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| San Sebastian will pay tribute to the filmmaker Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival |
The director, who moved to Britain after suffering fallout from the Hollywood witch hunt, became a leading figure in European independent film. His work includes The Servant, Accident and The Go-Between.
His work is divided into three periods: his early period in North American film until the early Fifties, the prestige he achieved in the UK of the Sixties and Seventies and a later, more itinerant stage when he worked for Italian, French and Spanish production.
He made his feature debut in 1948 with The Boy With Green Hair, a parable against war, totalitarianism and intransigence towards difference, produced by RKO. He went on to direct a series of film noirs – The Lawless (1950), The Prowler (1951) and The Big Night (1951), all three penned by screenwriters blacklisted by the Un-American Activities Commission, Daniel Mainwaring, Daltun Trumbo and Ring Lardner Jr – and even a remake of Fritz Lang’s famous M in 1951, his name appeared on the blacklist for the tone of his early films and he was accused of belonging to the North American Communist Party.
When called to testify, he was in Italy shooting Stranger on the Prowl. He decided not to return to the United States and settled in Britain.
Losey went on to have a prolific career, culminating with his final film, Steaming, in 1985. He never saw the final cut as he died in 1984, almost a year before the film had its premiere at Cannes.
Losey’s relationship with the San Sebastian Festival was always complicated owing to the Franco dictatorship. In addition to Figures In ALandscape, the Festival screened The Sleeping Tiger, Boom and The Go-Between.The Romantic Englishman was also selected, but the director and Glenda Jackson refused to come to the event in protest against the death sentences recently signed by Franco.
