UK, 1983, 35mm, color, 95 min.
Print source: HFA
A love affair told in reverse, David Hugh Jones' direction of Harold Pinter's semi-autobiographical play (for which he wrote the script) explores the complex emotions which drive marital infidelity. A suave literary agent has an affair with the wife of a book publisher who also happens to be his best friend. Each actor is perfectly cast: Irons embodies the deluded dreams of the agent, Kingsley is frighteningly seething as the publisher, and Hodge sympathetically conveys her conflicted desire for both men.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Ballad of a Soldier / The Forty-First
Nightfall / Great Day in the Morning
Verboten! / Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street
I'll Never Forget What's 'is Name / The Jokers
Hearts of the World / True Heart Susie
Anna Christie / The Long Voyage Home
Suddenly Last Summer / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Quiet Days in Clichy / Henry and June
The Freshman / The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
The Sheep Has Five Legs / The Law is the Law
Hobson's Choice / Sidewalks of London
I Know Where I'm Going / Outcast of the Islands
An Inspector Calls / The Belles of St. Trinian's
Mother Joan of the Angels / Thérèse
Dawn of the Dead / Strange Behavior
