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Joseph Losey |
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Director / Producer |
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1909 - 1984 |
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Born January 14, La
Crosse, Wisconsin, USA |
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Key
Production Countries: UK, USA |
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Key Genres:
Drama, Psychological Drama, Thriller, Film Noir, Romantic Drama |
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Key
Collaborators: Reginald Beck (Editor), Dirk Bogarde (Leading
Player), Norman Priggen (Producer), Alexander Knox (Leading Character Player),
Gerry Fisher (Cinematographer), Reginald Mills (Editor), Richard
MacDonald (Production Designer), Stanley Baker (Leading Player), Harold
Pinter (Screenwriter/Character Player), John Dankworth
(Composer) |
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Highly
Recommended: The
Lawless (1949), The Prowler (1951)#, The Sleeping Tiger (1954) |
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Recommended: The
Boy with Green Hair (1948), Big Night (1951), The Criminal (1960), The Servant (1963)*, Accident (1967) |
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Worth a Look:
M (1951)#, Finger of Guilt (1956), Time Without Pity (1956), The Damned
(1962), Eva (1962), The Go-Between (1970), Mr. Klein (1977), Don
Giovanni (1979) |
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Approach with Caution:
Pete-Roleum and His Cousins (1939), Modesty Blaise (1966), Boom! (1968) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section; #
Listed in TSPDT's
250 Quintessential Noir Films
section. |
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Links: [
Amazon
] [
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Film Reference ]
[
Senses
of Cinema Article ] [
Senses
of Cinema Article #2 ] [
Art and Culture Profile ] [
Film
Comment Article (2004) ]
[
Screen Online
Biography ]
[
Britmovie Biography ]
[
Images
Journal DVD Reviews ]
[
Moving Image Source Article (2008) ]
[
Film International Profile (2009)
] |
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Books: [
The
Films of Joseph Losey ] [
Joseph
Losey: A Revenge on Life ] [
Joseph Losey (British Film Makers) ] [
Conversations with Losey ] [
The Cinema of Joseph Losey ] |
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"Like
many directors, Losey seems more effective when he transcends
conventions than when he avoids them altogether. Genre movies
give him the distancing he needs to writhe expressively on the
screen. By contrast, movies about Life and Time and The World
seem to make him relatively subdued, functional, and impersonal."
-
Andrew
Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968) |
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"A victim of the
McCarthy witch-hunts, Joseph Losey, who made several taut movies
in Hollywood, was forced into exile in England, where he became
a sharp observer of the social mores of his new home...He became
part of the "new realism" movement of British cinema, although
he developed a more baroque visual style using elaborate camera
movements, shock angles, and dramatic set designs." -
Ronald Bergan (Film - Eyewitness Companions, 2006) |
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"Joseph
Losey's career spanned five decades and included work in both
theater and film. The early years of his life as a director were
spent in the very different milieus of New Deal political
theater projects and the paranoia of the Hollywood studio system
during the McCarthy era. He was blacklisted in 1951 and left
America for England where he continued making films, at first
under a variety of pseudonyms. His work is both controversial
and critically acclaimed, and Losey has long been recognized as
a director with a distinctive and highly personal cinematic
style." -
Janet E. Lorenz (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998)
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"Shadowy figures moving through an indistinct landscape describe
the best films of Losey. He creates atmospheres of paranoia,
fear, alienation, and disillusionment like nobody else in cinema
today." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"Films
can illustrate our existence... they can distress, disturb and
provoke people into thinking about themselves and certain
problems. But NOT give the answers." -
Joseph Losey |
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Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director
that we haven't seen include A Gun in His Hand (1945), Stranger on the
Prowl (1953), The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958), Blind Date (1959),
King and Country (1964), Secret Ceremony (1968), Figures in a Landscape
(1970), The Assassination of Trotsky (1972), A Doll's House (1973), The
Romantic Englishwoman (1975), The Trout (1982), and Steaming (1985). |
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"Joseph
Losey's Hollywood career ended in 1951 after five films. He
was named as a communist in 1951, and moved to England,
where he worked for the rest of his life. Not until 1956,
with his film Time Without Pity (1957), was he able
to use his real name; the arm of the blacklist was long.
With the exception of The Boy with the Green Hair
(1948), Losey's U.S. films were all examples of film noir,
the domain where the Hollywood left-wing excelled in its
critique of an alienated and alienating society, where fate
was economic and not mere bad luck... Sadly, from 1962 on,
Losey's work became self-conscious and self-indulgent but
delighted those who had understood nothing of his earlier
movies. Only the exemplary King & Country (1964) and
The Go-Between (1970) reach the level of his finest
film noirs."
-
Reynold
Humphries, 501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the
Greatest Filmmakers |
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●
Top 250 Directors |
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●
Key
Noir Filmmaker |
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●
The Far Side of Paradise |
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●
501 Movie Directors: A
Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers |
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See Also |
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●
Jules Dassin |
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Cy Endfield |
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John Huston |
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Stanley
Kubrick |
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Peter Medak |
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●
Roman Polanski |
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●
Karel Reisz |
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Alain Resnais |
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Nicolas Roeg |
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John Schlesinger |
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●
Don
Siegel |
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●
Luchino Visconti |
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